Just want to confirm a few things

[Ginkai]

Hi again everyone, sorry if all my questions are getting annoying I just wanted to check with everyone that what I am doing with Suki is right.

So she is so so smart I didn't even anticipate this level! So I'm trying to use this to my advantage. My strategy for preventing unnecessary screaming for attention is to only look at her or give her attention when she makes a little cute noise or bobs her head at me. So far most of the time its working, she says her little "hello" noise (a sound I think is the beginning of hello) then when I look she bobs her head so I'd praise her from where I was or go over and give her a head scratch or treat.

That's all great and I think shes getting it, but when I leave the room, she'll do a much louder annoying call, so my strategy with that is just to stay out of sight until she either offers one of the desired noises or remains silent for a few seconds. Is this the right way to deal with it?

I always give her treats or attention every time she offers silence or desirable noises.

Other than that she is doing great, she has adjusted to my dogs and lets them walk past her cage without getting upset, she will let strangers pat her, and even let my sisters boyfriend give her a head scratch. She gets equal time with me and my husband so she likes us both.

So any advice on the way I'm dealing with her calling would be great.
Thanks everyone and sorry if my questions are getting annoying

 

[roxynoodle]

I would say you are doing exactly the right thing

It is amazing how smart they are, but it's one of the reasons birds are one of my favorite animals.

 

[Enjru]

Hello! Ask away! I don’t find any of your posts annoying!

My strategy for preventing unnecessary screaming for attention is to only look at her or give her attention when she makes a little cute noise...she says her little "hello" noise (a sound I think is the beginning of hello) then when I look...I'd praise her from where I was or go over and give her a head scratch or treat...but when I leave the room, she'll do a much louder annoying call, so my strategy with that is just to stay out of sight until she either offers one of the desired noises or remains silent for a few seconds...I always give her treats or attention every time she offers silence or desirable noises.

I agree with everything above that you’re doing.

Other than that she is doing great, she has adjusted to my dogs and lets them walk past her cage without getting upset, she will let strangers pat her, and even let my sisters boyfriend give her a head scratch. She gets equal time with me and my husband so she likes us both.

This is so good to hear! Well done!
I just have 2 suggestions:
1) When she makes the sound that you think is the beginning of her "Hello!", say "Hello!" back to her, a little bit slower but with the same inflections and expression that you'd like her to eventually use.
2) This suggestion is a bit more esoteric and theoretical. I would suggest to you that you do not encourage the head bobbing behavior for now. You can come back later and encourage this behavior, if you want, but for now, it could be smarter to ignore it. The reason is that this is what behaviorists call a "non-prop behavior", ie, it is a behavior that the bird can initiate all by itself, without requiring a perch (for Step-up), a rope (for climbing up and down), a wiffle ball (for Pick-up), etc. All these other examples are "prop behaviors", ie, the bird will not be able to perform these behaviors if the prop is not made available for the bird. The problem with re-inforcing non-prop behaviors, (ESPECIALLY head-bobbing) in a newly weaned bird, is that the head-bobbing will become ENTRENCHED as a BEGGING behavior, ie, your bird might, for the next few years, furiously bob its head everytime it sees you in order to try and beg for some reward from you. This CAN become quite annoying! The first few trained behaviors are the ones that the bird remembers best, so behaviorists generally recommend that you train half a dozen or more prop behaviors first, before training any non-prop behaviors, in order to minimize the likelihood that your bird will use one of the non-prop behaviors as a begging behavior.
Hope this makes sense.

 

[Mozzie]

I agree with the others, you are doing great! She is beautiful!

 

[Ginkai]

Wow I didn't know that kinda stuff enjru! So then what should I teach her to do to get my attention? Or should she have anything at all? I want to make sure she is well adjusted, so anything you can offer is great.

 

[ann]

maybe you could put a bell ( bird safe non reflective) in her cage and every time she rings it give her a treat and praise her so that she knows to ring the bell for attention? I've always wanted to try it but haven't had anyone to try it with lol!

 

[Enjru]

So then what should I teach her to do to get my attention?

I think teaching her to say "Hello!" to get your attention would be ideal! Also, who knows, she may soon learn to call out your name and your husband's name, LOL!

 

[Ginkai]

Saying hello would be an awesome way to do it. So then the plan should be that I only treat or praise her if she makes the hello noise and ignore her for everything else?

 

[Enjru]

Hmm...not sure what you mean by "everything else", but yup, praise and treat her for the "Hello!" sound and behaviors that you want to reinforce.

