How do I get Gizmo to lift up both her wings?

[pamela]

I have taught my amazon (Gizmo) to turn - that was easy.
But how do I get her to lift up her wings for me?
I get the concept of training (clicker or or no clicker) but I am stuck on how to get the behaviour started that you want to encourage.
The videos are useless for me to watch as they take forever to download.

Any suggestions please.

Thanks

 

[Milo]

At first you need to mark the behavior, then you can start shaping it. When you see her raise her wings, click and reward. Then when she starts raising her wings more for a treat, you can start to shape the behavior to do it on command

 

[pamela]

Thanks Milo. I was hoping for an easier solution! So I need to keep treats on me all the time then (& probably get a soaking) as she does this mainyl while showering. Think I will start with a high five instead - at least I can get her to lift her foot easily enough.

 

[waterfaller1]

I just give an excited OOOOH, when they stretch, and also say "let me see your wings!". All three of mine have learned to do it from that. I can now say "show me your wings", and they will do it. If there is a hesitation, I gently tap at the edge of the wing. They love my excited voice as I also say "what pretty wings you have!". That is their reward. No treat or clicks needed.

 

[Theresa]

I'm with Carole, gently touching the side of his wings to encourage, and the reward is me acting like an idiot with praise It also started with Corkey stretching and me naming it and praising the heck out of it.

 

[pamela]

I was hoping to keep my diginity You are telling me I have to act like an idiot to teach Gizmo tricks. I wil be doing this in a sound proof room.!

 

[Theresa]

I was hoping to keep my diginity You are telling me I have to act like an idiot to teach Gizmo tricks. I wil be doing this in a sound proof room.!

Well it's either act like an idiot or have treats on hand 24/7, and I don't ALWAYS have treats

 

[BraveheartDogs]

I agree with shaping it. I would take it a step further and say to watch your bird closely. Observe what happens even before wing lifting. There may be slight feathering ruffling, etc. I actually start with clicking and treating that. Then, after a few times, you will get that and you don't click and the bird will give you a little more, possibly a slight wing lift so click and treat that. Do NOT wait for the entire behavior or even a lot of it, instead, reward each tiny piece towards that behavior.

I have taught my amazon (Gizmo) to turn - that was easy.
But how do I get her to lift up her wings for me?
I get the concept of training (clicker or or no clicker) but I am stuck on how to get the behaviour started that you want to encourage.
The videos are useless for me to watch as they take forever to download.

Any suggestions please.

Thanks

 

[Milo]

You don't necessarily have to have a treat on you to reward the bird, if she responds to verbal praise then just use that. Mark the behavior with a click (you can even make the click sound yourself) and then you can work on shaping. Have you "loaded" the clicker yet? In other words, taught her that the click means awesome things?

I know in dogs some breeds aren't food motivated and so you have to get creative in figuring out how to get them to work for that treat/toy/lavish praise.