January?

To start January, one of my best friends and I went out to the trails for a run.  We've done many of these since then, but this was the first one.

Getting ready to get out in the cold:

So snowy!  So beautiful!

Back at home, Max continued to be adorable and to beg for me to pick her up:

I try to tell her that she is an independent grey and not a needy cockatoo, but she doesn't listen.  As soon as I put the camera in front of her, she pretty much lifts up her foot -- her way of asking to be picked up.

Calypso, as adorable as ever.  This year, he turns 19, and he celebrates his 10th anniversary with me.  Our bond just keeps getting stronger and stronger.

And Beeps continues to do well.  Here, he's showing off for the camera: destroying his phone book (who knew they even made those anymore?)

So excited that he rolls over on his back!

Max, again:

Eating peanut butter on a spoon.  She loves showing off how smart she is; I had several friends over when she did this.

Earlier in the year, I had my internet tech stop by to figure out why my service had ceased to work properly.  She yelled "Hello!" as soon as he walked in, and later insisted on performing her tricks for him.  What a show-off!  As it turned out, he had a Grey at home, so delighted in her tricks.

Steve - training

Yesterday after work, Steve saw me cutting up his cashews and knew that training was about to begin. He got so excited that he came down to the perch on his cage door. He's done this before, but usually climbs back up to a different perch when I open his door to train. But not yesterday! He was visibly a bit nervous at first, but after a few targets, relaxed and enjoyed his training session.This makes it easier on me as I don't have to stand awkwardly to reach him; I just pull up a chair in front of his cage! I'm hoping that the rest of his training with me will take place here. If he gets used to training here, that will make things easier on his new owner to work on step up.

Doesn't he look kind of spooky when he stares at me, head-on?
Feeling so comfortable, he's perching on one foot!
He was also talking and whistling up a storm yesterday. I'm pretty sure I heard "I love you!" but that could just be my imagination twisting his words. He certainly hears it enough from the humans and parrots in the house, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.

He's been making up whistling songs (or remember whistling songs from his past) and Stella has picked one of them up, which will leave me with an aural reminder of him.

Speaking of which, time continues to fly by. In just two weeks from tomorrow, he will be meeting his new owner! This Friday, he returns to the vet to get his health certificate for flying. His vet should be able to give me a better update about the progress of his mutilation sores. I can't wait to see her reaction over their improvement!

Beginning clicker training with Steve

I've gotten some questions in the comments about clicker training, so I thought I would write about this in a new post instead of rambling on in the comments. First, I did try to get some video of me training Steve; however, I am unable to take the video myself (as both of my hands are busy with the training!) and he freezes up when Thomas gets too close with the camera. We will try again this weekend and if Steve still won't cooperate, I'll have Thomas take a video of me training Max, which will have mostly the same effect.

First, Breanne wrote:

I would love to do this with my parrot, Stormy, but if I were to give her a cashew or almond every time she followed directions, I wouldn't get to far because it takes her forever to eat just one (about 10 minutes of nibbling). Do you break up the nuts into pieces or give him a whole one? If you give him a whole one, don't you find sitting there waiting for him to eat it a bit time consuming? Thanks!

Let me apologize for not being more clear. Yes, you want to have something pretty tiny as a treat. The smallest thing they'll work for. The main reasons are you don't want the parrot getting full after doing just one or two repetitions and you don't want the parrot to lose interest if you're taking 10 minutes in between tricks. Yesterday, Max went through about 30 tricks in less than 3 minutes. We would have both lost interest if she took a long break after each one to eat!

I use safflower seeds with Max as they are quickly eaten. Steve was not interested in safflower seeds, so I'm using cashews instead. I grab out about one medium cashew; you can see how it compares to this dime:and then chop it up into small pieces. I got 13 treats out of that one cashew.
When choosing the treat, you want to figure out what the bird really values. If I tried to train Max with banana chips, she'd never learn anything as she hates banana chips! It may be helpful to remove the training treat from the bird's regular diet so that they have greater value to the parrot, though this depends on the parrot.

