Diamond in the rough

[wrench13]

Re:training, 100% correct. Always try and end on a positive note. If Diamond refuses a trick or command, end with one you know he will do, so you can walk away saying good boy, good bird. Try and train same time every day. BE CONSISTANT , same commands, same approaches, and lavish praise on him if he does a command succesfully and importantly reward with the treat IMMEDIATELY when he gets it correctly, so Diamond knows why he is getting the treat.

 

[Scottj]

Great advice. Thank you!

 

[Scottj]

Hey guys, I have some more questions about clicker training. Not sure if I should start a new thread or not, advice on that would be good too!

I started clicker training several days ago. Touch training with a chopstick and he's doing well. He comes over well, touches the stick, gets his reward and retreats.

So, to back up just a bit to hopefully give a bigger picture of my boy. In his old home I began giving him pistachios by hand many months ago (I think its actually been almost a year) and the first time he reached out for the treat and went for my finger, just to touch me with his tongue, I jumped, whipped my hand away, the pistachio went flying and I may have even yelped! Well, that set us back a good couple of weeks.

Fast forward to Diamond here with me. Still not real clear on his body language but I'm pretty sure he's afraid of just about everything. Which in hindsight has been kinda been his M.O. Not knowing macaws at all I was backed off by his excitement to see me (ok, afraid) which I now see is still manifested as "your afraid of touching me, I'm afraid that when we touch your gonna toss me across the room". Yesterday he began getting more excited and taking quick stabs at me and I really think he's just testing me to see if I'm gonna jerk away. I've been steady and he hasn't really hurt me and often barely touches.

So today I ended the touch training and shortly he went back to where he's been chill'n and sleeping, which he usually doesn't do while I'm in there, he kinda began stepping back and forth lifting a foot like "I wanna step up" (in past I've then reached out, said "step up" only to have him back away and or lunge at my approaching hand) so I decided, hey he's moved to a safe spot, lifted a foot so I'm gonna reward that. so click and treat. Very shortly he was holding up his foot anticipating a treat. Kinda ended with him standing on one foot. I'm thinking wow, big progress in his comfort level!

I guess what I may finally be asking is; when I end the touch training is it ok to continue to click "good behavior" while I'm out there just visiting?

 

[Kentuckienne]

I think in the beginning, you should not click unless you give him a treat, because he should be associating the click with the treat, and then he will associate the click with something he's done, then he will do the parrot math and realize thing = click = treat. Now he is in control and can easily make you dispense teats!

 

[Scottj]

OH MY GOD!!! Yesterday I did several sessions clicking good behavior, ie. coming to me when called over, saying hello and lifting a foot. He was intent on watching me and me him. Was great training for me too. Learning to read his body language and began to see that he was putting it together. At the end of one session he started pinching my hand and fingers in several places and would say "SCOTT" it was awesome! Way better than when he nearly draws blood and says "OUCH" before I can. I've really had to prove to him "I'm not moving".

He began wanting to get closer to me.

I went out to do one last session and say goog night. Here's the OMG. I ended by calling him down to me and, being the last command for the training I opened my palm to give him several pieces of walnut with my hand resting on the perch in front of him. As he ate, with the shavings falling back into my hand he lifted his foot and reached out, and began pawing. I slowly moved my hand over and got my thumb under his foot and he grabbed and held on (EEEeeeeekk! I wanted to scream with delight...but didn't) I gave him a double click and mega praise. He did it twice!

Major, MAJOR progress! We'll see what today brings.

Here's 2 videos. The first one is about 9 minutes. My second session lifting his foot. And yes, I goofed and clicked a headscratch. The second is short and cute. Diamond watching himself.

[ame="https://youtu.be/efYEV1WYLs4"]https://youtu.be/efYEV1WYLs4[/ame]
[ame="https://youtu.be/o08iyMia04E"]https://youtu.be/o08iyMia04E[/ame]

 

[Scottj]

Well K, you were right. His foot was up when I went out this morning, maybe he was just content. But right away he lifted his foot when I got in there. He'd start munching and right away, lift his foot. Damn, he trained me fast.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Y'all are doing GREAT! I just got a clicker today and I'm going to start with Gus tomorrow. It really does seem like the birds warm up with training - maybe because it gives them a sense of control? Heck, works with me.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Well K, you were right. His foot was up when I went out this morning, maybe he was just content. But right away he lifted his foot when I got in there. He'd start munching and right away, lift his foot. Damn, he trained me fast.

