Training to flap on cue?

[hnb]

Hey all!

If I'm working arm drops with Joey, am I able to cue it and give him a treat every time I drop my arm and he flaps to the point where I don't need to drop my arm, and he just flaps? Does that make sense? Has anyone had success with this? To help with the exercise involved in refledging a bird.

Thanks!

 

[Flboy]

Sorry, looking for a translation!

 

[hnb]

So when I drop my arm, joey flaps his wings. If I drop my arm, *click*, say "flap" and give him a treat, will I eventually be able to just say "flap" without having to actually drop my arm to get him to do the exercise more consensually?

Has anyone attempted/succeeded with this?

Does that make more sense?

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Are you talking about the "wings" trick or getting him to flap his wings to strengthen his muscles? If you're talking about the trick I taught my cockatiel and conure to spread their wings when I say "big wings". The cockatiel I taught by lowering my arm and he would spread his wings out to balance himself then I said "big wings" and gave him a treat. He eventually learned to do it on cue whenever I say "big wings". The conure I taught by a different method, I put my finger underneath his wing and said the command, he lifted both his wings up and I gave him a treat. Now he does it on cue just like my cockatiel. As to strengthening his muscles and refledging him, if he does it when you drop your arm that's good enough. You don't really need to teach him a command at this point. He's getting the same exercise whether he's doing it on cue or with the arm drop. You should probably start teaching him very short distance recall. Teach him to walk to your hand, then hop, then use his wings a little to jump the gap, then a short flight.

 

[clark_conure]

I call it "flippy flappy"...because that's cute. But yeah I tell my bird to flippy flappy usually in the middle of a fanning session, and he kinda sorta knows it means to flap. It's not 100% yet but he can sometimes repeat it.