treat training or clicker training

so i managed to get lola saying hello just on praise as at the time she had reverted back to formula food

ive just recently started trying to get her to say it on que for nuts/banana... success!

now however when i try anything new like stepping up for treats all i get is pinning eyes and a nice cheery... hello! lol. she sees the treat as a reward for hello and not necessarily for doing as asked.

how can i change this? do you think changing to clicker training might solve this? not really sure about the whole concept as its something ive never used before

It's kind of the same concept, to be honest. Clicker training is simply creating a 'bridge' from the behavior that they did to the treat. "Good" can also be used as a bridge, when used correctly. The real trick is learning how to use the bridge correctly - that is, clicking at the *exact moment* the behavior occurred, which may mean learning to predict the behavior before it occurs so you can capture the behavior at the right time.


You may just need to change the approach of how you are training the behavior. As an example, here is a video of Barbara Heidenreich teaching a scarlet macaw to step up.



[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIaDDSeZKnI"]Parrot Training Workshop Live Demo - Step Up Training with a Macaw - YouTube[/ame]




Barbara Heidenreich has a video of her clicker training a chicken to peck at a spot on a disk. She actually clicked at the wrong time during one of those times. If you don't know what to look for, it can be kind of hard to see exactly when she screwed up!


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBiz5t8GfkA"]Learning at the Bailey Farhoody Chicken Workshop - YouTube[/ame]

thank you monica! ill be sure to check them out when i get home and hopefully correct where i'm going wrong

Hey, Monica. I just wanted to tell you that I think it's great how you always research questions posted in these threads and take the time to provide literature or videos to explain something. I've found this quite helpful more than once.
Just a general thanks.

@Serge_09: I personally use both. It's not really treats OR clicker training. As Monica said, the clicker serves as a bridge. Once your bird associates the click with the treat, there will be times where you can click to let your bird know that the treat is coming. (That way, if he/she does something exceptional, you can provide positive reinforcement even if treats are not readily available.)

Anansi, thanks! I do think it annoys some people, but I'm willing to admit that I don't know as much as these trainers do, and sometimes it's easier to include a link to an article or post than it is to type out an extremely long post. Videos are also great so people can visually see how things are done.


serge, I hope you are able to make some progress! I watched Barbara Heidenreich work with two macaws this past weekend (April 27th), and she didn't put a huge emphasis on clicking. She actually started out asking for a behavior (coming close to the target, touching the target) before she introduced the click with a B&G macaw. With the scarlet macaw, she was seeing if she could get the scarlet to accept being syringe fed (she did great! well, better than most birds!) and Barbara did this without using a clicker. It seemed to me as if the behavior was being taught before the bridge was introduced, and even before a cue was introduced.


I've got one of the videos up, but still working on the others. (there's also a video with Lara Joseph in there!)


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4DjiRJu5gQ"]Target Training B&G Macaw with Barbara Heidenreich at Rodies Feed & Pet Supply - YouTube[/ame]