Stick training for a bird afraid of sticks

[Kentuckienne]

I wasn't able to find a good thread on this. Search just returns the first line of the post, not the part of it that you searched for.

For some reason, Gus is afraid of all sticks. The biggest nemesis is the broom, which elicits eagle wings, open beak, and full intimidation posture. But he hates any kind of sticks.

He also is fussy about being picked up and not afraid to bite with his big old macaw beak. I have solo custody of him for about a week or so, so I need to be able to pick him up to put him to bed etc. With the BFA, I started using a perch for step up until he decided to accept the finger, but Gus hates and fears any stick. Runs from it.

Since the stick is the normal fall-back when parrots won't step up, I'm stymied. I got a big ace bandage to wrap my arm under my sleeve, which helps some. But it would be good if he'd accept stepping onto a perch. Sometimes he stays with my sister who is afraid to pick him up, someday there could be an emergency, and I feel it's not good for him to learn that he has the power to refuse. I'm ok with being respectful of when I ask him to step up, but it would be very good if he would learn to do it.

Anybody had any luck in training parrots to un-fear sticks? I thought of getting a lot of sticks and leaving them around, but if I put one on his cage he pitches it off faster than the Rickeybird can throw a demon ball. He's not afraid of the perches in his cage, he just doesn't like it when you come at him with a stick. What if I just started carrying the stick around with me all day, but never bring it near him? How about letting him see me pick up both the stick and a pistachio nut, until he figures that every time I pick up the stick he gets a treat? And just gradually see if the fear/hate response will extinguish?

I'm hoping to take advantage of this time to work on our relationship. I'm the only one who can take him to poop now, and the weather is getting nice enough to take him on the porch which he likes, and most of all there is no, ahem, beloved "other" to undermine the training. Wish me luck! I got a Costco size box of band-aids, just in case ...

 

[chris-md]

Easy one! Two Key steps.

desensitization training. Lucky for you Mark posted about this exact issue before.

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/52891-startle-desensitization-training.html

Additionally you can charge the stick like you do a clicker. I do this with some things for Parker like the aviator harness. Walk up to him with it behind my back, pull my hand out and show Him the harness and immediately give him a treat, then hide it again. Show, treat, hide, show treat hide. This speeds things up, getting acclimation down to just a couple days if you do it three sessions a day? Fifteen times per session for two or three days.

This teaches him the sight and sudden appearance of the harness (or stick in your case) isn’t just tolerable, but highly desirable.

Once you’ve combined both methods above and the stick is no longer a terror inducing object, simple target training will get him to move towards and ultimately step up to this stick.

So the plan is two fold: teach that the stick isn’t bad, then teach who to do with it.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Excellent idea. I borrowed a pvc perch from a play stand I never finished and wrapped it in Gus-colored vet wrap. I put it on a table near him, thinking to get him used to the sight, but I like your idea better. I’ll see if I can in fact get him to associate perch with treat!

 

[SailBoat]

Does he have a perch 'stand' that he is okay with having moved to him?

We had a Yellow-Naped Amazon that also hated a stick or like, but had no problem getting on a portable perch, go figure!

 

[MonicaMc]

Instead of show stick-treat-hide, it might be better to do show stick-hide-treat and from a distance that Gus is comfortable with... i.e. doing this 5' or 10' away from the cage. Show, no reaction, hide, walk up, treat, walk back. Repeat. If there is a reaction (i.e. looking to escape/fear), then hide and try a step or two back.


Alternatively, have you tried using a thick rope perch with you holding the ends together in a bit of a "U" shape?

 

[Kentuckienne]

I discover that the perch I made elicits no reaction if I’m just carrying it. If I put a nut on the end, he zoops it right up, no hesitation. It’s only if I move it toward him as if asking for step up that he resists and bites at it. And he does that whether it’s an arm or a stick - seems like more of a step up issue than a stick fear. Brooms are another matter entirely, though! They are clearly evil and must be repulsed!

 

[chris-md]

Then you need to target him. Watch how to do it in this video, beginning around the 6 minute mark when I magically do a wardrobe change into an orange shirt. I’m doing this EXACT thing you’re looking to do, desensitize him to this honking stick. He’ll turn in minutes:

[ame="https://youtu.be/n3ahhijXxbM"]From clicker training (without the clicker!) to target training: the run up to flighted recall - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Anansi]

Kentuckienne, the method provided in the link to Birdman666's thread (as well as the first part of Monica's post) is exactly the method that I used when working with Maya. She came to my household with a bizarre fear of brooms. No other type of stick, mind you. The biggest, most gnarled looking branches barely elicited a second glance... but a broomstick?!? Oh, the horror! Hahaha!

But after using that process, she became completely inured to it. See below:

 

[Anansi]

Chris, I enjoyed watching your video. I've seen others, but don't think I ever saw that one.

 

[chris-md]

Thanks Stephen. I may slightly over post them, but I made hem so people can see what it looks like soup-to-nuts, something you don’t usually find.

This was one I made for our dear friend mr. Wrench.