I've had my little lovebird Django for about three months, bought from a local pet store. He's fun, intelligent, and very curious with a BIG personality. However, despite him having no problem with and loving all other aspects of his training, he has a lot of trouble stepping onto my fingers.
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I had read the guide on this website a few times over the past few months, and decided that target training was the place to start. I target trained him while he was inside the cage, clicker, millet and all. He picked it up and was having a great time targeting with me within only a few minutes. I taught him to do a few other things as well, such playing with certain toys in the cage on command.
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Stepping up was logically the next step, but I noticed that he was scared of my hands when they entered the cage, which I accounted to the pet store owners probably chasing him around the cage and grabbing him. (I have never, to this day, forced him out, instead I got him out through targeting and treats) Because of this, I trained him to step onto a dowel first, still inside the cage. I had only used positive reinforcement, and getting him onto the dowel was easy with his target stick. He had the command down in just a few minutes. I still practiced with him every day, and soon he looked forward to our sessions, even reaching out his feet eagerly to step up. I knew I should now move on to my hands, so I began training him to get used to my hands being in the cage, using the same clicking-treat method. Now he's to the point of being comfortable with my hands no matter where they are in his cage. He'll even let me pet his chest, wings, and side of his neck, which I reward with clicking and treats as always.
He shows no visual discomfort when my hands are in the cage, though he does tense up a bit when I pet him at first.
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The problem is that even though he is so eager to step onto the dowel, he just WILL NOT step onto my finger. He knows the command, and I even reverted to the basic 'targeting him onto the perch' exercise. He'll reach and reach for the target, but unlike the dowel, will not step onto my finger, instead nudging it away, or when he almost gets to the point of falling on my finger, will bite it hard. He will occasionally beak my finger, which I feel is promising, but always ends up scooting away or trying to nudge, or bite my finger away (I do not cry out or flinch when he does bite. I just calmly wait a few seconds after he is done and remove my hand and treats from his presence until he is begging me for attention and more training again.)
We've gotten as far as me gently nudging his belly with my finger, to which he will just sit there and stare at it. If I nudge a little harder, he nudges me back and scoots hurriedly away, or bites me.
Today he put one foot briefly on my finger, which I thought showed huge promise, so I clicked and gave him massive amounts of praise and treats. He did it once more, and same thing, but after that, he reverted to his usual nudging me away or biting me.
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I guess I'm just looking for some input as to where to go from here. Do I need to just keep working with him? Am I unwittingly training him to dislike my hands in some way? Like I say, he's an otherwise very smart and very eager-to-please bird, and he chirps up happily and scoots to the front of the cage when I enter the room.
Any advice would be very appreciated, thank you, I apologize for the long post, I just want to make sure that I put everything out there!