Training routine?

[Ginnybird]

I'm interested in how the training routine has fallen into place ( or been meticulously plotted and adhered to -- whichever) for different folks. Especially those who train multiple birds.

Our weekday routine starts as soon as I can get settled after work, to burn the first energy off. For a while we cycled through flight stuff first, then the Little Fun Tricks (wave, high-four, turn around, etc), then flight harness stuff... then one easy quick trick for positive wrap-up and done. Time for chop and some tunes.

Then she rejected most of the flight stuff, so I figured she was getting bored. I started changing up training and haven't yet settled back into something. I kept some old stuff and started handshake, fist bump and retrieve. I tried a "Spinny Ginny" where we build trust for her to hang on to a dried chipotle pepper that I spin around the perch, but the footing got awkward so I dropped that game.

Anyway, since I haven't settled back into a routine yet, I thought I'd ask to hear yours...

 

[wrench13]

We have two training areas one is on my bed queen size bed, the other one is on the coffee table in the living room cleared of all extraneous stuff. I use pine nuts as the training treat. First he gets 1 pine nut to let him know that the training session has started. And then we go through the easy tricks. spinning in place one or two or three times around, then shake hands, then do a trick I call bang you're dead, where I will shoot him with my finger and say bang you're dead and he lays on his back in my open hand.
I consider that to be a hard trick. and then we do his hardest trick which is you ask him to roll over like a dog. we have been working on this trick for about 1 month and he is at the point where I only need to hold his foot a little and he will dip his knee to the table and complete the roll over trick. so he still hates this trick but he is constantly showing improvement. after he completes every trick he gets 1pine nut, then there is a little forehead scratch and I tell him 'good boy that is what I was looking for'. That is how he knows that he did the right trick for me.
I use both verbal and hand signals to tell him what trick to do and it is important to not deviate from the signals both in requesting the trick, and whatever you use to tell him that the trick was successfully done. We always close out a training session with another easy trick so that the session ends on a positive note. A little closer to spring time and we will start flight harness training but right now it is too cold to take Salty outside.

 

[Anansi]

The times I get home from work can vary significantly from one day to the next, so we've had to work on them being flexible and adaptable to change.

During the week, if I get home relatively early, I'll have them sit in the kitchen with me while I prepare their food. This becomes a lighthearted training session in itself, as I'll have a bowl of pomegranates next to me as I chop.

For Jolly's part, it's all about improving the immediacy of his response to my flight directions. His recall is virtually 100%, as he loves hanging out with me, but I often have to repeat myself a few times to get him to go elsewhere. But not during food prep! Hahaha! By the time I get home, he's good and hungry. (Not starving. Just hungry. I don't do the starving for training thing.) So the immediacy of his response is amazing! Whereas I might have to repeat myself normally, at this time he responds to gestures. GESTURES! I barely finish pointing at the training perch before he's off my shoulder and streaking across the kitchen! (Yup! The problem ISN'T comprehension! Hahaha!)

And for Maya, since the little diva rarely ever wants to fly, she usually earns her pomegranates with turning in place, head nods or dancing. (Girl's got rhythm!)

Once their food is prepped, I'll put them in their respective cages to eat and go eat my dinner. I give them around an hour to an hour and a half, as ekkies' eating habits closely resemble those of most children: bouts of actual eating interspersed between periods of goofing off. (Chomp, chomp, chomp and then up to the favorite perch to chew and savor. Chomp, chomp, chomp and then off to the water bowl to make soup. Etc, etc...)

And then we get into heavier training. (On days I get home later, my wife has already fed them and they're waiting for me in the living room on their respective tree stands.) Since I have two birds, I had to teach them turn-based training. It was very important for them to understand that when I'm working with one, the other's turn is coming next. The trust that one or the other isn't being ignored was key.

And with the exception of Jolly's flight drills, I have them both working on the same skills, one after the next.

