Which approach?

[southshore]

Hello everyone! Hopefully you and your birds are well!

I am planning to get my new baby and was trying to go through the training approaches. The thing is there are so many of them that its just downright overwhelming for a beginner to which approach to select and learn about? I intend to get two Alexandrines and free fly them ultimately. I also understand that training begins from day one when as soon as you bring your baby home.

So, what training approach should I be adopting that teaches me how to most effectively to start training a baby all the way from indoor step up to recall training flying around corners and searching for me when hidden from sight to come to me, along with covering the other basics of shaping general behavior.

I would really be grateful to you and appreciate it very much if you can help me out. Thank you for taking out the time to go through my post! I am looking forward to hearing from you

 

[BirdyBee]

I haven't recall trained my birds before, but I can help with step up.

Hold your hand close enough to your bird so that you aren't touching it, but it can easily step up. Never hold your finger under the bird, birds prefer to step up, not down.

Offer your bird a treat. The bird will climb up for the treat. After a while of repeating this, the bird will learn to step up without having to use treats.

I hope this helps!

 

[wrench13]

Before anything, you should think about a few things. First - what is the raptor presence in your area? IF there are hawks, eagles, falcons in your area , free flying is NOT a good idea. Medium size parrots like Alexandrines would be prime targets. Really do the research. Second Free flying requires a HUGE open space to be done safely. Big, like not just a football field. THird, despite tons of training and familiarity, trained free flight parrots do still fly off, never to be seen again. We have one member, an extremely experienced macaw person, who free flyed his macaw almost daily. Big field with houses around it. The parrot was circling the field when someone had a ladder suddenly fall over, crash!. The parrot got spooked and took off. The parrot was extremely well trained for recall. But she was GONE. As you can imagine our member was completely destroyed ( and still is to this day).

 

[southshore]

OK. Yes I have read about the risks involved and that some areas are totally unsuited for FF. But even if I don't do it I would have to take my parrots upto a great level of recall indoors. If I plan to progress further, I will do so under the guidance of a trained professional. Yes, I understand that fly offs can still happen but it reduces the risk obviously when you have a good trainer at your side.

Inspite of the fact that I FF train my parrots or not, I am looking for an approach that covers basic behavior and helps me take my baby upto the level of advanced level indoor recall. Because I understand that training start the day ones brings the baby home. I want to learn how to navigate from that point onwards.

 

[wrench13]

Great you understand the risks and so forth. With any training some things should always be observed. I dont FF my parrot, but he does over 40 different tricks and we have had much success in training. So:

• Be consistent - use the same command, cue or signal to request the trick every time, so the parrot is not confused.
• Be immediate - have your treat readily at hand and as soon as the action is done, give the reward, what ever that might be. Reward for any forward movement in the requested action.
• Be patient - parrots rate of acceptance to change and new things is GLACIAL when compared to our quick monkey-brains. SOme birds get training right away, and some it takes a while for the penny to drop. You going to find that the more you train with your parrot, the quicker he is to learn new things. Salty and i have done so much training that he gets new tricks in 1 or 2 tries!

 

[southshore]

That's great with all the tricks! Is salty a BG?

 

[southshore]

Hey @PippTheBananaBirb can you please bounce this thread around so it can get more responses? Thank you!

 

[BirdyBee]

Hey @PippTheBananaBirb can you please bounce this thread around so it can get more responses? Thank you!

I think you just did that

Hopefully someone will reply.

 

[ravvlet]

That's great with all the tricks! Is salty a BG?

Salty is a yellow shouldered amazon, and you can read more about him here:

Right now Salty is.....

Much like BIRDIGIRL keeps a running thread on Mr. Biggles, who I am his biggest fan, I am going to so the same for Salty, so I don't clog up the board with endless posts. Right now he is in the bedroom with Geri and I chewing up today's bills. GOOD BOY! Before, he enjoyed his Friday night...

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