"Nonagressive" Bitting

[JLcribber]

If anyone can see room for improvement in that set of actions, please let me know! Thanks for all the help

If she is a "skilled" flyer you can use the "duck" method. When she targets your shoulder you duck at the last second taking away the opportunity to land on your shoulder. It forces her to re-target and land somewhere else. It won't take long for her to figure that out. If she is not a good flyer and prone to crashing then I wouldn't use that method. Instead of ducking you can also "intercept" her flight with a forearm or T stick before she gets to your shoulder.

 

[Naiera]

If she is a "skilled" flyer you can use the "duck" method. When she targets your shoulder you duck at the last second taking away the opportunity to land on your shoulder. It forces her to re-target and land somewhere else. It won't take long for her to figure that out. If she is not a good flyer and prone to crashing then I wouldn't use that method. Instead of ducking you can also "intercept" her flight with a forearm or T stick before she gets to your shoulder.

Thanks John.

She seems to be very skilled at flying, more so than my other two at least. She able to almost hover over a spot or kind of stop mid air and spin around - it's pretty neat to watch, kind of like a big hummingbird. I tried to intercept her with my arm a few times when she was going for the shoulder and she 're-routed' elsewhere, usually on top of my head From there I was able to get her to step on my arm though, so I suppose that works for now! We tried stepping up with a dowel ... that will need some work. I haven't tried getting her to step directly on my hand, not sure I want to either for the time being - pretty sure I can guess what's going to happen in that scenario! Hopefully if she gets used to me putting out my arm when she's flying my direction will start landing there instead.

I'll try the "duck" method. I more will have to teach myself to remember to move I think, I'm so used to letting the other birds do it.

 

[Addi Kohler]

Instead of ducking you can also "intercept" her flight with a forearm or T stick before she gets to your shoulder.

That's the course of action I'd go with.

IMO, it's more productive to simply ask for something else and reward the behavior for compliance.

Using either a perch, or your hand, every time she goes for the shoulder, offer the perch instead, and reward the behavior when she complies. Then you can set her someplace else and reward for that behavior when she gets off the perch. Eventually, you can build the association of "shoulder = no reward while perch / playstand = reward". She'll get the message eventually.

Always have chow / reward material on your person every time she is out of the cage so you can use it to immediately reward desired behaviors.

Between "formal" and informal training sessions, you should be able to condition her to opt for other areas to perch besides your shoulder.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Years ago when I was altering Hobbs' behavior for biting, I would get into working in the bird room and forget if he landed on me while cleaning up and I picked up something that would trigger a bite (books, magazines, tv remote, phone...). Like you I am so used to my birds randomly landing on me, I rarely look to check on who it is specifically who landed. Anyway, it undermined my resolve to not allow Hobbs on my shoulder so he would not bite my face or ear and in self defense, I started wearing a hoodie with the hood up to guard my face and ear. Hobbs would wing over and land, but could not get to my face to bite, even if he was triggered. Instead, he started to banzai attack the hand that picked up the objectionable object which made it much easier to scoop him up and give him a time out in his cage.

Just an idea.

 

[Naiera]

Years ago when I was altering Hobbs' behavior for biting, I would get into working in the bird room and forget if he landed on me while cleaning up and I picked up something that would trigger a bite (books, magazines, tv remote, phone...). Like you I am so used to my birds randomly landing on me, I rarely look to check on who it is specifically who landed. Anyway, it undermined my resolve to not allow Hobbs on my shoulder so he would not bite my face or ear and in self defense, I started wearing a hoodie with the hood up to guard my face and ear. Hobbs would wing over and land, but could not get to my face to bite, even if he was triggered. Instead, he started to banzai attack the hand that picked up the objectionable object which made it much easier to scoop him up and give him a time out in his cage.

Just an idea.

Yep, the girl who had Peaches before me did that same thing. I did try putting a hood up to see how her behavior would change or not change, still flys to the shoulder (or sometimes head) just that she has nothing to bite. That works great!

The problem with that is my other birds live in my bedroom and are out nearly always, so once she's in there too that strategy isn't going to work because I won't always put a hooded shirt on before going in there. Plus I would rather her just learn not to do it so then neither I nor anyone else has to worry much about it. It might be that in the beginning while she's learning I'll wear it though for my own protection, she has one sharp beak - and it's not a little nip, it's almost like she's going to preen you but does it death grip style!! And the hood doesn't seem to bother or scare her, so it's certainly a temporary option - like when I'll need to get her into a carrier on Tuesday - that will be fun! Suppose I should maybe start leaving it for her with treats now, might make my life easier.

 

[Naiera]

That's the course of action I'd go with.

IMO, it's more productive to simply ask for something else and reward the behavior for compliance.

Using either a perch, or your hand, every time she goes for the shoulder, offer the perch instead, and reward the behavior when she complies. Then you can set her someplace else and reward for that behavior when she gets off the perch. Eventually, you can build the association of "shoulder = no reward while perch / playstand = reward". She'll get the message eventually.

Always have chow / reward material on your person every time she is out of the cage so you can use it to immediately reward desired behaviors.

Between "formal" and informal training sessions, you should be able to condition her to opt for other areas to perch besides your shoulder.

Thanks for the input. I think you're right - it will likely be more productive. Just want to make sure she's not getting the message "go away from me" it's just "go away from my shoulder, sweet Peaches, since you think my face is food." Know what I mean? If I can get her to learn take the interception onto my arm or hand I think we'll be making some real progress!

The playstand bit you mentioned is a great idea,too! Maybe I'll make a small play stand today to put in the room where she is. Something like one of those handy PVC ones I see on here. That way she can be next to me easily and not on me and not on/in her cage.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

I only used the hoodie solution with Hobbs when I was busy trying to clean, not all the time. It is limiting when it comes to interacting with the other birds; but it was a solution to a problem then.

One good outcome of it was that my Sunshine Senegal soon learned she could crawl down my chest from my shoulder, then walk back up my chest and get inside the hood to snuggle against my neck and face. She did this so often back then that now on cool nights in winter, I put on the hoodie deliberately so she will crawl inside the hood and interact and then nap there while I watch TV. No one else figured out how to crawl inside the hood and snuggle.

 

[Naiera]

I only used the hoodie solution with Hobbs when I was busy trying to clean, not all the time. It is limiting when it comes to interacting with the other birds; but it was a solution to a problem then.

One good outcome of it was that my Sunshine Senegal soon learned she could crawl down my chest from my shoulder, then walk back up my chest and get inside the hood to snuggle against my neck and face. She did this so often back then that now on cool nights in winter, I put on the hoodie deliberately so she will crawl inside the hood and interact and then nap there while I watch TV. No one else figured out how to crawl inside the hood and snuggle.

Ooooh how sweet! I almost want to try now just to see if Tiki would learn to do that that He's my clinging one

 

[Naiera]

Just thought I'd share - here's Peaches on the dowel!! She wouldn't step on to it for anything before I wrapped it - actually she would attack it! Maybe purple is her color though because she sat on it for a few minutes after it was wrapped. Now to work on getting her to do it consistently.



I made a play stand for her today to put next to the area I usually am when I'm in here with her. The goal is to redirect her there when she tries to get on my shoulder - of course she's not very interested so far!



But hey - I'm proud of it anyway. Home Depot had a seriously lacking selection of connecting pieces for the PVC, so that kind of limited what I was able do.