On weekends, training sessions go on sporadically throughout the day. And since I switch from trick to trick using a turn based system, I can usually work with them for significantly longer than the usual 15-20 minute sessions. They stay interested and engaged. (Well, except for harness training. That has a definite time limit. Haha!)

 

[Birdman666]

Yeah, this is a depends on the species thing as well.

Some birds need extra structure - COCKATOOS come immediately to mind.

MACAWS, I'm looking at you too...

Others, LOVE ROUTINES A LITTLE TOO MUCH... and in some instances can get so caught up in it, that if a routine becomes too rigid, it throws everything off and upsets them if you change things around on them. (I'm looking primarily at CAGS and TAGS on that one.) So, you don't want it to be so structured that they get emotionally upset if it doesn't happen a certain way every day. (PICTURE THE JUDGE WHOPNER SCENE FROM RAIN MAN! YEAH, I'VE SEEN PLUCKERS DO THAT!!! MOVE AN OBJECT ON THEM AND THEY THROW A FIT AND START TEARING FEATHERS OUT! MY CASPER WAS LIKE THAT WHEN WE GOT HIM... THOSE BIRDS ARE CREATED BY BEING SO STRICT ON THE ROUTINES THAT ANY CHANGE UPSET THEM!)

My actual "training" stuff is one one one, and for me it starts the minute the bird comes home. And it's 24/7 - total immersion into "this is what happens and how we behave, once the bird enters my household." They're generally trained up in a matter of weeks. Maggie was trained up within days. Kiwi was trained up within days. Sally took about 4 months after I brought her home. (We tried to work with her at the rescue, but were unsuccessful. No one could handle her there.)

My Ruby took about 8 months... that bird was PURE EVIL!!! Greenwing dominance + Scarlet Beakiness + Evil Macaw Brain = THIS MAY TAKE AWHILE!

The rest is just handling and playtime. Some of what they already know gets reinforced during playtime every night, but honestly, we don't really do a lot of formal "training" anymore.

The conures used to have "trick training time" just because they liked playing with toys, LOVED learning new things, and ABSOLUTELY LOVED being the center of attention for an hour or so. When I put the toys away, trick time was over, and it was treat time for them, and after dinner, handling time for one or more of the others... FOR ME, this was usually when dinner was in the oven and I had half an hour to an hour to kill... AND HOW LONG TRAINING LASTED DEPENDED ON WHAT WAS IN THE OVEN.

I had so many at the time I was doing this kind of stuff, that I usually worked with 2-4 at once. The advantage to that, of course, is that it also socializes the birds together at the same time, and they learn to interact as a flock...

Only works if they don't get jealous of each other.

For example: I cannot work with Tusk and Lila and Sally at the same time. Sally for some reason is INSANELY jealous of Lila. As in pick her up at the same time I'm holding Sally, and Sally pinches me... HARD!

Same goes for anyone. You can't hold those two at the same time.

 

[Birdman666]

The routine in my house is Sally gets handled first. Then she goes down, and goes to her favorite spot in the window.

Then I usually start dinner. Then I do Lila, Tusk, and Kiwi.

Everyone gets fed when we eat. That way, they're all otherwise occupied and we can eat in peace.

Then, after dinner, the macaws get my undivided attention.

Tusk, Lila, and Kiwi play on the big coffee table playstand.

Sally sits in the window.

And the macaws are made of velcro, while I do what ever else it is I do that night. (They're coming too!) One is usually on my lap, the other one is on my shoulder. Which one is where is traded off...

 

[Ginnybird]

then do a trick I call bang you're dead, where I will shoot him with my finger and say bang you're dead and he lays on his back in my open hand. I consider that to be a hard trick. and then we do his hardest trick which is you ask him to roll over like a dog. we have been working on this trick for about 1 month and he is at the point where I only need to hold his foot a little and he will dip his knee to the table and complete the roll over trick. so he still hates this trick but he is constantly showing improvement.

Nice. How did he go onto his back for this at first? (This isn't something I can quite picture Gin ever wanting to do on her own. I don't force, so I've figured this type of trick probably won't ever be a thing for us... but she could and does surprise.)

