Step up training

[hiriki]

Hello! I'm still working with Elby the lovebird, who I've posted about pretty regularly for the past week or so. To recap, she's very hand-shy. She's now target trained but she won't step up or stand in the palm of my hand for treats.

She will lean so far over my finger for treats that her neck touches my hand but she will *not* step up. At this point, it doesn't seem that she's afraid of my hands at all (provided they aren't moving) but I'm not sure how to convince her to take the first step onto my finger. Since stepping up is a prerequisite for a lot of the more important training exercises like recall training I'm planning to focus on this next.

Currently, I'm holding out my index finger of one hand and a sprig of millet in my other hand just far enough away that she has to stretch over my finger to reach it, moving it slowly further away until she has to step onto my finger to be able to reach it. Does this method sound effective or is there a better way? So far I haven't had any success, I wait for about 10 seconds for her to step up and then move the millet closer so she doesn't get frustrated with me.

 

[chris-md]

Sounds like there’s too much emphasis on the finger ad the destination.

can you put your whole hand on the perch/table/surface and entice her to walk ACROSS your hand to the other side? This way the hand is simply part of the perch and less scary.

there’s a YouTube video on this training, let me see if I can find it for you.

 

[chris-md]

Here you go

 

[hiriki]

Sounds like there’s too much emphasis on the finger ad the destination.

can you put your whole hand on the perch/table/surface and entice her to walk ACROSS your hand to the other side? This way the hand is simply part of the perch and less scary.

there’s a YouTube video on this training, let me see if I can find it for you.

I have tried to get her to walk onto the palm of my hand for millet with no success--but I haven't placed my hand palm-down, which might make a difference. I'll give this a try, as well as watch the video you linked!

 

[chris-md]

Yeah, palm = destination = too much pressure. Walking over the hand? Becomes an innate object more easily ignored.

 

[hiriki]

Thank you!! The video was an interesting watch as well. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes tomorrow. As it stands, even if it takes me another week to get her to walk over my hand, I've made an incredible amount of progress already so I'm happy.

As always I appreciate feedback on this forum

 

[wrench13]

FWIW, I always use the whole hand, fingers tight, presented vertically, when asking for step up. I think it presents as a more solid place to step onto. So fingers placed like this:

o
o
o
o

not like this o o o o
and thumb tucked in tight.

 

[Laurasea]

Another way it teaching to step up to hand dheld perch. Overtime you are moving your hand down the perch so there is less perch to step to and your hand is closer to the bird, until finally its just your hand to step to.

 

[hiriki]

When I present my hand palm down and try to lure her with the millet, I can get her to touch my hand with the side of her foot--progress! Lol. Birdtricks said not to lure, to use the target instead, but I don't have enough hands for a stick, clicker, and a treat while I'm also trying to get her to step on a hand. So I'm luring.

 

[hiriki]

Aah! Actually, she put an entire foot down on my hand! She put actual weight on my hand! Wow

 

[hiriki]

Just thought I'd update this thread, although not too much has happened since my last post!

Elby bird has now, very briefly, put both of her tiny little feet on the back of my hand! She's put all of her weight on me! She's only done it once, but now she confidently puts one foot at a time on the back of my hand to earn a treat, so it's only a matter of time until she graduates to standing on my hand. I haven't decided where I'll go from there, with the ultimate goal being recall training.

Overall, I'm absolutely floored at the progress I've made in only about a week. It makes me feel like she was ready for this a while ago and what we were lacking all along was a more structured and formal training plan.

 

[chris-md]

Awesome!

You know, if you don’t have the ability to use the clicker, you can use a verbal marker/cue instead! A click of the tongue, a key word (“good” is way overused, but it or something similar). Whatever you use, just make sure you charge it first, like you do a clicker to teach the bird that marker means treats coming.

 

[chris-md]

Awesome!

You know, if you don’t have the ability to use the clicker, you can use a verbal marker/cue instead! A click of the tongue, a key word (“good” is way overused, but it or something similar). Whatever you use, just make sure you charge it first, like you do a clicker to teach the bird that marker means