Hi guys,
I have just one parrot, a 5 year old CAG. I'm home with her all day and she's out of the cage--just not training. She's only had about 5 trick training sessions in the past two years, mostly due to her freaking out about new props.
I have a collection of props for "new" tricks that I've been wanting to teach her since 2008. A month in advance of training, I put a couple of these new props in my office where we hang out. She sees these items daily for a month or more and ignores them. Typically, this might be a mini-shopping cart and something new to fetch. She is fine with them sitting even inches outside her cage.
All 5 training sessions have gone as follows, including the one today: I set Clover on a table (size of an end table) and she does her old tricks for sunflower seed payments. I then place one "presumably desensitized" prop on the opposite end of the table, just planning to let it sit there while we continue working on old tricks. Clover freaks out and flies off. I bring her back, she freaks again. After five or so freak outs and panicked circles around the kitchen, I move the prop to the far end of the room and return her to the table. At that point, she'll only sit near me with her back to me. If I offer seeds, she'll either refuse them, fling them, or (very occasionally) eat them... but won't take a single step or do any further tricks. At this point, I always give up and end the session. I never even get to the point of her and a new prop sharing a table, much less getting her to go up an interact with it.
Some of these props have been in her field of vision for ages, but she still won't sit on a table with any of them. In fact, I've found that even putting her familiar toys on the table evokes the same panicked reaction. This is a table where she often eats with me and shares food out of my spoon, bowl, cup or pizza box. She's also fine (though maybe a bit suspicious) with old props like rings and pegs, fetch toys, target, etc. But anything resembling a parrot toy or NEW prop causes total chaos. I'm not sure if it's the table, the prop or both that is setting her off.
I've committed to weekly training sessions with Clover (today was the first of these), but I don't want to repeat another session like this week after week. I can see this quickly disintegrating into Clover biting me when I try to pick her up, because she doesn't want me to put her in the room with the scary prop.
Has anybody else worked through an issue like this? I'm thinking it could be anything from the shininess of the chrome props to the small or slippery properties of the table. And another dozen besides that. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Sharon Yildiz
Istanbul, Turkey