Clicker Training Works!
Here's What Some of Our Listers Have Had to Say...
Janan and Allen
Jachandler@aol.com
Either my bird's a genius... Or, this must work in spite of my newbieness :)
Alisa
The nice thing about clicker training is suddenly your bird can understand what you mean. It becomes a language they use better and better the more they hear it. It gives an animal a lot of confidence knowing all he has to do is keep experimenting until what he does gets him a C/T. They become creative geniuses and really enjoy the game.
Helen
My husband and I have both trained psittacines and Bottle Nosed Dolphins (the ones all the scientists like to test because they are 'so intelligent'.) We both think they ought to forget about the dolphin and work parrot type birds!
Wendy
I have noticed an increase in the speed at which they come to understand what I want. We now share a 'language' that enables better communications. I would guess that things move about 5 to 6 times faster than before. They also enjoy training more than I had ever experienced before.
Mike Burton
mburton@oneimage.com
BirdClick taught me more than any other bird list I've ever been on.Clicker training does work. I use it around here. It'll probably take you about a week to learn it and mostly to learn to control yourself, then it gets easy. It's worth the effort. Did you go to the introductory pages on the web site and read about the techniques and terms used? If not then it won't make much sense until you've lurked for quite a while. Although it is a busy list, I found the list very helpful, but do a little reading yourself, first.
Operant conditioning is not a difficult concept and if you don't get hung up on terms, you will find you have probably already used it in many areas of your life. No punishment...very important with animals that have already been abused. It's a great trust builder.
At first I tried to just read the list and couldn't get it. After reading the material on the web site, I learned it was not the training method, but my lazy shortcuts to learning that were causing the problem. I have used the principles of o.c. for years, but wasn't familiar with the terms used on the list (it's only basic psych 101, but who remembers!) Clicker work just refines the timing, and thus seems to shorten the time to learn. It is all very positive.
I don't have any circus acts, but can handle several birds that arrived here totally aggressive and untamed. None have failed to improve and calm down. Here are just a few over the last year.
Greenwing Macaw...beaten, fed drugs and alcohol in her former home...waves, dances, peeks through her wing, stopped attacking people, stopped screaming. This was a bird that would get hysterical, screaming and lunging, if she heard the word NO. With clicker training she never got anything but positive input for her behavior. She is my sweetheart now and uniformly calm and quiet, loves to travel with me and sits quietly and waits wherever I place her.
Congo African Grey...very plucked, aggressive and high strung...feathers growing in, takes food from my hand. Stopped screaming when someone nears his cage.
Congo African Grey...old untamed wild caught... most aggressive bird I've ever had...now lets me scritch his head through the cage...frankly I had no hope that this would ever happen. His last owners tried the "love and patience will conquer all" philosophy for 5 years. They could never even get near him.
Timneh African Grey...old wild caught..un handleable, somewhat aggressive...now plays with us, cuddles, very sweet and chatty.
Sulfur Crested Cockatoo, wild caught...locked in a closet for the better part of 5 years. very bitey, feather plucker and very erratic. 6 months later and 1 month in his new home, I got a call last night from his new owners telling me what a sweetheart he is. ( I taught them how to work with him and what they can reasonably expect)
Alexandrine Parakeet, untamed, biter. 5 years in a semi-dark basement on wild bird seed...now goes out to schools etc and loves everybody! He waves and says hello...I'm working on teaching him to bow, as it is a natural shaping of his head down pose he uses to solicit pets.
Color identification. Just by watching one bird train to pick out the color I request, 4 other birds now do it as well. This was a great breakthrough for a totally untouchable old wild caught Moluccan. Now when I pick up the color bars, he is right against the side of the cage, ready to pick them out. It was the first positive 2 way communication I think that bird has ever had with a human. I still can't touch him, but can let him out and just touch the perch when it's time for him to go back in his cage, and he will go back immediately. He will take food from my hand, very gingerly, and is just beginning to occasionally let me touch his foot. It was important to both of us to learn trust, because he darn near crushed my finger joint to oblivion when I first got him, and that kind of pain is hard to forget.
