Help learning "Wave"

[mtaylor1021]

My bird (a budgie) made great progress last night; he mastered "turn around" in about 10 minutes. So I started teaching him "wave". He got to where he understood it means to step on my finger with his right foot, but if I try to do it with my finger further away he tries to pull my finger closer with his beak and if I don't put my finger close he just stairs at me or does some other trick. Any ideas what to try from here?

On another note, as I've done more consistant training with my bird, it has gotten SO much more tame. He's starting to come out of the cage on his own now even, such a relief.

[Polarn]

when I thought polarn how to wave he never actually got to step up with his foot onto my finger, i basically waved with my finger infront of him and when he tried to step up or grab it with his foot I would reward him before he touched it. if you reward it when it actually steps up with one foot, you teach it to step up half way rather than waving. so it has learnt that it gets a reward once it steps up with one foot, something that is impossible to do at a distance. I sometimes tho use my finger to lift the foot up slightly when i think he is slacking a bit with the wave, jst to show him where I want the foot at. but hat is not by having him hold onto my finger while i rais the foot, that is me lifting in one of the toenails with my finger.
So I would start out by dont letting your budgie actually step on your finger, but reward it for trying when you que wave. this way he will learn it is not setting his foot down on your finger that gives the reward, but lifting the foot up.

[Polarn]

I've actually thought Polarn both, but with different ques, if i tell him to greet properly he will grab your finger and "shake hands". and even if someone else holds up a finger and i will tell him to greet properly he will walk up to that person grab the finger and lift it up then down again. the ques i use for wave is basicly pointing at him waving the finger up and down, and for greet properly i prefent my finger sideways and wobble it from sideways, wich means up and down when your pointing to the left don't know if that made any sense... anyways he knows both my fingerques and the verbal ones,but he does respond better on the finger even if done from a distance, he knows if i am across the table giving the fingerque to greet, he will walk over to greet properly, while if i que wave he will stand where he is waving.

[allirho]

While I agree with Polarn that the budgie probably has learned that stepping up halfway is what you want it to do, I think that this IS a necessary step for training a budgie how to wave.
Because Polarn is a BFA (correct me if I'm wrong, I only glanced quickly) he has the ability to raise his foot, slowly and with thought, whereas a budgie is not accustomed to this sort of behaviour and tends to rapidly 'kick' up his leg in order to get his foot to your finger to step up.
The problem is that those little guys have quick reflexes and if you're not incredibly fast and pulling your finger away at the right moment, the foot lands on the finger. 9 times out of 10, Chibi grabs my finger with his foot and it's really hard to get the timing right. My point is, I think it's easier if you associate your finger with him having to perch one foot on it first, then to fade away the finger and reward at the right time.

Here's what I mean, and what I've been doing with my budgie over the fast few days (he was doing EXACTLY what yours is doing right now):
Since your budgie already puts his foot on your finger on cue, now begin phasing it out slowly, as you've been doing, by pulling the finger slightly further away. Yes, the budgie will be confused and may not know what to do, but if you are more persistent than the budgie is stubborn, he will eventually try to kick his foot up to grab your finger and since your finger is further away you will be more likely to be able to pull it away on time.
As soon as he kicks up his foot and you pull away your finger, click and reward. If your budgie does manage to get his foot onto your finger, don't click and don't reward.
This way the budgie will begin to learn that, even though putting his foot on your finger was acceptable, it now is not. At the beginning there will be more times that he gets your finger than times where he doesn't and you click and reward, but the more you keep at it, he will eventually understand that he gets rewarded for lifting his foot, not for grabbing your finger.

Once he's mastered this step where he understands the cue is to lift his foot, then you can begin pulling the finger further and further away. Likely he will be confused each time the finger moves further away, but you just got to go through this process again and he will learn that the cue, whether near or far, means to lift the foot.

Chibi is also learning how to wave right now and he's at the stage where he's beginning to figure out that i just want him to lift his foot, not grab my finger.
I hope i explained this thoroughly, I've got a class in a few minutes and have to run so if it doesn't make sense let me know.

[Polarn]

you might actually be absolutely right about the budgi being slighly less accustomed to these movements, I havnt learnt the budgie to wave yet, she is still soemwhat reluctant to take treats from me, but The cockatiel i tought the same way as soon as she started to get closer to me and was willing to accept treats, by basicly tricking him to try and perch but not quite let her, but i might actually have a harder time with the budgie since they are quick and quite flinchy. but so is the cockatiel compared to the amazon. also with an amazon holding the finger pointing at them doesnt really encourage climbing up on it, while a budgie pretty much could sit with both feet on my fingertip, not quite but i think it would be more tempting for a budgie to try get onto the finger. while with an amazon you can use the finger to grab a nail and raise the foot.

However i do still beleive you need to interupt the perching and reward for the "attempt" rather than a perch.

[Michael]

Teaching a budgie to wave is really hard because they are not naturally accustomed to raising their feet high. It took nearly a month to teach Duke to do it. It's one of the hardest tricks to teach a budgie. Try go through tube instead.

[mtaylor1021]

Thanks for your comments everyone. My budgie made good progress yesterday. Instead of stepping up on my finger, yesterday he started touching the side of his perch that sticks up a little. Then I started blocking him from that side of the perch so he couldn't touch it with his foot and I think he's got it now. Still, he raises it super fast and not very high. It's a great start though so I'll continue to work with him. So now he knows step up, go to perch, turn around, wave, and target. I tried for just a minute to teach him to fetch and wings, but I think those are both going to be pretty hard for him.