I noticed that there have been a few Qs about clicker training.... Well I can assure you that it works.
Clicker training is something previously used for dogs and horses but is becomming more common for use with all animals. It involves a small plastic and metal device that clicks when you push on it (you can use a baby food lid) and when your parrot is good you click and give him/her a treat.. soon they associate the clicker with a treat and you can use the clicker to reward good behaviour, and train your parrot tricks.
There is heaps of information on the net if you do a search of clicker training and then specify for birds. Datsun has only just started and we can see a noticeable difference in his behaviour. I also think he really enjoys it!
i could definatly see parrots liking clicker training. I teach dog obedience classes professionally and have used clickers in many of my classes. It always seems that the clicker is most effective with the dogs that are very willing to learn and very detail oriented.....Basicly parrots with fur. I'm sure birds love the simple consitency of it. You are basicly telling him exactly what you like and leaving no room for interpretation.
I just thought since you are a clicker training expert maybe Tony would benefit from a couple of classes.... Im not saying that your bird is badly behaved but Datsun just gets sooo much enjoyment out of it and Tony may too.
Who knows you may be able to expand into dog and parrot obedience school.. lol
Keep us updated, you might be able to gve me pointers on what works best.
well i started tonight. Simple loading for now. Probably keep it that way for the next few days. Then I'll start working on training. I'll probably start off with simple behaviors like come here, reinforce step up (which he does fine), wings away, and go to bed (which he just started to do last night )
any thing you want. The clicker is a tool used to reward your bird. Here's the basics of it:
You start off with some treats, I use spray millet clusters because they're small and Tony loves them. All you for about a week is click and give him a treat. Do this about 4 times, once or twice a day. What you're doing is teaching him that the click = treat. Same thing with pavlov's dogs and the bell. So he'll hear the click and know that a treat is coming.
Once he understands this, then you can reward any behavior you like. As soon as he does the behavior, you can click and instantly reward it. Makes teaching certain behaviors much easier then getting him to do it and trying to get a treat reward to him in time.
The hard part is actually training. Using the clicker is the easy part, you just click when he does something right and then give him a treat. It's your task as a trainer to figure out how to coax him into doing the behavior you want him to. Sometimes you can trick him into doing it. Like I taught my mom's quaker to balance by touching his foot with my thumb while he was on my finger and saying balance. When i touched his foot, he'd pick it up and stand on one foot. So he learned that balance means stand on one foot.
You can teach him to touch your finger with certain parts of his body. This is called targeting. Basicly you say a part, for instance toe, and touch his toe. When you touch his toe you'd click the clicker and give him a treat. He learns that when his toe touches your finger, he gets a treat. Soon you'll say toe and he'll start reaching for your finger, because he wants the treat sooner. Just keep reinforcing that when you say toe, he touches or grabs your finger with his foot. The same can be done with beak, left foot, right foot, head, you name it.
You can also teach them by a technique called capturing. Basicly you wait until they do something you like, then reward it and attach a word to it. I taught tony to "go to bed" which means get back in your cage. All I did was observe him and when he'd go climb in his cage by himself I'd tell him "go to bed" and give him a piece of apple or something. Soon if I saw him on his cage I could coax him in by telling him to go to bed and placing his treat in his cup.
so basicly figure out how to get him to do something, then reward the behavior and attach it to a word. Just remember to be consistant (same word and technique every time) and to frequently repeat the exercise. Also make it fun. If it's tedious to you and you don't want to do it, how do you tink your bird feels about it. Besides he can tell when you're having fun and when you're just going through the motions, and he'll act accordingly.
Thank-you vortmax.
I think Caruso and I will learn and have lots of fun doing clicker training.
My aunt said that she might try it on her Blue Fronted Amazon.
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