Flight Commands and training.
There have been a couple of posts regarding this topic so rather than write things more than once I figured it would be best to create a new thread.
The following is the technique That I use for Eve to teach flight commands. Whether or not it is the "professional" method I don't know, (professionals usualy use food deprivation to enhance training, literally making the bird work for it's meal otherwise it will not eat) I just know it has worked for me with Eve and many other parrots that I have trained. And I do not believe you should starve your bird to train it.
First you need to find your birds favorite treat, preferably one they would sell their soul for, but also one that can be eaten in one bite, Like sunflower seeds, raisins, piece or almonds or walnuts. Than stop giving your bird these treats, because they will now ONLY be used for flight training.
Next...You will need a stand that has little if no toys on it. If you do not want to take apart your stand or you don't have one than the back of a chair or step stool will do.
Pick an area of the house to work in, it should be away from the cage or other popular landing spots if possible, A hallway works well. If this is not an option than a room that has little in the way of distractions or landing spots.
Whether your bird is clipped or not the method will be the same but the distance will obviously change.
Pick a time of the day that is best suited for training, such as early afternoon or early evening. Morning is a bad time as the bird is more interested in breakfast, or has just eaten and is full, (a bird will not want o fly when full because of the added weight) and playing, and night time the bird wants to start settling down for the night.
Make training sessions short but frequent, No longer than 5-10 minutes a couple of times a day. And ALWAYS keep the session positive, if the bird is not in the mood simply try again later, and never punish the bird for not responding.
Training Time.....
Place bird on stand and have treats on hand. Hold your arm/hand about 3-5 inches in front of your bird and show him the treat, hold the treat on the other side of your arm opposite the bird and say "come here" or whatever command word you would like to use, just make sure it is the same word each time to avoid confusion. Praise your bird for any effort they exhibit but hold out on the treat till the actually make it to your arm.
Now for a fullflighted or very confidant bird this should happen rather quickly, but for a clipped bird that might be afraid of falling while jumping you might have to shorten the distance and really encourage them to jump. As the bird jumps to your arm constantly you can increase the distance. When they become uncomfortable with the distance just shorten the distance till they are once again confidant.
Every time you place the bird back on the stand say "go back" This will greatly help you when it comes time to teach the bird to fly back to the stand on command. For more advanced birds you can have different commands for different places. Eve knows "go back" which means to where ever he was before coming to me. "Go back to stand" and "Go back to cage" To do this start saying "go back to cage" every time you put your bird on it's cage and so forth for other places. But wait on training them this till they know what the "go back" command means.
Go Back....When your bird is on your arm/hand you point the bird in the direction of the stand Say "go back" and give your bird a little help with the take off, usualy a little upward jerk of your arm will do the trick, but be careful not to send your bird flying into the ceiling or wall. They will already know what is expected of them or rather where they are supposed to go because every time before when you were placing them back on the stand they were told to go back, now you are simply asking them to do it by them selves. When they go back give them a treat! Again you will increase or decrease the distance as your birds comfort allows.
Relay bird.....Same techniques but instead of a stand use another person, and the bird gets treats from each person. To make it more advanced....add the persons name to each command and than you can teach the bird to go to certain people. So it would be..."go to so and so" instead of the other person saying "come here" Depending on how advance you would like to get, (these are just the basics) you could have your bird bring light object to you or carry them back to the cage, get creative, it's about bonding and communication, and have fun!
|
Sponsored Links
Linear Mode