Clicker training does not tell you to take the bite and get over it, it tells you how to avoid it in the first place.
Dee Thompson
deethom@erols.com
I have an 18 year old rescue Goffins named Rosie. When first I met her, she was 16 years old.
Rosie sat on a small perch in her former home with nothing but a cup of water and a cup of cheap hardware store bird seed mix for all her life. She carefully picked the black oil sunflower seeds from this mix and left the rest. She had nothing to do but look out a window. She had only had one toy in her life and when she shredded it her owner misunderstood and never bought her another, so she didn't even know how to play. Rosie didn't like the wife and the wife didn't like her. The wife was overjoyed when I came to get her.
One of the reasons they let her go may have been her screaming. Her owner said she only got about 10 minutes of attention a month. He meant well but didn't understand a bird's needs and didn't see how much trouble she was in. Her beak was overgrown, her feathers were ratty and chewed and her legs and feet were knobby, scrawny and scaly. Her uric acid count was sky high. Her kidneys were failing from malnutrition and she was dying. My
vet didn't hold out much hope for saving her but said if she could be saved at all it would be through her diet. That took weeks of work.Rosie's first greeting to me was to shrink back as far away as possible, raise her crest and hiss! What a sorry little bird she was!! She was so terrified of people that the man delivered her to my house himself. Day after day she frantically paced her back cage wall from sunup to lights out looking for a way to escape. If I went within 6 feet of her cage she panicked and flopped around the cage injuring herself. Rosie was originally caught in the wild, not hand fed. Her previous owner was the only one who had ever handled her.
Today, Rosie is a totally different bird. She is a nice, quiet girl. Her feathers are in beautiful shape, her little feet and legs filled out and she is a healthy, happy Cockatoo. In the evenings she flies inside the house for exercise and what a graceful flyer she is!
Thanks to clicker training, she steps up like a champ, gives kisses, snuggles and does a number of fun tricks. She is trusting and trustworthy. She has a big, beautiful cage filled with toys and perches. She happily plays with the toys that used to frighten her, a skill she learned through targeting and "101 Things". She was terrified of her Boing (coiled rope swing) when she first saw it, but it only took three minutes of targeting to get her over that and she slept on it that night
Her former owner swore she would never sit on a perch that moved. Now she often sits on it and swings it for fun.
She was quickly tamed and trained with a clicker in 5-minute sessions and I was able to handle her all over her little body in about two weeks. She LOVES her training times best of all! We still need to work on getting
her over her fear of strangers so that's our next project, as soon as she learns to wear a harness and the weather warms up.I'm crazy about my sweet little Goffins girl and I wouldn't trade her for the world! Fabulous pet birds aren't just hatched...they're absolutely a product of their diet, environment and handling. Don't give up hope! Regardless of a bird's history or age they can always learn and be turned around. Rosie is living, loving proof of that.
Melinda Johnson
click@izap.com
I did not think I would have progress this fast. Taming a wild lory is like taming a wild senegal which means not much luck
Dottie
kiakime@apk.net
I was watching Morgan the other day and it suddenly struck me that Morgan is now almost a normal bird! He seems to continue to learn and gain confidence - new toys are seen as interesting instead of terrifying and
dangerous. He seems happy and relaxed and interested in all that is happening around him.Remember when he used to pull the covers across his cage so he didn't have to put up with us? Now I sometimes catch a glimpse of a shiny black eye peering through a hole in his cage cover as he tries to see what I'm up to!
Remember how I told of how he used to eat only sunflower seeds and threw everything else out of his bowl? Now he tries EVERYTHING I give him!
Remember how his angry, aggressive outbursts meant you had to be careful not to go too close to his cage in case he "got" you. He now sits politely while his cage is carried to and from the verandah, while his toys are
changed and while the paper on the bottom of his cage is changed!Remember how my husband and daughter couldn't walk past his cage without him throwing himself at the cage bars in an attempt to attack them? Now he happily comes to the front of his cage, lowers his head and raises his
crest for a scratch if my husband and daughter ask him if he wants a scratch!He's not perfect but he's improving all the time and most importantly of all I believe he's happy at last (and this was the bird I seriously thought about euthanising as he was so disturbed and unhappy).
