- Dec 18, 2013
- 22,301
- 4,212
- Parrots
- Maya (Female Solomon Island eclectus parrot), Jolly (Male Solomon Island eclectus parrot), Bixby (Male, red-sided eclectus. RIP), Suzie (Male cockatiel. RIP)
A slight setback here and there is nothing to worry about. As I told you before, that is to be expected. Focus instead on how far you have already come.
As for a 1 week "zero tolerance" policy, I'd lean away from that. If you decided to be a little quicker on the timeout trigger, that's fine. I just wouldn't make it a temporary thing. You need to be consistent. Any changes made to your approach should be with an eye toward relative permanence, in my opinion.
But you've yielded some fantastic results in a relatively short period of time. Stay the course, and the association between behavior and consequence will grow more and more solid.
Just to give you an example, Jolly will occasionally get overly excited and make a slight bite pressure mistake. (Never enough to break skin or anything.) When this happens, I'll say, "No, Jolly. Nice." in the warning tone I've developed for this very purpose. On the rare occasion that he'll do it again, he's off to timeout. But it is rare, because the association in his mind is solid. So more often, that warning tone will prompt him to gently beak my finger and look at me, waiting for me to tell him he'd again found the appropriate level of pressure.
If, however, he would bite down hard enough to cause more that just discomfort, he'd go on timeout right away.
As for your other questions, yes, I'm sorry to break it to you but it sounds like your girlfriend is his favorite. Lol!
And regarding the behavior you described, the observation given by Notdumasilook sounds solid to me. Though without actually seeing the behavior, it's just speculation.
(And seeing those pics, I'm really glad the biting behaviors have slowed down a bit.)
As for a 1 week "zero tolerance" policy, I'd lean away from that. If you decided to be a little quicker on the timeout trigger, that's fine. I just wouldn't make it a temporary thing. You need to be consistent. Any changes made to your approach should be with an eye toward relative permanence, in my opinion.
But you've yielded some fantastic results in a relatively short period of time. Stay the course, and the association between behavior and consequence will grow more and more solid.
Just to give you an example, Jolly will occasionally get overly excited and make a slight bite pressure mistake. (Never enough to break skin or anything.) When this happens, I'll say, "No, Jolly. Nice." in the warning tone I've developed for this very purpose. On the rare occasion that he'll do it again, he's off to timeout. But it is rare, because the association in his mind is solid. So more often, that warning tone will prompt him to gently beak my finger and look at me, waiting for me to tell him he'd again found the appropriate level of pressure.
If, however, he would bite down hard enough to cause more that just discomfort, he'd go on timeout right away.
As for your other questions, yes, I'm sorry to break it to you but it sounds like your girlfriend is his favorite. Lol!
And regarding the behavior you described, the observation given by Notdumasilook sounds solid to me. Though without actually seeing the behavior, it's just speculation.
(And seeing those pics, I'm really glad the biting behaviors have slowed down a bit.)