Training

Hello,
I share my home with a 5 year old Senegal parrot whom I am interested in training. However, all the books, DVDs and websites I've consulted all teach how to train while the bird is sitting on a perch.
My little guy does not stay on a perch. He prefers to be walking around the house and off his cage. He doesn't even stay on fingers - he'll craw up the arm.

How can I train him to stay on a perch? (heck, while I'm at it - how can I train him to stay on his cage?)
Thanks!

Welcome to the forum. How long have you had Kiwi - or do you know much about his last home?

The reason I ask is that many birds can be taught many things, but it is helpful to understand the habits that they have become accustomed to. Parrots love their routines; if he is accustomed to not sitting on fingers but rather climbing up arms is is worth asking how important it is to change that. Don't get me wrong, you should be in charge and decide how things will work, but if the only reason you want him on a finger or a perch is to follow along with a training video perhaps a compromise would be in order.

That being said it is quite easy to get them to go to a perch on a command through positive reinforcement. First Kiwi needs to know how to step up if he doesn't already - almost every bird will do this quite naturally but you can teach a command for it if you like. Stepping up is when a perch/stick/etc is put up to his chest he will likely step up onto it. Praise and reward this behavior with a good treat. This will GET him on a perch, but he will certainly not stay there for long.

The next step would be to teach him to go to a particular perch (or place) on command. This is quite easy to do but it will take many repetitions over several days. When teaching a new activity I'd recommend keeping the training sessions at the same time each day - again birds like their routine. Once he has learned the behavior a bit you can expand it to other times of day quite easily. To teach a command for going to a perch you give the command then simply get him to go to the perch and offer lots of praise and a special (unique to this activity) treat. To get him to go to the perch you may have him step up on a stick/finger then bring him to the perch and put the stick/finger lower than the perch so the perch is at his chest (step-up style).

Once he learns a command for going to a specific perch or place there are a number of ways to encourage him to stay there longer which we can discuss when the time comes. However if his wings aren't clipped training him to stay on his cage when you are around will be quite challenging and perhaps not worthwhile. Birds are very social, they want to be around us - I like the fact that Auggie comes running or flying over to me whenever he gets the chance. I do have several commands for when I need him off of me so I can work, but the default is for him to be with me.

So, long story short: practice the step up if Kiwi doesn't already do that well, then you can begin teaching a command for a particular perch. Also let us know a little more about him: have you had him all 5 years, do you clip his wings or let him fly, etc.

amigo, don't stress yourself too much. Mine was like that when he was 8 weeks but after sometime i noticed that he could stay longer in his cage undisturbed and that's when I started training...