...... all this because I taught him to target and that everything he did was his choice and it set his brain into motion!
Carole Bryant, Rosie, Jaufre & Morgan
mailto:berigora@nor.com.au
Diamond is a 6-year old Noble Macaw who was cage aggressive. She was turned into the sanctuary for attacking her owner one too many times. The owner actually had to have stitches for touching Diamond's wings.
I started working with Diamond about 7 weeks ago. We would click and treat whenever Diamond was agreeable to handling at first.
Diamond has been home for almost two weeks now. She is such a drastically changed bird. Right now we are working on allowing me to touch her all over, including stretching her wings out with one hand and holding her in the other. She gives cuddles (grabs onto my shirt and wants to be hugged), gives kisses and she is also learning to put red and blue rings on their pegs. What a born clicker baby! She is also quite a change from a the Grey - she has a very distinct personality. I have been told that she is a great example of a macaw - playful, mischievous and MOODY. LOL! She has learned to control her bites also. Now she says "no bite" and grabs with her beak but doesn't bite down.
She is quite the character and I am so very proud of her. We will be visiting the elementary school on the 21st. I will talk to kindergartners, to demonstrate the care of a bird. It is my hope that Diamond will show off as usual and entertain with her hysterical laugh, dog whine, Hellos and 'good dog' comments.
I am currently trying to shape her speech so she will respond to verbal cues. She is also learning to ride on the collar of my golden retriever therapy dog so I can bring her along to the nursing homes we visit. Believe it or not - this little bird has learned and is learning all of this within the last 6 weeks! She has such a genuine desire to
please and a natural acceptance of clicker training. Hard to believe she was given up and I feel so lucky to have her.Michelle
GldTriever@aol.com
I have a very large number of birds and some of the old wild caught ones have never been tamed. The abuse some of these birds have endured is heartbreaking. I just signed onto the clicker list one day, applied myself to learning the basics and have used it since. There are so many ways you will learn to reward your birds in the course of normal cleaning and feeding that you'll be amazed. The birds thrive on it and the abused birds start to look forward to seeing you with open interest instead of fear. I can work with more birds, more often through the day than with any other method I've used (I took in and tamed my first unwanted, wild caught parrot in 1986, so I've used a lot of different styles of taming/training.) If it weren't for the information offered on the Internet, this technique would still be hiding as a professional secret, practiced only by a few
knowledgeable trainers.Dee Thompson
deethom@erols.com
Gayle
Gayle77@aol.com
There are so many doors that have been opened by learning of CT that I sit and imagine what these guys will be doing in a couple of years. It leaves totally me dumbfounded at times. I wish I had found CT years ago.
We are having a great time with CT already, and my birds and I are looking forward to enjoying it for a good long time.
Sunny is working on his social behaviors. I can now pet all the way down his back without him trying to escape or starting to tremble with fear... CLICK! While I would expect him to settle down eventually I have made more progress with him in the last week than the two months prior. If he continues at the rate he is going the psychological scars should be nearly undetectable by this time next year if not sooner. This is totally amazing. He now is happy to see me approaching instead of running for the safety of the cage.
I have always had what I considered to be excellent relations with my birds, but have already started to notice positive changes. I am excited to see how far these changes will go in a couple of years, I can't even imagine.
Once again, thanks for the very beneficial information that is freely disseminated here. CT seems to be a great thing for the benefit of our feathered friends.
Mike Burton
mburton@oneimage.com
Remember how aggressive Joey B&G was during last year's hormonal season? That was my main reason for joining this list - he really had me on the run, quite literally! Well, this year, he's turned into a Velcro bird.
