Other difficulties in training - shake

[amia]

After following the previous thread viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4718
my parrot is doing "fetch" and "tunnel" pretty good.
Kathleen suggested "climbing a rope" or "wings" as the next trick. Since I did not manage to find such a rope yet (I am still looking) and wave seemed a bit intrusive (physically lifting the wings) I tried "shake" according to Michael's tutorial http://trainedparrot.com/Shake/
This appeared to be less intrusive and easy to teach (according to the comments there). However, my parrot did not catch on after 3 sessions he should move its head without me blowing. I would use patience and continue but it appears to annoy him and after a few blows he turns away and does not want to "play" anymore. Also, since he moves quite a lot it is difficult to "hit" the right spot and I need quite a few blows for each shake. Any additional tips how to do it properly? If not I will probably leave it alone and try stuff that will not cause him to lose trust.

[Michael]

The biggest problem with smaller birds is that they don't shake in response to getting air blown on them. However, if yours does, then you can still teach the trick. I actually gave up the first time I tried to teach Truman shake because no matter where I was blowing, he wouldn't shake his head. I came back to it and tried another time and found the spot and went from there. The exact number of sessions is not guaranteed. It's all about practice and repetition until the parrot offers to do it by itself rather than being forced by the blowing. The parrot must be motivated and want the treats.

[zazanomore]

The biggest problem with smaller birds is that they don't shake in response to getting air blown on them. However, if yours does, then you can still teach the trick. I actually gave up the first time I tried to teach Truman shake because no matter where I was blowing, he wouldn't shake his head. I came back to it and tried another time and found the spot and went from there. The exact number of sessions is not guaranteed. It's all about practice and repetition until the parrot offers to do it by itself rather than being forced by the blowing. The parrot must be motivated and want the treats.

Einstein will shake his head when air is blown at him.

[amia]

He seemed to be extremly motivated at the described session but after a few of these blows his body language changed and it was quite clear he didn't want to continue. Maybe it requires knowing exectly where to blow (so there will not be many "false blows" - any tips?) but it is also difficult because he is constantly moving.

[Michael]

What are you training on? My Training Perchestend to keep the parrot relatively steady and focused on me. You definitely don't want to do this on a table or anything that gives it the chance to run around too much. Minimized the distractions. If you can be efficient at click/rewarding with one hand, you can let the bird perch on your finger while you blow to prevent from moving.

This trick may lose a little trust at first but then gains it back and some when the parrot realizes it only needs to shake its head when you shake a finger. Then it is happy to have a new outlet for earning treats.

[amia]

Thanks Michael,
Yes I am training him on a surface (this was required for tricks such as tunnel, fetch, etc) and I do not have a perch yet (I would need to consider it).
I am using sometimes "finger perch" but when he is not happy with it (as happened for shake) he simply goes up my arm and even to the shoulder or turns his back to me.

[YungAndintrigued]

This is a pretty old topic but I'm going to post anyways.

My bird also would not shake his head when I blew in his nostrils. I eventually gave up trying it,
But then later on I found a way.

I always tried to feed my conure fresh lettuce and right before I let him reach it he would do a weird twitch.
Well, it just so happens that this weird twitch looks like hes doing the trick shake.
So every time he would do the twitch I would reward him and then started to turn it into a cue.

So you never know just might make you're bird shake.

[amia]

Funny enough the same happened to me. After leaving it alone, I noticed a situation with my kid to which the parrot responded by this action and then I tried to reward it till it figured out the connection. I thought of updating this in the thread but got the feeling no one is interested.
Actually now I have totaly different problem that after trying to tame the parrot (at least this is what I think triggered it but I am not sure) he is somewhat reluctant to perform tricks at all so I am trying to go back to basics and bond before I can try anything else.

[YungAndintrigued]

It might not be a bonding problem.

If you are bonded enough for him to want to stick around with you and he steps up for you. Then you can proceed to trick training.

presuming you guys are bonded it could just be the fact that he has no reason to preform tricks for you. Are you rewarding him with stuff he likes and if so is he hungry at the time you are training him?

[amia]

It might not be a bonding problem.

If you are bonded enough for him to want to stick around with you and he steps up for you. Then you can proceed to trick training.

presuming you guys are bonded it could just be the fact that he has no reason to preform tricks for you. Are you rewarding him with stuff he likes and if so is he hungry at the time you are training him?

Hi,
Sure, he steps up and plays with me (and the rest of the family) all the time. How hungry should it be? There is always food in his cage (pellets) but he always willing to be hand fed (he also get vegetables and other stuff here and there). Sometimes I train him after he was out of the cage (typically on my hand/shoulder) for more than an hour should this be enough to create hunger? I give him as rewards a small cup with a mixture of seeds to choose from (one seed at a time) and he does not get these as part of the daily nutrition. I give him whatever is left in the box at the end of a successful session. This worked great for a period of time and then suddenly he stopped playing tricks (now he started to cooperate more but not consistently and not as good as he used to).
I'd appreciate your input.