How do you transition into a new phase of clicker training?

My sister and I have been clicker training our Miligold Macaw to perch near us outside of his cage for the past couple of weeks. When we first got him he was very nervous/scared. He has shown a lot of improvement. He is nearly always out of his cage now, tries to get our attention, shows us that he can hang from his beak, gently takes small food items out of our hands and is just generally in a 1000% better mood than when we got him from his previous owners who I believe neglected him out of fear.

So my question is, what is the best way to transition him into a phase of training where we can touch him. He still squawks any time we touch him in a place other than his beak. How should we go about this; what are the next steps?

Thank you.

Well I'd say this shouldn't require clicker training, but that is just me. I usually just move slowly from there beak to there head and use a word, common ones include scratch, scritch, scrunch whatever sounds best to you. Move slowly but confidently and be sympathetic of his feelings as this is about trust now. Then if he allows pet his head and give him a treat directly following the action. This will reinforce the moment that you were able to touch him and he will be more willing each time this happens. Hope this helps Alittle.

I'd love to see pictures of him or her I have a bluffons macaw which is similar to yours but just with a buffons instead of a military

Jtbirds said:

Well I'd say this shouldn't require clicker training, but that is just me. I usually just move slowly from there beak to there head and use a word, common ones include scratch, scritch, scrunch whatever sounds best to you. Move slowly but confidently and be sympathetic of his feelings as this is about trust now. Then if he allows pet his head and give him a treat directly following the action. This will reinforce the moment that you were able to touch him and he will be more willing each time this happens. Hope this helps Alittle.

I'd love to see pictures of him or her I have a bluffons macaw which is similar to yours but just with a buffons instead of a military

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Thank you. I will try this some more. I did a bit at the start but he is so quick to snap at us it is hard. Perhaps I should be more persistent.

He is quick to snap because he is nervous so being confident but reassuring should be able to solve some of that!

You can use a clicker for this step, if you wish.

If you want to touch his head, then you will want to reward him for allowing your hand to come closer and closer to him. Find the point that he's comfortable with, click and reward. Then find the point that he's edgy about but will tolerate. Click and reward. Repeat until he's comfortable. Then push that boundary only slightly. Click and reward. If you come to a point that he's not comfortable with, go back a step.


You may be interested in the training videos by Barbara Heidenreich. Here's a short clip showing an owner that had to reteach his meyers to accept scritches again (minus using a clicker). This meyers went from a loving, friendly and cuddly bird to an attack bird, and with proper training was trained to accept and do many behaviors that he had done when he was younger, and then some!


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oldGrfKxUaE]Training a Parrot for a Head Scratch - YouTube[/ame]



And another video...


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iuHkcww76Q]Meyer's Parrot Positive Reinforcement Training - YouTube[/ame]