Attempting to target train Goofy

Goofy is MrC's bird. Like many amazons, he's a fiercely one person bird. I have spent literally years worming my way into his heart. Right now I can give him scritches only if he's in his cage and he invites me to (usually at night, nearly every night), and I can move him around on a stick. That's pretty much it.

So tonight after dinner I was working with Leo and Goofy was watching with interest. I don't usually work with Leo in Goofy's eyesight, but we were both bored after dinner so I dug out the target stick, clicker and toys and started to play. When we eat dinner the birds (except Charlotte for now) are all on perches around the table, as they like to "eat" with the family. Goofy was pretty close and could see what was going on, and he looked interested. So, I got inspired to see how he would react to the target stick.

Well, it could have gone worse. Of course he was scared of the stick. After a few attempts of showing him the stick, showing him the treat just on the far side of the stick, and having him not so much interest, I showed him Leo targeting just the stick. He seemed interested. I only got him to reach his beak out a little towards the stick, but he wouldn't take a step. Oh, well. I'm patient. I'm going to add Goofy to the training schedule and see what happens.

Wish me luck!

Good luck you and Goofy. Target training is so much fun and gives a meaningful activity for both human and parent.

I haven't done any training with him before now because he thought I really should just go die in a fire until about a year ago, and that took years of working with him to even get this far. Even with this, he's like the worst step-kid ever, and would probably throw a party if MrC and I ever split up. (and now I'm imagining him with a party hat and noisemakers). But I also wasn't confident with bird training until I got Leo at the beginning of the year, so I didn't even try with Goofy. I'm much more confident in my training skills (as my continued success with Charlotte is proving), so maybe it's a good thing I was able to make all my initial training mistakes on Leo, who's a much more chill bird than Goofy.

Well done, your newly found confidence is showing through and Goofy is tentatively wanting to be part of the action. So keep up this confidence, be careful and wanting to hear more very soon.

Thank you. It's funny. I had only a small amount of experience with birds before I moved in with MrC. I knew basic handling of birds that were already well socialized and that's about it. I had tons of experience with furry critters, and all the confidence in the world with dogs, even big, aggressive, poorly socialized ones. Birds, well they're different. I wish I'd found this site years ago, because my progress with Goofy might have been a lot faster if I knew at the beginning what I know now, and most of that comes from reading this forum (and one other that I don't post on, just read). I made a lot of mistakes figuring out birdie body language with him and didn't even think of a lot of the stuff I've read here.

Leo is small enough and personable enough that I figured I could transfer some of my dog training confidence to birds with the new knowledge of bird training I'd gained here, so off we went to learn tricks. Again I made some mistakes in the beginning, but now training time is a favorite time of day. He gets visibly excited when he sees me go to the toy box and practically molts from excitement when the stick comes out. After less than a week, Charlotte is beginning to be the same way. Goofy is going to be a tougher nut to crack, but I think in the long run, he'll be happier, even if he never learns any show-off type tricks.

BeatriceC said:

I only got him to reach his beak out a little towards the stick, but he wouldn't take a step.

Click to expand...

THIS!!!! Just this! This is enough to reward him for. Don't make him take a step towards the stick if he's still looking at it! Heck, even looking at that target, you should reward that behavior!!!!! Once he gets the idea, it'll "click", and he'll be targeting like a pro!

Just don't "make" him take a step towards that target before you actually reward him, as this is only setting you, and him, up for failure. Any interest in the target should be rewarded!

Oh, he got a treat and lots of praise for reaching his head out a little bit. I'm sorry if I was unclear. I'm thrilled he reached his head out! I'd given him a treat just for looking at it a few times before he did that, so that reach was progress. My next goal is to get him to take that first tiny step.

I do think that letting him watch Leo, and later on when Charlotte is out of quarantine, her as well, will help give him a little more familiarity.

Just an aside, I'm using the same basic philosophy as I did with my students. I taught in a "bad" inner city public middle school. Most of my kids were years behind and many had bad attitudes. Getting 7th graders interested in math isn't easy with an "easy" population of students. These kids were on a cycle of failure, so my goal was to get them out of it and start seeing some success, no matter how tiny. To that end, I'd get ridiculously excited for tiny steps. Sometimes I had to reward students for simply writing a problem down. The goal after that was to reward them for writing down anything at all that could be the next step in the problem, right or wrong. Just the act of trying anything got rewarded (verbal praise). So I'm looking at Goofy like some of my most stubborn students. Every tiny step along the way will get praised and rewarded, not just the "big" goal at the end.

Update: it only took four days, but Goofy is now taking exactly one step to touch the target stick. Any farther than that and he won't, but one step is a major accomplishment. When I started, I was rewarding him for simply not backing away, and was super excited when he just looked at it. I'm not his favorite human, so the stick in my hand is still a little scary when it first comes out, but he's getting the hang of it. I'm very happy with his progress. It seems you can teach an old bird new tricks!

Great job. Target training is an excellent tool for parrots. If I can be of any assistance, please let me know.

Great job B. I was lucky enough to get a willing student in Salty, who would rebuild my transmission for a pine nut. A stubborn, older Yellow Nape.... well the last really bad bite I received was from trying to work with one, a nice mellon baller size piece of meat.
My fault, pushing too fast. Looking forward to progress reports on Goofy.

We are going reeeeeeeaaaaaaallllllllyyyyyyyy slow. He's only good for about five minutes right now, but he's getting a tiny bit better each time. He's 32 now, and I don't think they come any more stubborn. But I'm patient. I can outlast him.

Here he is eyeballing that stick. He's thinking here "hmmm, I'm not happy, but she has cheese. Lemme think about this for a bit. "

Any updates on Goofy's training? I'm late to the party, but I think your approach with Goofy (as well as with your 7th grade students) is spot on! I'm hoping all has continued to go well.

It's slow and steady. He's starting to be less leery of the stick, and maybe even looking forward to it a little. We haven't progressed past taking a couple steps, but he's a 32 year old stubborn YNA and I'm not the favorite human. The major accomplishment is that his trust in me is growing. That's huge.

Edited because Goofy's approximate hatch day just passed and I keep typing the wrong age.