advice on recall training

Hello!

At the moment my GCC, Tori, is fully flighted and has become quite a confident flyer. I'd love to be able to call him to me, and have him fly back to his cage. Does anyone have any advice on how to go about training him to do so?

I can already get him to walk to me when I call him, but he seems hesitant to fly. For example, there was once when I had him in my room. He was sitting on my bed and I was standing across the room with a treat. I called him and showed him the treat. He climbed down the bed, walked across the floor, climbed up my cloths, down my arm and onto my hand to get the seed rather than simply flying over to me. XD

Thanks for any help you may be able to give.

The videos that I have seen say that you have to start with targeting. Once the bid knows how to follow a target, you start holding it farther and farther away from where he is sitting. For example, if he is sitting on a perch, hold your arm up, and the target behind your arm. He will know that when he touches the target he gets a treat. So, hopefully he will jump onto your arm. Then once he gets that down, you start moving your arm farther away so eventually he is flying to your arm. Then when he is across the room, you can hold that target up and he should fly to it for a treat.

Hiya. theparrotforum.com is specializes (so to speak) in training. The forum owner has trained his birds and is active on the forum with advice on training. Videos, blog. I found it very useful.

Mike

I'd just put him on something a bit high ... top of his cage perhaps, and stand just a couple inches away and call him. This way he can just hop over and get rewarded. Then repeat *gradually* working your way away.

Thanks for the advice!

I can already get his attention when I call him, and he always steps up, and climbs/walks over to me when I offer him a treat. I even have a game that I play with him when I can't let him out of his cage for what ever reason where I show him a seed, then put it though the cage bars somewhere and he has to climb over to get it.

The issue so far is getting him to fly. I'll show him the treat, and I can see that he wants it, and that he wants to come get it, but he will not fly to get it. Any tips on getting him to fly?

Good news! I had about a 30 minute training session with Tori and I finally got him to fly to me! He did it on accident the first time, but I was so pleased with him, I think he realized that that was what I wanted him to do in the first place. XD He's such a smart birdy!

Kokihi said:

Good news! I had about a 30 minute training session with Tori and I finally got him to fly to me! He did it on accident the first time, but I was so pleased with him, I think he realized that that was what I wanted him to do in the first place. XD He's such a smart birdy!

Click to expand...

My training sessions were always about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes long, coincidentally about the length of TV commercials. But then, I am very laid back.

For any training or even plans of bonding, perhaps you should read
http://www.parrotforums.com/behavioral/10762-understanding-mind-your-grey-other-parrots.html

What did I get from that approach?

How about this.

Asking and getting Yingshiong to fly back into his flight room and into his cage there.

When I decided YS is to go back into his flightroom so Ivan the cat can be out, I just signal with my hand
and tell YS ' go back'. You can see this sequence here, where YS flew back to his flight room and into his cage at my
cue.

Yingshiong flies back on command

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVMbbxjjJqs"]Yingshiong flies back on command - YouTube[/ame]

More here including videos where YS responded with military precision to my recall cues
shanlung: new videos of Yingshiong


And asking Riamfada to fly back to her room.

Best read here together with video of Riam doing that.
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+1]Shower for Riamfada &back to room
shanlung: Pakistan & Russia//Village Harban & Omer // Shower for Riamfada &back to room

And Riam flying to me on the parapet of a fortress wall

shanlung: Nakhal and Rustaq with friends

Despite, or perhaps because the training sessions were so short, my birdies responded to me within split seconds of cues.

Keep the training sessions short, full of fun for both, and often (5-6 times a day) , understand the mind of your birdie, and you will do as good as me or even better.
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I'm so glad you got him to fly to you. Now that he knows that is what made u so happy it can only get easier from here!

I taught BJ to fly to me and to his playstand on command. He loves these little yogurt dipped sunflower seed treats(I know, not the healthiest but that's why we only use them for training ) So I will hold one with my thumb and middle finger while I hold my index finger out for him to land on and I say "Come here" and he will fly to me and eat the treat. Then I will just say "fly" and he flies back to his play top, and then I walk over and give him another treat. We just kept repeating this, they are very smart little guys, once you can get them to do it once or twice, they seem to realize what you are asking them to do and will keep doing it to get the treat. Now that he has it down pretty well, I don't always give him a treat but I will give him one every couple of times just so he knows he is doing the right thing I may have just gotten lucky that it worked this quickly but I even made the comment to my SO that I wish training the dog was that easy!