When he's on the floor, he follows me everywhere, like my shadow. Instead of attacking, he wants me to get down on the floor and cuddle with him, in our own way. Yes, he's still aggressive, especially around his "nesting site". And he still traps son, Brad, in the bathroom every chance he gets. But his behavior is not even 1/4 as difficult as it was last winter - and this time, I know how to deal with it.
I did spend some time working specifically on not lunging - but mostly we do fun things and handling. I really believe that the change in Joey is due to the more positive relationship we've developed since we started clicker training.
Sharon
mcmeekib@cadvision.com
I have started C/T w/Digby ,nanday conure <indeterminate age and
rehomed ?? times due to screaming and biting>, our "clinic" bird a couple
weeks ago. After a couple of quick sessions of conditioning the clicker
<Digby is a food pig compared to Merlin, my M2>, we started targeting
last week. We had one session, then I went out of town for a week, so didn't
have another session until Fri. Digby picked right up on the targeting
again, but what is most amazing is that he stepped up on my finger from
his cage without biting<a first!>. He did it Fri. and Sat. so I plan
to continue targeting
next week and hope Digby's biting will resolve itself...as problem
behaviors often do with clicker training! So hang in there all you clickers
w/biters...c/t does work wonders!
Ellen&Merlin, M2 Extraordinaire
ellenkc@logical123.net
I have always thought that amazons seem to have two seasons of raging hormones, spring and fall...at least one of my boys seems to anyway. I think his fall season is a lot worse than his spring.
Thank goodness for the training he has had. I know that before c/t he would be completely unhandleable during this phase. He used to get downright NASTY! At least now we have his learned behaviors to fall back on, including step up onto a stick, and can still interact without his hormones taking over. As a matter of fact, he calms down quite a bit as soon as he is presented with a task he knows inside out, and can still respond to training.
Angie Carpenter
clicktrainer@voyager.net
Favoring One Human Over Another:
I wanted to tell you that my 9 month old Ringneck favored my husband
as well. It's not that he didn't like me, but he was more bonded to Allen.
Until I started clicker training him! Somehow that seemed to level the
playing field! LOL. Now you would barely notice whom he favors more.
Even though now Allen clicker trains him, too; the fact that I was the
first to start treating him with those wonderful almonds and clicks, he
associates me as the most important to do tricks for!
Janan
Jachandler@aol.com
So today, for the first time, I really focussed on the problem of the hand coming through the door. I probably spent about 15-20 minutes on this, during which time we progressed from panicked flight as the hand came through the door, to allowing me to place my hand around his body as he sat on the perch. So I'm convinced, but then I'm probably a bit biased anyway. I've seen it and done it often enough to know it works!
Ann
annj@alphalink.com.au
When I would explain he was not hand fed, but raised by his parents and wild four months ago, they were quite surprised. He didn't flip out when he heard his first applause. I would demonstrate how he sticks his foot out for a manicure when he sees the file, and how he politely lifts one wing as I clip away with the scissors. People were standing within a foot of him at times and he still worked. He acts like a handfed bird now. Did his rollover, headstand and walking around like a baby upside down in my arms. This never would have happened in four months without clicker training.
Wendy Jeffries
salt@ivic.net
C/t is not "food training" but *contract training* It gives the animal power and control over what's happening in its universe. Its not their job to do what I want, its my job to explain the contract...... Simba (CAG) and Corky (G2) and I are back to school, and I'm more relaxed about it. And having fun..... recently I noticed that Simba hasn't plucked his breast feathers (which I had gotten used to being a fact of life) for awhile and for the first time in years, his feathers have grown out. Coincidence? Or is his life currently more interesting and satisfying?
Ellen
Another quick success note - I have Sunny rolled over onto his back in the palm of my hand and he let's go of my finger with some coaxing. Even though he is not 100% comfortable yet, it is another milestone for him and yet another amazement for me at how quick c/t can be - I only rescued him about 4 1/2 months ago. WOW!
Mike Burton
mburton@oneimage.com
My Corky (G2) is no longer afraid of the kitchen table. And my 2mo. old parent-raised cockatiel babies think my hands are great things to play with and like to nibble my fingers. I don't try to force my will on *anyone* these days, not even the lucky man in my life! I read the list and follow the discussions faithfully. And thanks to you guys, this list, and knowing about c/t, my attitude towards my birds and towards life in general will never be the same... and that's big stuff.