In the beginning, or for a more difficult trick, you may have to use a higher-value treat. For instance, when I trained Max to do retrieve, I had to use cheese as her reinforcer. Now, she'll do that trick just for praise, though she usually gets safflower seeds.

If a bird does not take food nicely from your hands, you have to get the treat to the bird in a different way. With smaller birds, maybe you hold a sprig of millet up and they get a bite. With larger birds, maybe you put some peanut butter on a spoon and they get a lick.

Which takes me to my next question, from E.R.:

OK, one more question, does clicker training work with lovebirds? Although for me I guess it doesn't really matter because I'm still working on not being chewed on by those rascals :) Still, I'm curious.

Yes! Clicker training can work with lovebirds! And it may help you to not get chewed on by them anymore! Those tiny guys can be amazingly smart. The key is finding something that will motivate them to want to train. I know people who have trained their lovebirds using springs of millet. That way they can get the treat to the bird while keeping their hands safe.

Also from E.R.:

As for the training, do you click and wait for him to beak the straw and then give him the treat?

Also, do you hold the straw or put it on the table?

With target training, I hold the straw in my hand. As soon as he beaks it, I click. Then I give him the treat as soon as I can after that. Most birds tend to automatically beak something that is in front of them. I'm obviously not poking him with the stick; just placing it near his beak. As soon as he beaks it, I click and then a treat. Then I move the stick a little bit so he has to move his head to beak it. As soon as he does, click and then treat.

I will try to get videos of this (probably with Max) over the weekend to post next week.

It does take some time to get used to holding everything. I keep the clicker and the target stick in my right hand and the treat in my left hand. When I work on a more elaborate trick, like retrieve, I frequently will have the treats off to the side so it takes a few seconds longer for the bird to get their treat.

The key is properly charging the clicker so that the bird knows click = treat. Even if you click accidentally, you still have to give the treat because that's a contract you've made with the bird. The bird comes to understand that the reason he's getting a treat is for what he did when you clicked. Therefore, it's important not to have too long of a gap in between the click and the treat, but a couple of seconds is just fine!

Michelle commented:

Since my adopted grey is cage bound, I am going to give this a try!

Michelle, I really think you should, and that you and Timothy will love it! Steve is also currently cage bound, and he is having a ball. We actually did two sessions this morning because he wanted more! And I'm hopeful that through clicker training, I'll get him to come out of his cage (or maybe his new owner will, depending on how long it takes!)

Before I start talking about training a cage bound bird, I wanted to list a couple of resources:

• Bird-Click yahoo group. It's free to join. They have amazing files on how to get started and helpful experts willing to answer e-mail questions. This is how I got started several years ago.
• The book Clicker Training for Birds by Melinda Johnson. This book is recommended by the above yahoo group, and I purchased it when I started and reread it about once a year.
• Karen Pryor's site. Unfortunately, it now appears as though you have to register with the site (free) in order to read the articles. Much of the content on the site relates to training dogs and cats, but there are some bird-specific articles; plus the theory behind training is the same, no matter what kind of animal!

Now, on to Steve. He is so intelligent. I have already warned his new owner about how much stimulation he is going to need and she is up for the challenge!

Tuesday August 17, 2010 was the first day I started training him. I charged the clicker, then did some target training. One session -- after work.

Wednesday August 18, 2010: day 2 of training. Two sessions -- one before work and one after work. About 15 repetitions of target training.

Thursday August 19, 2010 (today!): only day 3. Two sessions in the morning -- one before I went running and one when I got home. He loves training! I could tell he was getting a little bored with just targeting, so I started in on retrieve. It just clicked with him, and in one session he got as far as it took Max about three weeks to get. We'll train again tonight.

This is all done in his cage so far. Training a cage bound bird really isn't that different than training a bird on a perch!

