How can I keep Lola this well behaved?

[snackies]

Hi Guys!

As some of you know, I finally have Lola home now – and she is settling in great! I’ve never seen a bird come home and be completely relaxed so quickly! She has been so perfect, I couldn’t ask for a better birdy! I want to make sure I keep her happy and behaving so well.

The only time she has screeched is when we got home last night, she was so exciting and wanted OUT! But I did my thing first, fed Honey, got changed into my daggy/house clothes, shut all the doors windows etc, then I let her out. She is so happy and quiet when I have her out with me – I have her out most of the time, unless I’m doing something like cooking where it might be dangerous etc.

I just want to know what I can do to make sure I raise a happy and well behaved sun conure. I have a clicker and already started to toilet train her and teach her to step up without biting, and she is going really well already – but am I doing the right thing? She is VERY food driven and I read that as soon as they are weaned and happy to walk from A to B for food, you can begin clicker training… is that true?

She is a very good girl and plays with her toys or eats her fruit when I put her in her cage to do something, and she doesn’t screech. How can I reward this behaviour? I want her to make sure she knows she is doing well by learning to keep herself busy without me and happy to play with toys…

Are there any other tips I should be doing?

She also is pretty clumsy, but she always flies at my face/head – is there any way to discourage this? I am training her to respond to “Lola” when I give the step up action, so I’m hoping I can advance this to recall – so when I call “Lola” she will fly to my hand, do you think this will prevent her face/head landing habits?

 

[Addi Kohler]

She is VERY food driven and I read that as soon as they are weaned and happy to walk from A to B for food, you can begin clicker training… is that true?

Pretty much.

While there are any number of rewards that can be used to reinforce desired behaviors, food is generally one of THE best because we ALL love to eat, and, we HAVE to eat. Food makes an excellent reward because you can control the access to food, and make use of hunger to increase the value of the reward, or simply limit the access to a HIGHLY valued food source solely for training purposes.

IMO, training should start from DAY one, and should be a DAILY event. Whether it is simply doing step ups, dismounts, or working on more complicated behaviors, daily interaction through training conditions the critter to view YOU as a source of entertainment (it is FUN to train and interact!), and it also teaches the critter that performed behaviors WILL be rewarded. Win-win all around. This pattern of interaction creates trust, and a willingness to comply with requested behaviors. Again, win-win for all involved.

How can I reward this behaviour? I want her to make sure she knows she is doing well by learning to keep herself busy without me and happy to play with toys…

Create a cue for the behavior, and start rewarding it. For example, if you wanted to reward individual play on a play stand, every time you put her on the play stand, say "Play", and leave it alone to play. Wait till it starts playing, and reward when the bird is playing, by saying something like "good play" (gives reward). Eventually the bird will associate the play activity with the reward and the cue both, and it will understand what "play" means, and that it WILL be rewarded for playing.

I am training her to respond to “Lola” when I give the step up action, so I’m hoping I can advance this to recall – so when I call “Lola” she will fly to my hand, do you think this will prevent her face/head landing habits?

It certainly can, especially if you give her a reason to CHOOSE your hand over any part of your body to perch on. If you train and reward using your hand as a perch, your hand will become the perch of choice.

Behaviors aren't too difficult to shape as long as you are consistent and keep it in the best interests of the critter to CHOOSE the behavior over something else. That choice is usually made based off of the reward it gets for performing that behavior, and as long as we do our part, we can ensure that the BEST reward is the one WE choose to give it.

Good luck, and keep training.

 

[snackies]

great - thank you SO much! I have been slack with training these past few days as I can't decided on what to do first - should I start with stick training after she has mastered step up...? I want to teach her tricks like recall, spin around, wave, roll over etc. I hadn't read much about stick/touch training but it seems like a good idea...

 

[Addi Kohler]

I'd start with targeting while the bird is inside the cage and you are out. Once a bird understands how to play the "targeting" game, you can move the game to different locations and use it to shape pretty much anything you want.