Ellen
The communication it provides gives a frightened bird a little confidence because he can understand you now. The rewards you give put you on the bird's list of "good guys" not predators. The confidence builds and builds with every training session.
Wendy
And she is definitely talking in context, and has started juggling words around between phrases. For example, just recently she has said 'Good bird!'. This doesn't sound like a major thing, until I tell you that we never ever say this to her. We say: Good girl! & Who's a pretty girl & Who's a pretty bird. She has obviously thought on this and realized that the word bird and girl are interchangeable - hence the change from good girl to good bird.
Louisa
1. Learning to make and use a target stick (instead of luring)
2. Enlightening me about how effective Clicker Training is.( I disregarded
this method for quite some time.)
3. Learned how to use a bird harness, my Hyacinth and GW are now wearing
it instead of the dangerous leg chain. It took me 3 days to accomplish
this. (Thanks Louisa)
4. Tail Wagging and Moving head side to side like a "boxer"-
using target stick, I trained bird to move side to side first slowly then
faster every time, now both head and tail move, I thought I could never
accomplish this.
5. My birds trained more easily and faster. Communication
improved. They now look forward to the training sessions. You
should see them bunch up together in one of my indoor trees waiting
for their turn when they hear the clicker and see the target stick. Six
of them do this.
6. Duck Training: My ducks are now clicker conditioned
and already know how to "mark". (Thanks Dimity and Bob Bailey)
7. For the past 8 years of bird training, I've
been doing this alone learning by myself through books, magazines,
vets, home study course and videotapes, now I have people to discuss with,
share knowledge and experience and be helped
as well. Bird Training has been kept as a secret among professional
animal trainers, aren't we lucky to be listers here.
Thanks to everyone !
Lou (magician)
hilario@skyinet.net
Merlin is a 7 year old male DNA'd M2 who I took in about 16 mos. ago.
I am a small animal veterinarian with 25 years experience with dogs and
cats, but not birds-
Merlin is my first fid and the love of my life! Merlin is very outgoing
and was very aggressive (past history mostly unknown) when he first came
to live with me. He bit frequently, screamed LOTS (and you haven't lived
until you live with a screaming 'too) was a finicky eater, and hated baths.
After months of learning to trust each other, we had progressed to the point of diminishing bites (only about once weekly), screaming to a tolerable level (I got used to it) and an improved relationship. This was also facilitated by my reading everything I could about avian behavior, attending seminars and conferences and long hours surfing the net.
Then Came Clicker Training....
I discovered the BC website while I was surfing the rescue ring. I had seen birdie roller skates and other props before in catalogues and thought I would never "make" my Merlybird do something like that-ROTFLOL! You should see his prop box now! I read the website, was intrigued, ordered clickers and the miracles began.
We have been c/t for about 7-8 mos. now. Merlin will still bite me-
when he is very stressed- maybe once every 2-3 mos., if that.. and always
when I am not "listening" to his body language. His screaming has GREATLY
decreased- in part, because I have put it on cue (since to be a cockatoo
is to scream, I have to let Merly get it out of his system). Screaming
on cue also comes in very handy when someone who meets Merlin thinks they
would love to have a cuddly sweet 'too- GGG. Merlin tolerates bathing-I
think he actually likes it now, but doesn't want me to know. He eats a
much better diet- more varied and more fresh fruit and veggies. I attribute
all this to C/T. C/T has built our trust -of each other- greatly. Because
Merlin feels he has some control over
his environment, he is more self-confident (bites and screams less,
plays quietly by himself, eats better). Because I observe Merlin more closely
(a side effect of waiting and watching for behaviors to capture), I am
more attuned to his moods and know better how and when to handle him without
jeopardizing our trust of each other.
Basic C/T w/Merlin...we have our c/t sessions every morning (maybe miss once a month) for 10-15 minutes. Then a few flash sessions (2-3 w/cued behaviors) during the day.
