Training the Peoples

I didn't want to piggyback on someone else's post so I made my own, but it definitely made me think about a problem we have. Our missile toe bird.

Gus, our CAG, loves to go after toes if he gets on the floor. He doesn't go after me, and he doesn't go after my wife, but anyone else is fair game because they are FUN! They jump and scream and climb up on the closest piece of furniture and yell to be saved. He can run them up onto a chair just like a hound trees a coon. I mean what parrot wouldn't just love that?

We've tried telling them that if they stopped with the theatrics, he wouldn't do it. That's why he doesn't go after us. We aren't any fun. How do you train chickens, of the human variety, not to run from the butcher, of the feathered variety?

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Sorry to be a bit flippant (you know I love ya!) but this is a hospitality issue for me:

Or just don’t let him on the floor when other people are around.

We owe it to our guests to make them feel welcome in our homes, allowing this parrot behavior is not particularly hospitable on our part. I always ask people first if they are afraid of birds, and sometimes I get a yes, and will leave Parker in his cage.

If someone says they’re afraid of birds, don’t bring the bird out. If the bird is going to go after toes and scare people, don’t allow it to happen to begin with.

Don’t set yourself, the bird, and your guests up for failure from the get go.

We are staying with relatives (still) so it isn't really guests that it is an issue with. They are familiar with our birds and talk and interact with them daily. They will hold them on occasion as well, when the birds are in a good mood for it.

Gus also isn't allowed to just roam the floor for this very reason.

However, he will occasionally get down from his play stand if I leave the room to use the bathroom or go get a drink etc. and that's when it becomes an issue. I would really like to break him of it, but when half the people in the house go into hysterics when they see him waddling towards them, it's nearly impossible.

I don't know how to get them to understand that they are making their own issue with him worse. They have both (my mother in law and sister in law) been "bit" by him in the feet as well, so they are aware that it is a game to him and that he isn't out for blood.

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It is so very difficult to train Humans.
As you may know, Julio is a free roamer and that can be problematic with guests.
Commonly, if Mrs Boats or I leave the room, Julio comes with us. We never leave him with guests as we are responsible for their safety.
There is no question that Parrots love teasing Humans and if they get Humans to dance around, all the better.
You are going to have much better luck training or removing the Parrot with you than training Humans!

Some battles can only be won by avoiding them entirely. I agree completely with Sailboat.