Crazy Cockatiel?

[TeddyandStevie]

I have two wonderful male cockatiels who I have had for about 2-3 months. Whenever I try to train Stevie, he runs around and tries to fly to my chest/shoulder. He won't focus for a millisecond, and I have no idea what to do.
Another question I have is rewarding with training. When watching a video about bird training, the girl had a buzzer thing to reward the bird when he was doing something right. She also said instead of the buzzer you could vocally praise them. How do you train a bird to feel rewarded when I say/buzz something?

Lastly, my mom was playing with my other cockatiel, Teddy, and he wouldn't come to her so she chased him down and scooped him up. I told her this wasn't healthy for his trust for us owner because that could feel threating and scary for him, but she didn't believe me. I was wondering what you all thought!

Thanks a lot, SJ

 

[Garet]

Yeah, chasing and grabbing a bird is always a bad idea. Unless it's a medical emergency she really shouldn't. Tiel's are prey animals, and hands are a lot like claws or talons.

Is he clipped? I noticed my clipped bird is very clingy with me to the point that I have to physically remove him from my body and put him near his food and water, or he won't eat or drink. All that matters to him is getting on the safe human.

For clicker training to be rewarding, you have to be quick on the clicker and quick with the treat. At first, it's good to reward the bird for doing something close to what you want, like raising a foot when you want a handshake and progressing from there until the only behavior you reward is the completed task.

 

[Kathy123]

To clicker train a bird(or dog) click-or make whatever noise you choose) then immediately give a treat. Do this for a few minutes each day, then start with something simple like target training, there's lots of videos on that, and click/treat when you get the behavior you want. Make sure the treat is something they really like. You can find this out by putting different seeds in your hand and give him the choice, do this a few times, the one he picks first the most often is a good one to start with.