One of the things that I love about clicker training is that it doesn't require a large time commitment, especially for the return you get! Each session is generally less than 5 minutes long. You want to keep the bird wanting more, so it's important to keep it short, especially in the beginning!

If anyone else has any questions, I will do my best to answer. I am certainly no expert, just an amateur who learned through that yahoo group and reading that book. I make a ton of mistakes, but my parrots don't know any better, so it's still fun! More to come on this in the future, hopefully with videos and pictures!

Another Steve Update

Something has been in the works for a few weeks that I now feel comfortable to announce: Steve has a home! (And it's not mine!) Due to logistical concerns, he'll stay at our house for a few more months; it's looking like he'll head to his permanent home in November. I am just so excited for Steve, as I could not have wished for a better home for him. I'll post more details in the future.
Yesterday, I finally started clicker training Steve. He is such a fast learner!

With clicker training, the first thing you have to do is "charge the clicker" -- click and then give the bird a treat as soon as possible so that the bird makes the association that click = treat. Steve had caught on by the third charge; I could see his eyes pin and he made a slight forward movement at the sound of the click.

Since I had 15 tiny pieces of cashew ready as treats (Steve's favorite food, or possibly just a close second to pistachios), the fact that he picked up on the main idea behind training (i.e. click = treat) so quickly meant that we could move on to the next step: targeting.

I use a straw as the target, and when I first put the straw in front of him, he seemed slightly scared and moved back. I moved the straw back a few inches until he was comfortable again. Click/treat! On the second attempt, he was no longer afraid of the straw and beaked the target. Click/treat! This continued until I ran out of nuts.

This morning, we picked up where we left off, with Steve stretching to the left, right, up, and down to beak the target. I am amazed at his fast progress. This guy is just so smart and his new family is going to have so much fun uncovering his personality!

Right now, I'm planning on two sessions a day -- in the morning before I hide his pellets and in the afternoon when I get home from work. At these times, Steve should be hungry and ready to work for food. Of course I will watch him and not train so frequently if he's not into it, but based on his reactions, and those of my other parrots, he'll love it!

I'm hoping that, with clicker training, I can have him nicely stepping up for his new owner by November. In any case, his new family is very excited to continue training him, and understands that he may take a long time to completely come out of his shell and want to come out of his cage.

Another retrieve video

With Thomas gone, Max and I worked on her retrieve trick a bit more. You can tell we aren't professionals -- fun is the name of this game!

Why I would not make a good professional trainer

As I've written about before, Max learned to do the retrieve. In conjunction with my interpretation of "Nothing In Life Is Free" (where Max has to perform a trick or forage for her food -- work for it), I'll often make her do a flying retrieve before she gets some of my yogurt in the morning.

I'll place her somewhere, give her the bead, and she has to fly to the cup and deposit the bead. The next step is to get her to fly to a bead, pick it up, and deposit it in the cup, but neither one of us is motivated enough to do that yet.

In any case, yet again this morning, she deposited the bead into my food instead of the cup that was right next to the food!I think she does this intentionally because my reaction to her is reinforcing. I think she is so clever and funny! We all had a good laugh, but she did need to place it in the cup before she got her spoonful of yogurt.

Funny training moment

Max and I are still working on variations of the retrieve, mostly involving her flying.

I have also mentioned before that with her I employ a strategy of "Nothing in life is free." I first heard about it in regards to dog training, and I don't know much about it other than the name. But I like the concept implied by the name so much that's what I consider my approach to Max even though that probably isn't strictly the case (I can't say definitively since I don't know the specifics of the program).

Last night she was begging for a piece of cheese off of our salads. She had already been quite crafty in finding ways to sneak a few toppings off when we were otherwise occupied! Therefore, when she said "want some!" (cheese), I placed her on a chair and gave her the bead. Then I grabbed the container where she had to put it and went over by her stand.

