Lady is always flying to me

[Grinder]

Lady is our Military Macaw who has only been with us since Sunday afternoon. She is just over 5 months old. She is a loving bird who doesn't bite and loves to be cuddled. She also loves to fly to me. I dont mind it most of the time, but sometimes I am doing something - like brushing my teeth this morning. While in the living room she will fly to me from her cage and then eventually fly back to her cage which is good.

What is the best way to let her know that I don't want her flying to me all the time? I don't want to discourage her flying and sometime it is welcome. I'm not sure if a 5 minute time out in her cage would work because she might think that flying to me will always get her put back in her cage.

 

[WharfRat]

THat's gonna be a tough one I think, but others here might be able to help since I'm not much on training mine. When I don't want them landing on me, I just automatically put them up in their cage. This is mainly when I'm either cooking or cleaning (or other birds are loose). For instance, I just finished cooking breakfast (I don't start work til 1:00p) so I just let the Green Wing's loose in the bird area, the wife is already at work (works @ home in the master bedroom) and they are free to roam between the bird area and the living room. Later on after the wife gets off work (2:30p) she'll let the Zon's out and take them into her "office" area. The Hahn's gets let loose at various times as well when the other birds are put up but primarily in my office or the wife's since she'll land on the GW's or Zon's cage cause she's fearless. :54:
I'm just not sure how'd you'd train them when they can or can't fly when they're loose is all. Giving them a "time-out" in their cage for flying to you is still a form of punishment to them and they might not know why. Hopefully someone that does more intensive training with their birds will have some better insight for you.

 

[Doves1]

When I started free flight training with my Macaw he figured the same thing, I can fly onto her whenever I want too. So when I didn't want him to fly to me I would dodge him if I could or if not I would shoo him away as soon as he landed. After that I would leave him for about 10 minutes then call him to me with whatever signal you want to use, mine was lifting my arm, patting it and saying his name. When he came to me then he would get praises.

Eventually he learned to only come when I call him because if he came any other time he wasn't staying.

 

[WharfRat]

Mine are pretty good fliers, especially Miri! The only way to "dodge" her is ducking and ducking FAST! ReaRea is not as skilled but that doesn't deter her, she'll just walk wherever she wants. I can get Miri off me pretty easy but with ReaRea....she will hold on with a either a death grip with her claws or she's grabbing whatever's "handiest" with her beak, this is usually NOT a pleasant thing!! :11: So again, basically if I don't want them flying they are put up n their cages.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

a young bird might not take dodging well, birds need to believe we are a reliable safe perch. You'll want to teach her to station. I would explain how to do it but I've never had to train it to Rosie.

 

[Grinder]

Station? I've never heard that term. I will definitely look into it.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I found this, it 's a good starting point
How to Train Your Bird to ?Station? (Stay Put!)

 

[LoryLover]

Why don't you set up a perch area in your bathroom, and when Lady flies to you, just re-direct her to the perch. We have a table top perch stand that we have sitting on one end of the bathroom counter. But if you lack counter space, you could attach one to the wall.

I always talk to my lory just as if she were a human child, so if she flew to me and landed on my shoulder when I was brushing my teeth, I would just put my hand up to her so she could jump on my finger and while moving her to the perch stand, I would say to her "go here". It would only take a few times and she'd know to land on the perch instead of me (in that area).

 

[goalerjones]

I agree with the perch/tabletop stand idea. Also, in our experience they learn much like our stubborn german shepherd does. In order to stop a behavior they have to be taught to do it on command first. So cue him to come to you on command. Then cue him on command to return to his perch. I also find that if I return my guy to his perch immediately when he comes uninvited he has learned that he won't get what he wants by forcing the issue.

 

[Grinder]

We have both a portable perch and shower type perch on the long mirror in the bathroom. I just need to do as you have said and make sure to immediately remove her from my shoulder.