Ok, so I need a little help with this one. Sorry for the long post.
As many of you will know, I've had Alice a couple of years now. She arrived a miserable little thing, scared of everything, and I've put in a lot of work getting her back to what you might consider normality for a galah. Mostly it's been a success story: She adores me, loves meeting new people, plays with toys, is quite confident in her territory and has even become a little bossy when she's trying to get her own way. The only note of caution has been with training where she easily gets stressed if she doesn't understand what I'm asking of her, but even then she has made a little progress and has a few basic tricks she can run through. However, we've hit a problem and I'm at a bit of a loss how to read the situation and how to proceed with it.
It's really important to me that she's able to go places other than being at home so that I can visit family and friends without worrying that she's home alone, and so that I can continue to socialise her. She's great once she's out, loves having people she doesn't know fussing over her, doesn't seem bothered by unfamiliar places. But, she hates the car journey and the travel cage and after a year or so of trying this it's not getting any easier.
Her first travel cage was one of those clear plastic ones, and she seemed really uncomfortable not being able to scramble around it using bars. I then bought one of the Kings travel cages and she's terrible in that one, prefering to cling upside down by fret and beak to the top than sitting on the perch, and periodically spinning in frantic circles around the top.
I'm at a loss as to how to improve this. I've tried pulling over and talking to her, I've tried ignoring her, every permatation of perches, putting a blanket over the cage, letting her hold hands through the bars which used to calm her down with the old cage, and nothing gets her down from hanging off the top of the cage. Part of me thinks it's cruel of me to keep trying, and part of me thinks it's a stand off and she thinks if she keeps looking pathetic I'll cave and let her out. From her perspective, if she keeps it up for fifteen, twenty minutes or so then I stop the car and let her out, so she's won - doesn't matter if we actually stopped because we reached our destination.
So, what do you think? Any suggestions as to how to play this? The bottom line is, she needs to be able to travel occasionally whatever happens, harnesses are definitely not going to be an option, and I'm not risking her loose either outside or in the car when I'm driving, so I need to find a way for this to work.
As many of you will know, I've had Alice a couple of years now. She arrived a miserable little thing, scared of everything, and I've put in a lot of work getting her back to what you might consider normality for a galah. Mostly it's been a success story: She adores me, loves meeting new people, plays with toys, is quite confident in her territory and has even become a little bossy when she's trying to get her own way. The only note of caution has been with training where she easily gets stressed if she doesn't understand what I'm asking of her, but even then she has made a little progress and has a few basic tricks she can run through. However, we've hit a problem and I'm at a bit of a loss how to read the situation and how to proceed with it.
It's really important to me that she's able to go places other than being at home so that I can visit family and friends without worrying that she's home alone, and so that I can continue to socialise her. She's great once she's out, loves having people she doesn't know fussing over her, doesn't seem bothered by unfamiliar places. But, she hates the car journey and the travel cage and after a year or so of trying this it's not getting any easier.
Her first travel cage was one of those clear plastic ones, and she seemed really uncomfortable not being able to scramble around it using bars. I then bought one of the Kings travel cages and she's terrible in that one, prefering to cling upside down by fret and beak to the top than sitting on the perch, and periodically spinning in frantic circles around the top.
I'm at a loss as to how to improve this. I've tried pulling over and talking to her, I've tried ignoring her, every permatation of perches, putting a blanket over the cage, letting her hold hands through the bars which used to calm her down with the old cage, and nothing gets her down from hanging off the top of the cage. Part of me thinks it's cruel of me to keep trying, and part of me thinks it's a stand off and she thinks if she keeps looking pathetic I'll cave and let her out. From her perspective, if she keeps it up for fifteen, twenty minutes or so then I stop the car and let her out, so she's won - doesn't matter if we actually stopped because we reached our destination.
So, what do you think? Any suggestions as to how to play this? The bottom line is, she needs to be able to travel occasionally whatever happens, harnesses are definitely not going to be an option, and I'm not risking her loose either outside or in the car when I'm driving, so I need to find a way for this to work.