Behaviors Merlin has reliably on cue are:
touch=target
shake hands
wave
turn around
kiss
be a cockatoo (that is his scream cue)
poopie
pick up your toys
push your cart
That doesn't seem like much for mos. of training, but I found that I
do
better with Merlin working on a couple behaviors at a time until they
are
solid.
Some tips for those just starting, remember, I am pretty new at this
also...
Like Nike says, just do it..
I fiddled around the first month, worried about my timing, how to use
props, or this or that. Print out the web site, refer to them, and start
...TEACH TARGETING FIRST! I use targeting to teach all kinds of new things
to Merlin, to calm him down when he is stressed and to introduce him to
those new bird-killing monsters that we think are fun
birdie toys. The other mistake I made with Merlin was that when
that light bulb went off in his birdie brain and he started offering all
these neat behaviors for c/t, I tried to train too many things at once.
Someone on the list said recently that they were in no hurry, that we would
have our birds for a long time. So now my training sessions go like this:
I start Merlin w/reliable cued behaviors, polish up a couple that are
not quite reliable
and maybe start a new behavior. Always be up and happy- if you
don't feel like c/t, your bird sure won't either! Have fun-it IS fun, that
is one big reason we do it. If you do not have time for a regular c/t session,
do a few quick reps as you walk by your bird or when you are having your
special quality birdie-time.
Ellen, DVM &Merlin, M2 Extraordinaire
ellenkc@logical123.net
Well thanks to the great advice I get here on a daily basis, Kirk (Quaker) has learned to fetch a little bell ( bell off cats collar) I would never have believed that I could teach that ! Thanks Soooo much !!!
Dimity & The Menagerie of Movie Stars
bjorkdr@fastlink.com.au
Several years ago we had 50 severe macaws who had just been released from quarantine. The severes impressed me as particularly obnoxious little beasts. I picked the youngest ones I could find to sell as pets but they were not an easy bird to calm down. There is nothing to compare to a cage full of growling severes. I didn't like them!
I decided to do an experiment on one. I spent some time picking the oldest, nastiest, most aggressive severe I could find. He was a total monster and not one I would have sold as a pet. The bird would have sat in a cage all his life, growling I'm sure. I named him Tiger and put him in training for tricks. I didn't bother taming him, I just started conditioning him to a tone (clicker).
It didn't take long for him to catch on to the click and treat game.
My opinion of severes started changing. He was as smart and capable
as any big macaw. That awful growling stopped soon as he looked forward
to his training sessions. In 6 months he did all sorts of parlor
tricks, loved to stand on his head and looked like a baby when he flopped
over on his back to play footsies. We sold him a few months later
to a young man who walked out with him happily perched on
his hand, the perfect gentleman.
Wendy Jeffries, former Dolphin and Bird Show Trainer
salt@ivic.net
Micah my little 6 month old blackcapped conure is now1. targetting
2. retrieving
3. waving
4. kissing on cue
5. spinning in circles
6. wearing her flight suit (though I must admit that though she is cooperative, she doesn't look or act happy. I'm hoping that will change come spring when she learns the flight suit means we're going out.)
7. permitting me to extend her wings (again, she cooperates but looks miserable)
8. And today, we began working on play dead.
Micah and I have been at this for about 2 months. And I must admit that we have not been working intensely. We usually only have one session per day, rarely longer than 15 minutes and I'm even guilty of skipping days.
She learns visual cues very, very quickly and so I have been using them. I provide a verbal cue simultaneously but if I test her response to cues by offering only one, she responds the the visual and not to the verbal. Which if fine with me.
Obviously clicker training works!
MarshaZ
mzalik@telusplanet.net
ctsnbrds
ctsnbrds@stny.lrun.com
I notified the list before of some of Bingo's (my Grey) accomplishments... As for clicker training, Bingo has accomplished the following:
Step up
Step down
Kiss
Eagle
Shake hands
Wave
Ball retrieval and return to my hand by color (red, white and blue)
Beak up exercise
Playing dead ("falling" down from my finger and hanging upside down)
Climbing ladder to retrieve ball
Clicker training is the greatest. I can normally teach him a new behavior in 2-3 lessons and, each time we have a lesson, we go over ALL his behaviors before I start a new one...