She had to know what I wanted (fly to the stand to deposit the bead in the container), but instead she flew over to the salad bowl, deposited the bead in my dinner, and then grabbed a piece of cheese.Of course I couldn't help but laugh, which only reinforced her. However, it's reinforcing her thinking outside of the box, so I'm OK with that. Of course, I did make her perform the trick correctly in exchange for another piece of cheese. Silly parrot!

Grey vignettes

I was thinking last night that I should have called the blog "Grey Musings" instead of "Parrot Musings" since they seem to dominate things lately. I will try to remedy that this weekend and try to take pictures of everyone else!

I put on a new CD yesterday and Max started dancing in the craziest way I had ever seen. She only does it half-heartedly for the camera, but you can still get the idea:

Stella is still obsessed with digging in the carpet near our back door. We were both in the middle of chopping things for salad dinner last night, so she got to spend a little more time there than normal (just a few seconds). I am so happy that she just pulls up the carpet and doesn't damage the shoes. But we often find little pieces of carpet in our shoes, and in this picture she has a piece on her back.As always, I feel compelled to say that nesting behavior should not be encouraged, especially in females, who can become egg-bound. We are very lucky in that Stella willingly steps up from this position. Unfortunately, she uses her grey determination and stubbornness to continually return to try to dig.

Retrieve videos

Yesterday, Max and I were working on retrieve when Thomas came into the kitchen to pour himself a soda. He decided to stay a few minutes and watch Max retrieve since he hadn't seen her do this yet. She surprised us all by where she decided to put the bead. I didn't get it on video the first time, but she obliged us by doing it again:



This one makes me laugh as well because she can't decide where she wants to put it, before finally placing it where I wanted her to:



This last video has horrible lighting (it didn't look so bad when I watched it on the back of my camera) but it was so exciting when she did this!



A little play by play, since it's kind of hard to see. She's on the chair when I give her the bead, and she flies to her stand and places it in the cup. She's not yet motivated enough to perform this difficult of a task for safflower seeds only -- once again, she got a little piece of cookie for doing this.

Retrieve update

I need to work with Thomas to get some videos of this, but Max is officially a retrieve master! Why did I not teach her this earlier? It was much easier than I was making it out to be with my procrastinating and whining.

Here is a breakdown of how she learned:

1. I gave her a bead and placed an empty yogurt container under her so that when she dropped the bead, it would go in the container. Still, she flung the bead quite frequently in the beginning. I decided to reward her with little bites of cookie instead of safflower seeds. It wasn't as healthy, but she loves cookies so was willing to work harder! After I knew that she knew what I wanted (place the bead in the container), we went back to safflower seeds.

2. When she nicely placed the bead in the container (as opposed to accidentally dropping it in there), I gave her a jackpot of being picked up by me, getting a kiss on the beak, and being told how she was so wonderful.

3. When she was consistently (18 out of 20) putting the bead in the container, I moved the container slightly to the right so that she'd have to move her head to drop the bead in. After she got that down, I moved the container slightly to the left so she'd have to move in the other direction.

4. I then used different objects, in increasing levels of different, to replace the bead:
5. I moved the container so that she'd have to walk a few steps to place the bead inside. Once again, she was not willing to do this for safflower seeds, so the cookies came out for a few more training sessions.

6. I placed the bead on the ground and she had to pick up the bead and walk it over to place it in the container. She will currently walk the bead over different levels of her stand if she knows the reward is a tiny piece of cheese, but not for safflower seeds :) We usually practice this on the counter so that we have a flat surface, instead of on her stand where we do the majority of our training.

That's where we are now. We need to work on #6 some more -- going from further distances, etc. Once she gets that down, I'm going to pull out the ring toss toy I'd purchased a few years ago. There are so many other tricks that are based on retrieve; I can't wait to see what else she can learn!

Training update

Getting my confession out was exactly what I needed to get back into the groove!

