Talking

[davefv92c]

Max is a talker, is this pretty normal with these guys.
i mean he will sit in his cage and just go on and on,and it is not stuff i teach him, even though he does say a lot of the things i say without trying to teach them to him. really funny when i look over and he has his head in his food bowl and munching and chatting away at the same time. kind of cool when the wife is home he will chat in her voice at times, but mine most of the time.
at times it seems like he is having a whole conversation by himself but i just can't figure out what he is saying. now when he is out of the cage hardly any talk at all but you do get all those cute noise's they make.
got to figure out how to get him out of the closet, when he is out of the cage.
any ideas on how to do this, and remember i don't treat train my bird's got to do cause they want to. i never had to roll over and play dead when i was a kid for a treat.
thanks for any help i may get

oh almost forgot after a yr and a half since wings clipped he is back to full flight but like a bull in a china shop,ain't quite figured out the slowing down and landing very well but i did see some improvement yesterday. dont know with a unknown move coming quickly into an APT if i will keep him flying or not depends on the ceiling height. i can find, now i have 10' to a 12' peak so there is room for flight 8' no way he will get clipped again.

 

[chris-md]

Totally, I did this with Parker. It’s easy: REWARD THE TALKING.

1) finding put him in a situation where he’s likely to talk. For Parker that is being around running water when I’m not around. Put him on the shower rod while the shower is running and walk away. he’ll happily chat away. Other triggers may be simply being in a different room. Or when a vacuum runs.

2) this is the basics part: when he talks, come back with a big happy fuss and give him his favorite treat in the world.

Find his favorite treat in the world. He only gets this when he talks.
Always keep reward within reach. I had to keep little Glad tubs of his treat all over the house for a while.

The use of the situation simply increases the likeihood of behavior actually happening
React to talking/whistling OF ANY KIND. Come running, stub toes if need be (I stubbed a few). Big fuss!

CONSISTENCY IS KEY!!! Do this for about a month straight and you’ll notice a difference. I saw minor changes in about a week.

Closet talking is often an attention getting device meant to get you to come back. When you return the talking stops. This method teaches them that they are now talking for rewards now, not attention. So soon he will connect dots that if he talks he will get the best treat ever, AND the owner acting a fool with praise.

Parker is a closet talker as well. Only spoke when we aren’t in the room. “Minor” changes for him meant that I would get a whistle when I was in eye sight. Not close to him or holding him, maybe 40 feet away. But I was in eyesight, so it counts!

This has grown to now he greets me when I enter his room every morning. He’s spoken a few times while sitting on my arm. And he was chatting away when my sister in law and daughters were sitting in front of his stand admiring him.

It’s not all talk all the time but it’s progress. And he occasionally still gets treats for talking when I’m near him.

To sum: TREAT WHENEVER HE TALKS. That’s all this method is. Kind of obvious, right? But there are times when he is more likely to talk, use those as a means to elicit the elusive behavior you’re trying to treat to begin with.

I want to highlight that in the beginning he will only be talking and getting treats when you’re not in The room. This is OK, because this is about teaching him not to talk in front of you, but to teach him that talking gets treats. It is when he makes that connection successful week that he will start talking and making noise when you’re in eyesight. He wants the treat after all!

 

[chris-md]

For flight, if he’s having landing issues you might consider flight recall training. This is the very reason I started it with Parker. He only flew when he got startled. When he did, it was always a dangerous crash landing.

So I had to teach him to land properly in order to save his life. Starting from square one teaches all aspects of flying, including landing. With an added bonus of him learning to come on command.