I really appreciate this list and the cordiality of the users and administrators.
Dick Jacques
www.businessmall.net
This bird clicking stuff is really great!! Yesterday I shaped Kingsley (Red Leghorn rooster) to walk into a dog air crate (we imported a rotty puppy a few months ago, and this was the crate he flew out in). And then I closed the door and clicked him for staying inside (door not fastened so that if he panicked he could get out quickly). Next I'm going to pick the crate up and carry it around a bit. All preparatory to the vet demo we're giving in January. I've also bought a video camera and plan to video all his "tricks" just in case he gets stage fright and won't perform on the day.
I am soooo delighted that he learns so quickly!
Maxine Quinton
Johannesburg, South Africa
Just to let you know that Sunny continues to do well with his clicker training. He now responds to a "Step Up" (even says it too), and "Off" to step off, straight away.
To correct his refusal to go back into a cage I've just used a target stick to tap the cage entrance and then his perch. He likes the chase the target stick game and does a beautiful pirouette on his perch!
Because he came here with a screaming problem, I've clicked every time he makes 'nice' noises and uses words - he's also learnt to say "Good boy" in the cutest voice imaginable. Screaming is virtually non-existent now.
He's overcome his fear of my hands near his face and neck, though it took a fair bit of clicking and treating to convince him that this was OK, so I've now been able to preen a lot of those nasty pin feathers he was covered in when he arrived.
Sue Macer
S.M@dial.pipex.com
I'm sorry to hear about the negative review of Clicker Training. It has made the world of difference with my U2 who had begun to try to bite me. He can now talk, (well he only knows one phrase "I'll be back") and he can give me five. I'm very impressed with this training technique. I tried it on my husband's disobedient dog - had him lying down in a matter of minutes while a great deal of distractions were going on outside. He would usually have been barking his head off, instead he was lying peacefully on his bed.
Diane
We're not as serious about c/t as we could be, BUT it is a fun, fun time for us. Our guys target, but the main thing we are working on is recall for the Conures and for Charlie, the YNA, allowing touch. Charlie comes when called, takes food from our hands and allows himself to be touched as long as we tell him we are going to touch him first...
Yep. We're all happy. Charlie isn't a cuddly bird or terribly friendly, but he seems happy and is increasingly interested in the household activities and us. I am very pleased with the slow but steady increase in trust and cooperation.
Zoe Paddy Johnson
pjohnso@unm.edu
Tiels can be trained just like any of the other birds. My tiel Yoshi plays basket ball, does circles, and we're working on a foot wave right now.
Crystal E (Yoshi)
silverdragon75@hotmail.com
I was SO surprised at how easy it was to teach Echo, my grey, to do the Eagle. It only took one session for him to catch on, and about 5 sessions for the behavior to really "solidify". Although I haven't had time lately to do alot with him, every few days I'll ask for the behavior, and he certainly knows what to do now. In fact, he's so eager to do the behavior that I really believe that he misses the interaction of the clicker training.
Where my green cheek really shines is with physical tricks. Turning around is an easy one to teach, as is a somersault around the finger, "hi" or shake hands (except that these little guys move so quick, they may have STEPPED onto your finger before you can shake hands with them!). Mine likes to run through a 12 oz frozen juice can with both ends cut out (check for sharp points) and climb a plastic chain. They can really have fun with, and be good at, these things, and in my experience, having interesting things to learn has really diverted Chipper from nipping (which I think they often get into out of boredom).
Marti
Marti Steussy hasn't posted in ages, but I went to visit her, and her conure does oodles of neat tricks, including putting rings on pegs, going through a tunnel, and hauling a bucket up a chain. It took at least 15 minutes for him to run through all the tricks he knows!