A little closer to spring time and we will start flight harness training but right now it is too cold to take Salty outside.

My harness training is inside. She loves head and neck scritches, and doesn't mind a nice handshake, but does not like having her torso or wings touched or handled at all. She doesn't like the harness even placed against her body, let alone on her. Is this different with Salty?

I'm not going to force it, so there's plenty to do before Ginny ever goes outside in it -- or fully into it at all. My harness training started with the new year. One - three times a day: 1) her head goes through the neck loop to get a treat and back out; 2) I raise each wing for a quick count; and 3) I put a little fingertip pressure against her side for a quick count to simulate pressure from strap adjustment. Treats/praise for all. The latter two of these came from the Aviator DVD, although I do the wing raise more like I saw from a Barbara Heidenrich video than how the harness DVD shows. Some other things, too, like just laying part of the harness on her during treat eating, wearing it on my neck, etc. Anyways, it's slow. But there's progress. Why wait for warm weather -- or does he wear the harness easily?

 

[Ginnybird]

The times I get home from work can vary significantly from one day to the next, so we've had to work on them being flexible and adaptable to change.

Boy, I hear you on that.

For Jolly's part, it's all about improving the immediacy of his response to my flight directions. His recall is virtually 100%, as he loves hanging out with me, but I often have to repeat myself a few times to get him to go elsewhere.

Same with magirl... Flying to my arm comes easily. Flying back to perch... more reluctance, more reward.

Whereas I might have to repeat myself normally, at this time he responds to gestures. GESTURES! I barely finish pointing at the training perch before he's off my shoulder and streaking across the kitchen! (Yup! The problem ISN'T comprehension! Hahaha!)

Finding out this stuff always cracks me up. Ah-ha! You do know exactly what I mean, you smarty!

Once their food is prepped, I'll put them in their respective cages to eat and go eat my dinner. I give them around an hour to an hour and a half, as ekkies' eating habits closely resemble those of most children: bouts of actual eating interspersed between periods of goofing off. (Chomp, chomp, chomp and then up to the favorite perch to chew and savor. Chomp, chomp, chomp and then off to the water bowl to make soup. Etc, etc...)

Haha! I bring Ginny downstairs to a playgym each night to trick-train and then eat. So even when I get home later (Walt Whitman bridge traffic in the summer! yikes!), she knows it's training, and then the chop/salad stuff comes out and it's eating and playtime.

And then we get into heavier training. (On days I get home later, my wife has already fed them and they're waiting for me in the living room on their respective tree stands.) Since I have two birds, I had to teach them turn-based training. It was very important for them to understand that when I'm working with one, the other's turn is coming next. The trust that one or the other isn't being ignored was key. And with the exception of Jolly's flight drills, I have them both working on the same skills, one after the next.

Good idea for making the most of the time they spend eating treats! At some point I'd like to add a second bird, so I've been thinking about this a lot.

 

[Ginnybird]

Others, LOVE ROUTINES A LITTLE TOO MUCH... and in some instances can get so caught up in it, that if a routine becomes too rigid, it throws everything off and upsets them if you change things around on them.

I know what you mean. So far, Ginny seems to thrive on loose structure. Like, we will do this followed by this and this, but exact time and other variables may differ. I have changed her environment a few times as I tweaked things, and this may be for the best.

But she's young and a medium party girl... Absolutely loves coming to visit my boyfriend's family with us for a couple days. Eight people there, with two running toddlers, and it's like there was no change that took place around her at all. She's happy as a clown in all that activity.

Sally took about 4 months after I brought her home. (We tried to work with her at the rescue, but were unsuccessful. No one could handle her there.)

Which bird is Sally? Did she just need a bit less activity around?

The rest is just handling and playtime. Some of what they already know gets reinforced during playtime every night, but honestly, we don't really do a lot of formal "training" anymore.

Gin loves it as an energy outlet and is super eager to start each evening. I need to keep up on training plans to keep up with her!

