Slow progress, but that's okay.

Coco in the wndow

Some days are better than others and each one of my 4 birds seems to be in a "different" mood every day.  It's difficult to tell when they will... and when they will not... take favorably to training. 

I have been doing incidental training with all of the birds throughout the day.  That is to say, informal requests for an activity are made to a bird, and with a positive response... the promised treat.  Then, in the evening when I've cleaned their cages and changed their water and filled their food bowls, we have a more lengthy session with all the birds that takes about 30 minutes altogether.

NOTED:  The girls were not eating their "bird kibble" during the day.  Apparently they have learned that seeds and nuts come at cage-cleaning time.  I haven't decided how to deal with this exactly, but for now I am not putting extra seeds or nuts into their cages post-training.  They need to eat the good-for-them bird food.

Gracie's food was dumped all over the floor of her cage.  That which landed on clean newspaper was returned to the bowl.  She was brought out to the T-stand and she went through her training easily for a few minutes, got bored, and refused to perform.  I returned her to her cage with only about 6 sunflower seeds having been offered during training.  Surprise!  She went straight to her bird food bowl and started eating BIRD FOOD! 

Lucy refuses to train or even take a treat from the bird stands... either of them.  She wants to train On-Her-Cage.  I will continue to bring her out to the stands and attempt training.  We need to move forward to more advanced training, in different locations, so that I can start new behaviors.  She is getting very good at "mama touch!"  Apparently the training is teaching some trust.  (Duh!)

Coco is sweet and dives into his wet breakfast bowl these days.  He is also trying to wait for training to get seeds and all-the-while avoiding the bird food.  Through the week he has been refusing to say "hello" on command or "turn around" without my hand pointing the way over top of his head.  Today, on the T-stand he said "hello" several times in succession when asked.  :D  However, turn around... is a work in progress.  His demeanor is more trusting.  I ask him to step up to come out of his cage.  If he refuses, I leave.  When he does step up, we go to the living room T-stand and he gets a nutriberry.  It's starting to pay off.  He seems much less agitated, doesn't scream much, and steps up more frequently.

We have taken Bobby to a slightly new level.  I ask him to step up and he has to stay on my hand for a count of 10 before he can go back to the perch and get his treat.  Now I have added stay-on-my-finger-while-I-do-a-360-degree-turn and count to ten at the same time, and THEN he gets a treat IF he doesn't fly off my hand.  If I start out slowly and he can concentrate on the smaller requests (wave, meow, etc), he can manage to contain his fear for a 360-ten-count.  :D  Baby steps.  He is a phobic bird and this training is about building confidence, so I'm happy.

This coming week:  Work more with the birds, one-on-one in the living room.  Get Lucy to do anything positive on the T-stand.  Teach Gracie to "wave" if she'll let me touch her foot.  Get Coco to say "hello" even more often, on command.  Work with Bobby and the 360-10-count and see if it doesn't help his confidence.  VARY the training so that the bird food gets eaten and the birds don't "wait" for the predicted treat/train time.