How to teach my Senegal to fetch or to retrieve objects

[Pola]

I really wanted to teach my to fetch or retrevie objects, do you have any suggestions???

He can already wave, target, kiss and open a little box and take the stuff out.

Thanks.

[Michael]

One of these days, I'll get to writing a guide about how to do this. When I get my cape, I'll be able to video a bird that doesn't know any of this stuff learning it.

Basically you hand the bird objects and let it drop them into a cup/bowl and reward when they fall in. Don't reward if it misses. Eventually move the cup further and further away from the bird so it would have to walk over to do it. So it's like target training where you start close and make it near impossible for the bird to miss and then you let it miss a few times so it learns to get it in and then work on increasing the distance.

[bmsweb]

When I get my cape, I'll be able to video a bird that doesn't know any of this stuff learning it.

This is a really good idea Michael. I think its really good to for people to see the progression.

One of my friends saw Jazz doing his tricks and said he already tried target training with his bird but it doesn't get it. Yesterday we were at his house and I tried target training and the bird can learn and does get it. I have a feeling he was expecting his budgie to fly over to the stick first go! He was surprised to see me giving it treats just for touching the stick. In a few minutes his bird was moving from one side of the perch to the other.

Pola, good luck with the fetch. I've almost got my bird to do this. If the ball is too far away he wont get it

[Kathleen]

Pola, good luck with the fetch. I've almost got my bird to do this. If the ball is too far away he wont get it

You have to set your bird up for success. When teaching a trick, the bird should get a treat most of the time. There are tricks (like fetch) that need to be taught in progressive steps. When I taught my former budgie to fetch he wasn't interested in touching any object (if it wasn't millet, he didn't care). I had to teach him first that if he even touched the object, he'd get a treat just for that. I had to put the object into his beak and give him a treat for that, and then after a while, he figured it and he would go to touch it himself. Eventually, he would sort of inadvertently pick it up (like flick it with his beak). Then I had to reward for that to encourage him to pick it up. Then I put a small bowl or my hand under where he would immediately drop it, and rewarded him for inadvertently dropping it in my hand, and on and on.

I'll give you another example. I taught my former budgie to wave. Let's say while I was teaching him, 3 out of 5 times, he lifted his foot moderately high and I gave him a treat for each time. 1 out of 5 times, he lifted his foot very high, and I gave him a special treat and lots of praise. 1 out of 5 times, he barely lifted his foot and I didn't reward.

When you are teaching a trick like this one, you have to reward the bird for the step you are working on and you should be rewarding most of the time. If your bird is not getting it, you are either progressing too fast, your bird isn't motivated anymore in that training session, or you are doing something else wrong. I think you should be rewarding while teaching a trick 4 out of 5 tries, and 1 try should be a little more difficult, progressively a little bit harder and little bit more towards the direction of the next step of the trick.

If your bird won't go to get the ball if it's far away, make it easier for now and then at a more gradual pace, make it a longer distance. Train this trick at the very beginning of the session when the bird is most motivated.

[kimbo]

is it not time to get another bird yet kathleen?

[Kathleen]

is it not time to get another bird yet kathleen?

I wish, but somehow, I really don't think I will get another bird until another year or more..

[Kathleen]

I've been thinking it over and I'm considering getting a few budgies, housing them separately and training and taming them individually. I'd like to keep them all flighted and try to flock fly them indoors. They're inexpensive, small and readily available so it's pretty easy to keep a few of them. The cages would be smaller so it's easy to keep them all in a room. It would probably cost $25-$30 per bird, plus $100 for each cage and maybe $150 more in accessories to share among the birds (they are less destructive and the accessories are smaller). I have also been considering a meyer's parrot, so whether I get a few budgies or a poicephalus parrot, it would cost about the same.

I just think it would be cute and funny to have like 4-6 of them fly to me and land on me, and fly around as a flock in a big room (with a bigger parrot, a big room isn't enough). Plus, they have a low attention span so it would probably take as long to train them all as it would to train a bigger parrot.

I wouldn't plan to do this until the summer of 2011 or later.

[kimbo]

sounds like a plan. you will have your work cut out to hand tame them all and to flight them all at once, will be something to achieve. good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

[Kathleen]

I may not get them all at once. I haven't worked out the micro details. The ideal would be to find a breeder who would hand raise them and keep them flighted for me. But I may be stuck with a breeder who won't keep them flighted, or, I may be stuck getting them from a store who won't keep them flighted or raise them properly at all. If I get them from separate places, I'd get them one at a time and quarantine for a month. If I got them all from the same place, at different times, quarantine for a month but I'd be less worried. If I got them from the same place at the same time, I probably wouldn't have to quarantine them especially if at the place, they were all around each other anyway.

The ideal budgies would be weaned onto pellets and kept flighted. I would be willing to sacrifice the pellets part if they were kept flighted, even, and just put them on pellets on my own if it came down to that. As far as colors/mutations, it doesn't really matter, and in fact I'm hoping to get some that are not the most rare because I think budgies that have been inbred and inbred are likely to have more problems.

Lots of people have one parrot (or multiple parrots) that they train to perform tricks. Lots of people have a poicephalus parrot, it's nothing new. I've been leaning more toward flock flying a bunch of budgies because it's something unique. I don't think it's really been done and I want to try it. The amount of people who own budgies is a lot. The amount of budgie owners who think their budgies are even capable of being trained or bother to train them is less. The amount of people who actually successfully train their budgies is a bit less. The amount of people who keep their budgies flight trained (purposefully) is even less. The amount of people who flock fly their budgies is probably nil... to none. It would be something interesting and unique. It might even appeal to other budgie people if I put some training aspects into it.

[PRD]

off-topic:
I dont know if u know this video, really funny to watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkN_dtP2i-w