angelblue wrote:Update: I have been a lazy bird owner. Now that my kids are well trained to target, but refuse to step up, I have been very bad at training. I know partially the problem is me, but I cannot overcome the refusal to step up. I can pet my birds, get responses to trick commands, but they refuse to let me control their movements. I am afraid of when their flight feathers grow back because they won't step up. I don't want to be stuck in a situation where they can't get put safely in the crate when it is time for me to leave, which would make it so I never let them out.....catch 22. Still looking for someone (hey Micheal?) to give me some help in getting my frightened birds to step up. Thanks
I have very nearly the same problem. You just need to make the bird step up. I started out using a perch from the cage. Try one that the bird sits on all the time. Hold the perch in a horizontal direction and slowly push it slightly above the bird's feet. The bird will instinctively step up onto the perch. You do this saying "Step up," or whatever your cue is, every time you do this. Eventually, the bird will step on the perch on cue. After this, you should have some sort of training stand to take your bird to for training. You can use anything for this, the Parrot Wizard (Micheal) has training stands on his website, but you can use the back of a chair if you don't have one. Use the perch to get the bird to the training stand, then repeat the step up method with your finger, instead of the perch. The bird may bite, but you'll have to put up with it.
I hope this helps!