target training

please help me i have a problem with my indian ring neck he doesnt bite the target stick idk why but he bites alot of things

Why do you want him to bite the target? Ideally he should just touch it with his beak. If he is biting it, that will make it more difficult to train.

skylala said:

Why do you want him to bite the target? Ideally he should just touch it with his beak. If he is biting it, that will make it more difficult to train.

Click to expand...

i thaught i should make hem bite it thanks for help

No problem. I had the opposite problem where I had to get my bird to stop biting the target. The target is good for them to follow around and you can't move it well for them to follow if they are biting it. It makes the training smoother too, if you can just move on without getting it out of his mouth. So you are lucky yours doesn't

Of course it wouldn't be the end of the world if the parrot was nibbling or mouthing the target, but it is not ideal.

skylala said:

No problem. I had the opposite problem where I had to get my bird to stop biting the target. The target is good for them to follow around and you can't move it well for them to follow if they are biting it. It makes the training smoother too, if you can just move on without getting it out of his mouth. So you are lucky yours doesn't

Of course it wouldn't be the end of the world if the parrot was nibbling or mouthing the target, but it is not ideal.

Click to expand...

thank you for helping

My problem is that the Too is not trying to touch or bite the stick. He's not afraid of it at all and I bring it right next to his head. No touching. How do I get him to touch willingly?

This thread is four months old but I'll answer, just know next time you shlould really post your own thread for help! Are you using a clicker, and if so has your bird already learned that it gets a food reward each time you click? If not you need to research "charging the clicker". If so, then you need to shape the behavior. Shaping is where you reward small steps in the direction of the behavior you want until the bird is performing the behavior. You could click the bird for looking at or moving closer to the target stick. Then over time start requiring your bird to be closer and closer and then finally to touch the target. A quicker way might be to put something of interest on the end of the target stick such as a small ball or toy so you can "capture" the behavior of touching her beak to the target. Once she learns she gets a treat for touching this toy, you can slowly shift to targetting without anything on the end of the stick. This can happen either by removing the toy once she is good at targetting the toy or by shaping her off the toy and onto the stick. This step will require some creativity and as always when training an individual animal, go at her pace and use methods she is most receptive to. Good luck!

Thanks Mallory. Yes I use a clicker, but the penny hasn't dropped yet that touching and clicking is followed by a reward. I will use your suggestions and keep on trying. Patients, right...

A bird doesn't need to physically touch a target in order to target train them.... but Mallory is correct in shaping the behavior.