Please Help! Agression with training!

[IveGotAPickle]

For the last few months I have tried to start trick training Pickle, my BFA She is normally not aggressive but as soon as I start trying to trick train her she bites the crap out of me. EVERY single time. I have tried starting with different tricks, in different places, at different times, with different treats, and nothing matters.

An example: Today I started with a trick she knows, the wave. I will point to her foot and she will waive, I praise and hand her a treat and she bites me. I walk away for a minute, come back and when I go to point at her foot she bites me. If I can get her to take the treat without biting me she "punches" my hand and takes the treat from me very aggressively. What is going on?

 

[Kalidasa]

Does she act super excited when it happens? She may think its part of the game

 

[IveGotAPickle]

Yes, she does act excited. She pins her eyes and fans her tail, but I cant tell if she is angry excited or happy excited. When she bites me she says "Oh no!"

 

[getwozzy]

Are you using a clicker? Or some other object while training?

 

[MonicaMc]

Can you offer her a treat from a spoon or other item to keep your hands safe?

Can you reinforce calm behaviors?

 

[Urgula]

My amazon would bite if I wanted him to step up.

He's trained to raise his feet when he wants to step up, but he would bite you if you wanted him to step up.
What I did is come scratch his head, leave, come back an scratch his head (while talking), touch his feet, leave, come back in 5 minutes, touch his feet and scratch head.
Day 2, come, touch his feet, scrach head while talking nicely to him. Somewhere inbetween that process, I would force him to step up.

He stopped bitting when stepping up.

Also, most people says that if an amazon is talking, don't touch him because he will bite.
I used the same method of head scratching (wihout leaving).

When I come home, I scratch his head and talk in funny noises, so he will start talking and get exited.
If you start scratching before he talks, he will start talking without biting.
If you try to touch him after he started talking, he would bite.

Now I come home and he gets exited and talks right away, so I open the cage door and scratch his head.
He's eyes are pinning and tail fanning, but he will not bite. He may hold your finger if he wants you to stop, but he will not bite.

I would not give food to a bird if it's agressive during the training, because you may be teaching it to byte.


Also, I'm teaching my amazon to lay on the back.
While I'm on the computer, I will scratch and fluffify him. Once he gets calm and all puffy, I will flip him and leave him with the feets on the air, while doing more scratching.
I sit like this for a while and he stays on his back.
If I wanted to do a defined training session for him laying on the back, he would never do it, because he would just get nervous.

 

[IveGotAPickle]

Murg, I think you have a point. All of the behaviors I have been successful in teaching Pickle have come from normal life interactions, not defined training sessions. I think I will just forget the clicker and target and training sessions and just throw little things in to our normal activities. Thank you!