My main focus has been Max. I really want her to learn to retrieve, plus she is the parrot that most loves training. I'm hoping to get the others to that point, but in the meantime, their training sessions are shorter since I want this to be fun for everyone!

I'm starting by having Max put a large bead into an empty yogurt container. When we started last Thursday, she flung the bead on the floor well over 80% of the time; by yesterday, she was placing the bead in the container well over 90% of the time. Next I have to move the container further away to see if this continues, but I don't think we're to that point yet!

UPDATE: On Wednesday morning, after 15 perfect repetitions where she placed the bead in the cup, I moved the cup so that she'd have to slightly stretch to place the bead and she did 5 reps. She gets it! Next step is making her walk with the bead in her beak to place it in the container.

I've been training Max twice a day -- in the morning before I leave for work and in the afternoon when I get home. My running friends would call this two a days.

I usually beat Thomas home. I'd noticed the parrots' behavior towards his return before. As soon as they hear the garage door open, they get so excited! The greys and Beeps fly into the kitchen and Rocky runs in as fast as he can. Max dances, Stella gets as close to the door as she can, Rocky makes vomit sounds, and Beeps greatly increases the intensity of his beeping.

What I hadn't noticed, until Max and I were spending more time training when he's on his way home, is her behavior a couple of minutes before he gets home. She stops everything and cocks her head a few different ways, as though she hears something. Then she starts dancing a bit and refuses to do any further training. The first time she did this, I was baffled, but after a couple of days in a row, I realized she did this a few minutes before Thomas gets home.

I'm assuming she must hear his car. Does she get like that every time the same model car is in the area, or does something identify his car in particular? Occasionally he does errands in what must be her hearing radius. Is she sitting at home, all excited because she thinks he's coming home, but he's only grocery shopping?

Training confession

I've gotten a little lax in the training department lately. I'm hoping that by posting this here, and making my issues public, I'll be accountable and more motivated. I used to train the parrots every day, without fail. That has turned into 2-3 times per week at most. Also, instead of teaching new tricks, we've just been reviewing stuff they've had down pat for years.

Yesterday, after an e-mail conversation with a friend who's also ramping up her training, I realized I needed to get my act together. The birds love it and it's such an amazing bonding experience.

Why did I stop? I've been thinking a lot about that, and I think it's partly because of my parrots' reactions when I'm training someone else. They all love training so much that when I'm training someone else and they're out of their cage, they show their displeasure.

Rocky screams. Max buzzes the other bird and sometimes me. Stella flies down and pecks at my feet. Beeps comes over, starts doing the tricks I'm asking the other bird to do, and then threatens to attack me when I don't acquiesce and give him treats instead.

The madness must stop! I will take the birds out one at a time and train them at least 5 days a week. I really want Max to learn how to retrieve. I've worked on this with her in the past but have gotten frustrated when she doesn't get it quickly. I need to be more patient and persistent with her.

And now that I've written it down here, I'll have to follow through!

I guess I misunderestimated* him

Thomas frequently tells me that he thinks I baby Calypso too much. And after an experience last night, I think he may be on to something.

Calypso is the parrot in our house who suffered the most psychological damage from his previous mistreatment. I don't even believe that he was the one who received the worst treatment -- he's just the one that has the most trouble overcoming his past.

As a consequence of that, I have low expectations for him. All of the other parrots must step up on my hand (or a stick, in Rocky's case) to come out of their cages, while I open Calypso's cage and allow him to decide when he wants to exit. I always offer my hand to him, but if he declines, I leave his cage door open. I go to extreme lengths to make sure that he gets the largest cashews (his favorite treat). The other parrots have to do a trick before receiving favorite treats (they've got to earn it!) I treated him differently when it came to clicker training (which is really what this post is about). I've come to realize that I've been enabling him!

Last night, I was doing extended clicker training sessions with the parrots, specifically Max and Beeps. Daphne is not interested in training, but she was off to the side, watching what we were doing. Rocky was in the living room, playing and waiting for Thomas to arrive home. The rest of the parrots (caiques and greys) were in the kitchen with me.