Where are the Diamond updates? Did he step up for you yet?

 

[Scottj]

Where are the Diamond updates? Did he step up for you yet?

Lol, thanks for asking! He hasn't stepped up yet. We have made some great progress in general. I think I'm beginning to understand his body language better but still have some uncertainties. He's responding well to the clicker training. He actually seems to be learning much faster than me so I'm taking some care/caution to not send him mixed signals by keeping it very simple...for me.

One thing I realized is he seems to be fearful of just about everything. He's shedding some of it here and there so more than anything I'm trying to not push him. He certainly has a desire to be physically closer to me but, any attempt to touch him or push him to get close to my hand causes him to back up a bit so I have decided to back off doing it.

I've been doing a lot of reading and watching videos. I think right now my focus is going to be his eating habits. He's had 2 full bowls of food 24/7 as long as I've known him which is likely why he's content to just stand around all day. He doesn't play with toys, explore his cage or do much of anything. Then when I come in he soon gets over excited and really Isn't sure how to act. So, I think to go forward I need to go backwards.

I'm going to work on improving his diet slowly but how he gets it right away. This morning, after lamenting over it for several days, I removed his ever present food. He will gets some food in the morning, nuts and whatnot from me during the day and all he wants in the evening. Meanwhile I am going to set his cage up with lots of foraging opportunities. I'm hoping this will go a long way to getting him active, more healthy both mentally and physically and to getting him to go into his bedbox before it gets too much colder.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Diamond, wazzup? That human doing any better?

 

[SilleIN]

Good job with the clicker training It looks like you have the nessasary patience and are quick to click for correct behavior. It is rare for a newbie to be as good at it so fast

If you want Diamond to be more comfortable being closer to you, you might benefit from adding touch/target training as well. You can use a wooden chop stick and his job is to touch it with his beak. This will get him to focus on the chop stick and at the same time get used to you moving your hand towards him. When he gets it, you should let him work a little harder to touch it, so he gets used to voluntarily moving closer to your hand. Touch training can also help you get him to step up, as you in time can ask him to move to the target over your arm

 

[Nicky76]

I've just bought this clicker from a well known auction site

Archie has been doing touch/target training for ages using a separate clicker and chopstick. It's fiddly holding both though and this is all in one

I used it yesterday for the first time and he didn't mind the change over - bribed with sunflower seeds

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Scottj]

Thanks for the tips!

Slow going at present. Still making progress it's just sooo sloooooow. I spent maybe the past week just getting him to move around parts of his cage with the touch training. He still doesn't seem comfortable even moving throughout the cage. Even that's taking forever because he'll take a few minutes to go 6 inches onto a new spot, touch the stick and then retreats to a safe spot to take his treat and then move 6 feet back to his comfort zone to eat it. When he does venture over to touch the stick in a new spot I'm wondering if I should only give him the treat at the point where he touches the stick?

 

[Kentuckienne]

Dear Diamond, what's up? Did Great Scott figure out to give the click and treat whenever you do what he wants, like actually touch the stick, and then gradually ask you to do more and more? Or have you trained him to give you a treat whenever you want? Are you going to be a good rain bird and invoke lots of downpours for California, so GS can take you skiing?

 

[Scottj]

Dear Diamond, what's up? Did Great Scott figure out to give the click and treat whenever you do what he wants, like actually touch the stick, and then gradually ask you to do more and more? Or have you trained him to give you a treat whenever you want? Are you going to be a good rain bird and invoke lots of downpours for California, so GS can take you skiing?

Lol. I do usually give him a treat when I first go in but after that he's gotta do something. Here lately the training has been rough. He's gotta be hungry enough to be motivated to train but with the cold I'd rather not make him wait on me to train to get calories he likely needs to keep him warm.

I do have a question. He usually comes over to me when I ask him to but backs off if I act like I want to touch him. When he first got here he did let me touch him and the back of his head felt like a pin cushion and he quickly pulled back and made it clear he did want to be touched. Also, on one of his tail feathers he's had a husk that's away from his body, in one large and smaller section near the end. Is this painful for him? Could this be the main reason he doesn't want to be touched? Should I try to remove the husk from his tail?