Liz Day
lday@iquest.net
Have been working with my BFA "Chompers" using the techniques, and in the last 4 days, he has learned the Big Eagle, a Kiss, and a very strange behavior whereby he twists his head around. This stuff really works. The discussions in this news group to-date has certainly helped to achieve results that I am sure would have taken much longer, had I not learned these techniques.
Dave
Lindylu
LindyLu.Barnhart@worldnet.att.net
Jerry
Helen
Kathleen
Gloria
Jody
Chris B.
TJ
Gloria
Ann
Nik Stouffer
math_goddess@yahoo.com
I like clicker training because I think it really opens up communication techniques between the bird and I... What I see is that it is a way to communicate very precisely to the bird. when you click you're saying "Hey I like that. That's great!" ...infantalizing an intelligent parrot is really not asking him to live up to his potential as a companion who can meet you at a more sophisticated level. I want my birds to have a varied life with things to do and activities we can do together.
Christine
Windmnt@aol.com
We've had our Orange-winged Amazon, Pickle for 5 years, and for most of that time, I was just resolved to her "just being unsociable". We never asked her for much. She got fed treats, and talked to, but we didn't ask her to come out much. Clicker training has been such an eye-opener with her situation. By golly there IS a lovable sweet bird inside that green shell! I can't say that we have learned any big things, she can't do any "tricks" yet, she's not responding as quickly as my other animals with all of this, but how satisfying it is to see small changes in her interest. She is beginning to now seek us out for interaction. What a pleasure that is to find out she's not just an introverted "leave me alone" kind of bird! For so many years, we just thought she would never change, and we didn't even try. We thought she didn't want attention, but oh yes she does!
Debbie
DiliriousD@aol.com
Enhanced Communication:
When I get a clicker in my hand, it's like I suddenly learned to speak
bird, or dog, or whatever animal is in front of me. It becomes a
TWO-WAY communication. The bird can say, "Was it *this*? Well,
then how about *that*? Did I do it right?" And I can, by not
clicking say, "No, that's not it.", and by clicking say, "Yes! That's
it!" We can freeze the action at the precise moment of perfection.
Never before the clicker did I have a really concise and loving way to
tell a bird to raise a foot or wing, or a dog to keep her tail up or move
a foot. Pretty amazing. It breaks the species language barrier.
Melinda Johnson
click@surfree.com
Yesterday evening, my husband said to me "what have you done with all the animals!" Since we have started with Clicker Training, everyone, from the horses to the birds to the dogs, everyone is "up" and happy & smiling around here. They are so happy to know what is they can actually do to make us happy. And that is simply to "listen" to us. I think that they are so happy to know that they are simply being rewarded for paying attention to us. No matter what it is that I'm asking them for, as long as it is in little steps, nothing is hard! Everything is easy, and easily understood. And the very best thing of all is that EVERYTHING IS THEIR CHOICE! The willingness that I see coming from my animals is so satisfying! .....
I had the horses out in the pasture yesterday, and was working them at liberty (no halters or lead ropes). At first Shakeara didn't want to "play" but after seeing Whinney get all the c/t's she was back, and decided she DID want to play. It was so fun, I had them working in tandem! They were backing together, targeting together, side passing together, lifting their feet together. They were so attentive & happy to be doing all of this! It was really quite a sight!
The birds have never been so animated before, Pickle is, yes, she is
actually coming out of her shell! Tommy is hilarious, I realized
yesterday, that he is not trying to "click me" for treats, when he does
something I ask, he rewards himself happily with his own click & vigorous
nodding of his head. He's just happy for himself. I caught him yesterday
(he didn't know I was watching from the other room) He was turning
circles, (what we learned yesterday) then he would stop, click-click and
nod his head up & down. He would run & touch his cat ball,
climb back up, and "click-click" & nod. What a
crack-up! He's quite pleased with himself.
Makes me wonder, how come I haven't known about this before! I'm 43 years old, have had animals all my life...... I wish someone would have shared this with me a long time ago!
Debbie
DiliriousD@aol.com