 

[Ginkai]

well by everything I mean the head bobbing, her screeches, and the other cute noises she makes. She has an adorable set of about 3 or 4 noises that i want to encourage, hello being one of them. So I guess for now I'll only reinforce the hello.

 

[Mare Miller]

When Amigo calls "Hi There", I will always answer him back with a "Hi There" and just talk to him and acknowledge him. I would ignore his screaming and over time it got less and less to where I rarely hear him yelling in the house. Outside is a different story,,he says "Hi There", to the ravens but screams his head off at the buzzards and hawks!

 

[roxynoodle]

When Amigo calls "Hi There", I will always answer him back with a "Hi There" and just talk to him and acknowledge him. I would ignore his screaming and over time it got less and less to where I rarely hear him yelling in the house. Outside is a different story,,he says "Hi There", to the ravens but screams his head off at the buzzards and hawks!

Well, I can't really blame him, lol! Yes, I think our birds should be allowed to scream when they are in fear (or even in his case if that is anger screaming). They should be allowed to express joy, too. Its the screaming for attention you don't want to reinforce.

 

[Ginkai]

Amigo sounds awesome. I am fine with her screaming in fear or happiness, It's just attention screaming I am trying to train out as well. Luckily her screeching isnt waking my husband up during the day so that means I have less stress to worry about in trying to make her be quiet. And plenty of time to encourage the correct behavior. She was giving me kisses today and it was so tickly. But it made me so happy that she was willing to get that close to me. I got goosebumps from it. While it is alot of work trying to make our family fit her. But it is so rewarding when she goes and shows affection for me without me forcing or asking for it.

 

[Enjru]

It could be just me but I seem to be picking up from your more recent posts that the screaming for attention is a bit more of a problem than what I thought it amounted to in your original post on this thread.

If the screaming for attention is getting troublesome, OR if you are worried about it, there ARE more behavioral strategies available. But I find them quite fussy and inconvenient, and you might not even need them.

Feel free to let me know if necessary.

 

[Molcan2]

How long have you had her? When you leave the room does she have things available that she could entertain herself while your gone? Have you had her long enough where she plays with her toys independently?

We had the same problem with Rome when leaving a room, its still a slight problem but has dramatically improved. Partly because she has finally been here long enough to entertain herself. What we did that seemed to work was this: we would leave the room for literally a second and come back before she sounded off. Then we increased it to two seconds, then three, eventually getting up to a minute. Then gradually increased it up to a few minutes. We've gotten her up to about 5-10 minutes. I think the key is to come back before they've made a call. They realize that it isn't necessary, that you will come back on your own. Provide her with stuff to do while your gone from the room, stuff that you know she cant turn down (this will encourage some independence). This takes a lot of time to do it this way (took us six months to get to 5 minutes) and a lot of patience.

Everything else you doing seems great. Hopefully you find something that works for you. Good luck, spoiled Toos aren't easy to work with.

 

[Ginkai]

It isnt really a problem for me personally. It's my neighbour's and husband I'm worried about. She's 5 months old and I've only had her a few days molcan2. She does have toys in her cage but she doesn't know how to play with them yet. Screaming will only be a problem if my neighbors start to hate it.

 

[KatherineI]

Ginkai, are you in a townhouse, duplex or apartment?

 

[Ginkai]

No I'm in a house. I just have a bad experience with neighbors. In the home before this one my dogs used to bark a bit and I had neighbors threaten to bait them. So I'm terrified of pissing off my neighbors. I don't think her current screams are annoying. This is just preventative work

 

[KatherineI]

No I'm in a house. I just have a bad experience with neighbors. In the home before this one my dogs used to bark a bit and I had neighbors threaten to bait them. So I'm terrified of pissing off my neighbors. I don't think her current screams are annoying. This is just preventative work

I've had crappy neighbors, but I also have a shared wall through out the one side of my entire house (duplex) So when my neighbors are crappy, it's a huge problem. Luckily, my current neighbors are pretty awesome.

As long as it's not for an extended period of time (20 minutes straight or more, in most cities), or during your city's "quiet hours" (often not until 10pm and expiring at 6 or 7am on weekdays, 11pm on weekends), there is not a single thing your neighbors can do. I mean, obviously you're going to want to keep an eye on your dogs and such. But her screaming, especially indoors, there is nothing that they can do about it. I do, however, understand your fears.

 

[roxynoodle]

My neighbors blow off dynamite at all hours of the day and evening so I don't ever expect any of them to complain about any of my noise! That's one thing about living in a rural area; everyone just seems to accept each other's oddities without complaint.