 

[SilleIN]

I do have a question. He usually comes over to me when I ask him to but backs off if I act like I want to touch him. When he first got here he did let me touch him and the back of his head felt like a pin cushion and he quickly pulled back and made it clear he did want to be touched. Also, on one of his tail feathers he's had a husk that's away from his body, in one large and smaller section near the end. Is this painful for him? Could this be the main reason he doesn't want to be touched? Should I try to remove the husk from his tail?

If he cannot get the the husks himself, you need to help him. However you should only dehusk the part of the feather, which is ready for dehusking. Usually the husk is dry and flaky, when it's ready to come off. On the tail feathers I can usually see a colour difference from the "not ready" to the ready. The ready part is usually lighter and even whitish/light greyish.

Fortuneately none of my macaws have husks in need of dehusking, but in a few days, Sugar will have some on the back of his neck, which should me ready for dehusking. If you need, I can take photos of the different husks. Please let me know

 

[Scottj]

Fortuneately none of my macaws have husks in need of dehusking, but in a few days, Sugar will have some on the back of his neck, which should me ready for dehusking. If you need, I can take photos of the different husks. Please let me know

Pictures would be great. I'm sure they are ready. The top piece is a good 3 inches away from his body.

 

[Scottj]

Oh so happy!

Yesterday I got Diamond to put a foot on me and keep it there for a good 5 minutes. He then ran up to the top of his cage and went nuts. My wife had just walked in the door, heard all the commotion and started to video from inside. Unfortunately you couldn't hear Diamond through the double pane window, the football game on tv, my brothers football commentary, barking dog and my wifes "OH MY GOD"s and "I'm gonna cry" so I deleted the sound. Unfortunately I couldn't delete the oh my god dirty window!

Anyway, Diamond was talking a mile a minute saying "go, go, go. Go Diamond go, Scott, Scott, go, go" with a dozen other phrases I couldn't make out. When he gets excited and starts saying "go" or "get out" I've begun to tell him he needs to step up if he wants to go.

At one point in the video it looks like he's attacking and biting my hand but he's barely touching me. For a couple weeks he's just been testing me to see what my hand is going to do so I've really worked on not reacting when I'm sure he's just testing.

 

[Scottj]

Oh so happy!

Yesterday I got Diamond to put a foot on me and keep it there for a good 5 minutes. He then ran up to the top of his cage and went nuts. My wife had just walked in the door, heard all the commotion and started to video from inside. Unfortunately you couldn't hear Diamond through the double pane window, the football game on tv, my brothers football commentary, barking dog and my wifes "OH MY GOD"s and "I'm gonna cry" so I deleted the sound. Unfortunately I couldn't delete the oh my god dirty window!

Anyway, Diamond was talking a mile a minute saying "go, go, go. Go Diamond go, Scott, Scott, go, go" with a dozen other phrases I couldn't make out. When he gets excited and starts saying "go" or "get out" I've begun to tell him he needs to step up if he wants to go.

At one point in the video it looks like he's attacking and biting my hand but he's barely touching me. For a couple weeks he's just been testing me to see what my hand is going to do so I've really worked on not reacting when I'm sure he's just testing.

[ame="https://youtu.be/ASgNjQiD88I"]First step up - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Kentuckienne]

Oh so happy!

Yesterday I got Diamond to put a foot on me and keep it there for a good 5 minutes. He then ran up to the top of his cage and went nuts. My wife had just walked in the door, heard all the commotion and started to video from inside. Unfortunately you couldn't hear Diamond through the double pane window, the football game on tv, my brothers football commentary, barking dog and my wifes "OH MY GOD"s and "I'm gonna cry" so I deleted the sound. Unfortunately I couldn't delete the oh my god dirty window!

Anyway, Diamond was talking a mile a minute saying "go, go, go. Go Diamond go, Scott, Scott, go, go" with a dozen other phrases I couldn't make out. When he gets excited and starts saying "go" or "get out" I've begun to tell him he needs to step up if he wants to go.

At one point in the video it looks like he's attacking and biting my hand but he's barely touching me. For a couple weeks he's just been testing me to see what my hand is going to do so I've really worked on not reacting when I'm sure he's just testing.

First step up - YouTube

Oh my god! I'm going to cry!