I always train Max first. She was in a wonderful training mood and we quickly went through her entire routine, including working on her latest trick (doing a quick head-first dive off of the seed cup holder). Calypso was very interested, so I did a few targets with him (more on this later, but it's the first step in clicker training).

In the past, I used a different, smaller, target stick for Calypso because he seemed afraid of the larger one I use for everyone else. Last night, he eagerly used the larger stick. In the past, I eschewed the clicker and used a marker word ("bon" -- the French word for "good") because he seemed afraid of the click. Last night, he reveled in the clicker. Why did I allow my preconceptions of him to derail our training?

He was absolutely fantastic! He was a master targeter, never once getting confused. He repeated his one known trick -- shaking my hand -- and started working an another -- shaking his head. He made amazing progress and I am reenergized to work with him.

Shannon had asked in the comments for me to talk a little bit about clicker training. I first found out about it about two years ago when I was doing research into ways that I could make Max happier. Here is a good article explaining what clicker training is. I learned how to do it by joining this yahoo group (it's free) and reading through the files. Clickers can be picked up for about $1 at most pet stores.

Basically, it's a fantastic way to communicate with your parrots. Most parrots love the one-on-one interaction and learning that takes place. When Max sees the clicker, she starts saying "want some!" and flies to her training perch.

The first step is to figure out what food (or other reward) will motivate your bird -- what will they think of as an adequate reward for what you're asking them to do? Ideally, it should be something small that is quickly eaten. If you use a full almond, for example, the bird will quickly fill up so training is truncated, and the long time it takes the bird to eat the treat will affect the flow of training. I use safflower seeds for the greys and caiques. Thomas uses sunflower seeds for Rocky. I use praise for Rocky because he'd rather bite me than nicely take food from my hand. (Yes, I've tried using favorite treats like peanut butter on a spoon to put a barrier between his beak and my hand. He ignores the treat and pulls the spoon closer to his beak to try to bite. He's determined).

The second step is to make the bird understand that click=treat. Going forward, every time you click a bird, give her a treat. Even if you didn't mean to click. It's a contract, and you don't want to break your parrot's trust! To do this, have a treat ready, and then make the click and give the bird the treat as quickly as you can. You only have to do this step when training a new bird. From my experience, I usually have to do this between 5-20 times (depends on the bird) for them to understand. Pretty soon, when you click, you'll see the bird make a move to get a treat. That's when you know they understand.

The click is a marker. It's a way for you to communicate to your bird. You're saying, "What you did when I clicked -- that's what I like and I'm giving you a treat. If you do it again, you'll get another treat!"

The first "trick" to teach is targeting. You want the bird to bite softly on the end of a stick (I use a straw). When the bird does this, click and treat. When this becomes easy, move it off to the left so the bird has to lean. Then the right, up, and down. Continue working, in small steps, until the bird has to take several steps to get the straw. Incidentally, this can be a great way for a perch potato to get exercise -- make them walk all over to target.

I'm skimming over some things (the yahoo group I linked is really a fantastic resource!). I think the two main things to remember are:

1. This is supposed to be fun for you and your bird! Watch her and stop on a positive note before she gets bored. My training sessions are generally less than 5 minutes per bird per day. Stop if you feel yourself getting frustrated!

2. Many people feel self-conscious when they start doing this. They feel silly and don't know what they're doing. Who cares? Your bird doesn't know any better and will love the training sessions anyway! I'm certainly not an expert trainer, but in the past year and a half or so, my parrots have learned quite a few tricks and, most importantly, our bond has strengthened and we've had fun along the way!

I'll try to update more regularly on our training progress and hopefully get some videos and pictures demonstrating what I'm talking about.

*I know this isn't really a word, but I'm taking it from my favorite TV show, Arrested Development (which took it from the previously linked source).