I had so many at the time I was doing this kind of stuff, that I usually worked with 2-4 at once. The advantage to that, of course, is that it also socializes the birds together at the same time, and they learn to interact as a flock...

Did you rotate to the next bird for each trick/thing, or run one through a bunch of things, and then move on to next, or something else?

 

[Birdman666]

Well, with the conures it was just playtime. I set all three of them down on the coffee table with the toys, and gave them things to do, and attention.

Everything from basketball, to skateboards, to birdie bowling, to puzzles... and once they learned a behavior, they would just sit there on the coffee table and all three of them would "show off" for me.

These were toys, and this was playtime. They picked the toys. I just laughed a lot and enjoyed it.

DEMITRE of course was the competitive one. He had to one up Papaya on everything. "Oh yeah, well watch this!"






We also had things like "birdie bowling night." ALL my birds could bowl... and they really did seem to enjoy it, and it was just a funny, and fun thing to do... especially when my daughter was little, and we couldn't really afford to go out.

Okay, Inca got a strike you're up, Tusk... your turn!

 

[Birdman666]

Sally was a badly abused bird, who came to me with a severe phobic disorder, caused by a former owner who was trying to teach her to do stuff, by whacking her with a dowel perch if she didn't...

NEEDLESS TO SAY THE ONLY THING SHE LEARNED WAS TO FEAR HUMANS APPROACHING...

She associated humans with I'm about to be beaten with a stick... and she went into a two hour freak out/attack mode whenever anyone approached the cage. She was just as afraid of other birds at the time.

No one was able to work with her down at the rescue. She needed quiet time, and she just basically had to be taught to love and to trust again.

She's a sweet, sensitive soul of a bird. She was a five hour a day job, for about four months, getting her from phobic attack parrot to friendly loving bird about town... but in the end it was worth it.

She's been with me now for over 15 years.

 

[Ginnybird]

That's wonderful!

When I went to a rescue a couple weeks ago, when we walked into one room, the volunteer said, "These are the Amazons. They're all pretty much unhandle-able."

It was a little exaggerated (there was at least one very friendly red-lored girl I played with and petted) but probably not by much. Groan.

The sun on a skateboard is ridiculously cute.

 

[Birdman666]

The sun on a skateboard is ridiculously cute.

THAT'S PAPAYA. THE FIRST BIRD I EVER OWNED.

Y0U HAVE NO IDEA HOW CUTE THAT LITTLE BIRD COULD BE, OR HOW BONDED HE WAS...

ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE BIRDS I STILL MISS TERRIBLY...

 

[Birdman666]

That's wonderful!

When I went to a rescue a couple weeks ago, when we walked into one room, the volunteer said, "These are the Amazons. They're all pretty much unhandle-able."

Most zons get surrendered for hormonal aggression/cagebound/biting issues.

THEY'RE UNHANDLEABLE BECAUSE NO ONE HAS BOTHERED TO HANDLE THEM, OR EVEN LET THEM OUT OF THE CAGE IN YEARS...

WE HAD REHAB PROTOCOLS FOR THAT, AND USED TO WORK WITH THEM EXTENSIVELY AFTER THEY WERE SURRENDERED.

THEY BOUNCE BACK, BUT THEY HAVE TO BE HANDLED IN ORDER TO DO IT... OTHERWISE THEY REMAIN "UNHANDLEABLE."

During breeding season, the rescues were overflowing with zons. More often than not, this was a human training issue, as much as it was a bird training issue.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Love reading your tales of your birds, fascinating. Do you/have you ever done any public speaking to clubs etc.

 

[Birdman666]

Love reading your tales of your birds, fascinating. Do you/have you ever done any public speaking to clubs etc.

I used to teach bird handling classes down at the rescue.

I used to do "problem bird" training work shops, to try and get people to WORK WITH their birds and FIX THE FRIGGIN' PROBLEMS instead of just giving up and dumping them...

Public speaking? Not really.

Other than the fact that there are times when I just can't shut up in public...

Which doesn't really count.