YSGCC Forgotten Step Up?

[KiwiDaConure97]

So I don't really know what to say about this. I made a post about this a while because my YSGCC wouldn't step up to come out of his cage, but everything suggested wasn't the problem. I think my bird forgot step up. I did go on vacation for a little while and have been busy recently so I haven't been able to spend time with him, and I know birds have bad memory so is it possible he forgot step up? Maybe he just refuses to listen? He seems like he prefers to fly to wherever I am, maybe this is practice flying? He's only 1 year and 9 months old, not 100% sure what it is, but if I could get some help that would be great.

 

[chris-md]

Birds don’t have bad memories. They actually have great memories.

Your bird did not forget step up, it’s simply learned something different.

Remember, step up is a trick. You have to take it back to the beginning: trick training, rewarding for polite step up, all that. You’ll get it back quickly. Just take it easy and work at the birds pace.

 

[KiwiDaConure97]

Ok so I just began training him for step up again and he's catching on fantastically. I just need to know, how should I reduce treats? Go from a few seeds of millet to one? Then make him step up twice then one seed of millet? Then 3, 4, 5 and then laddering until he forgets about the treats? Just wanna know. And how can i train him to only step up when I command him to because he just runs onto my hand hoping for treats but I want him to come on when I say "step up." Any way to do that?

 

[chris-md]

Glad to hear it!

You have the idea regarding tapering. Don’t have to be quite so mathematical about it. When he becomes more rliable, it’s simply that sometimes you offer a treat, sometimes you don’t.

But remember, it’s a trick, so even when you’re back to normal, you should still offer an occasional treat to maintain the behavior. That’s for everyone, not just you. I do it with my eclectus as well. It’s easy to fall into the trap of “he did it last time, so it’s guaranteed that he’ll do it again next time”.

Not so. It’s always a work in progress. You get the behavior you reward (good or bad).

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Glad to hear it!

You have the idea regarding tapering. Don’t have to be quite so mathematical about it. When he becomes more rliable, it’s simply that sometimes you offer a treat, sometimes you don’t.

But remember, it’s a trick, so even when you’re back to normal, you should still offer an occasional treat to maintain the behavior. That’s for everyone, not just you. I do it with my eclectus as well. It’s easy to fall into the trap of “he did it last time, so it’s guaranteed that he’ll do it again next time”.

Not so. It’s always a work in progress. You get the behavior you reward (good or bad).

Can attest to this. I still give treats for 'basic' things like stepping up more than 50% of the time, which is why Cairo will still step up for me when he's angsty and pining his eyes and angrily muttering at me. But my partner gives less than 50% of the time, which means Cairo thinks it's really optional to step up for him.

 

[KiwiDaConure97]

Thanks to everyone who helped out with this, question to new people viewing this though, can I teach him other tricks while learning step up? Like he steps up, spins and then gets a treat? Or should I just focus on one trick at a time cause he might get confused?

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Thanks to everyone who helped out with this, question to new people viewing this though, can I teach him other tricks while learning step up? Like he steps up, spins and then gets a treat? Or should I just focus on one trick at a time cause he might get confused?

It honestly depends on two things:
1. How fast and how confident your bird picks things up. Everybody works at a different pace.
2. How consistent you are about cues, both verbal and physical.

A lot of people overwhelm when training with extra words, meant to encourage but actually confusing and distracting. If you only say the cue word and do the cue gesture, then that stability helps them differentiate tricks easier.

Cairo picked up shake and wave confidently within a day (the concepts were understood within 5-20 minutes). Shake was built off of step up, wave off of shake. Flip was also built off of step up. He does pick things up incredibly fast (harness training took us only two weeks, potty training shorter than a weekend, etc).

But I had a clear intention to teach them. I made sure to have very clear gestures (since he reads body language better than listening to words) and took it in baby steps.

If he's very confident about step up, sure! Go ahead Positive training is great way of building rapport and trust with a bird.

If he's still learning the difference between step up and something else, maybe take a bit more time for him to learn to differentiate first.

 

[chris-md]

Yes, there are other tricks that can be learned while doing step up. Don’t make them compound with step up (such as what you describe: step up, then spin, then treat). But yes, they can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Waving is one, so is turning around. Targeting is also very important one for them to learn. Though waving probably needs step up to be functional since step up is used as a bridge to get the behavior needed.