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Posted by NateW on Wed, 04/19/2006 - 22:25
I've been working with Tangent on flighted retrieve, and he's getting better at it every day. At this point if I toss a small whiffle ball onto a couch a few feet away he'll fly over, pick it up, fly it back, and put it into my hand.

He was pretty sloppy about actually putting it into my hand (as opposed to just dropping it when he landed on my other hand) but after just a few repetitions of "pick it up, turn, put it in my hand" (no flying) and only getting rewarded for placing it directly in my hand, he got the idea. It's interesting to watch him learn, and to see how quickly he learns when I'm careful (or not careful) about what I reward him for.

My girlfriend and I have also gotten him to fly to one of us, pick up the ball, and carry it back to the other, which is fun for all of us. She gets a kick out of playing games with him like this, and I get a kick out of watching them. :-)

Phoebe seems to think she's too dignified for this nonsense. She'll do a retrieve, but she's obviously not as excited about it as Tangent is.

In other news, I just heard that a couple friends of mine moved to a horse farm and are going to turn the barn into an aviary. That should be fun!
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Posted by karen on Tue, 04/25/2006 - 21:18.
That sounds impressive, and it must be fun.
I've tried to each Chico to retrieve a toy, but he much prefers throwing the toy off the table and watching me retrieve it for him. I think the little stinker knows what he's supposed to do because he does retrieve on occasion.

Karen
Chico (conure) and Pippin (budgie)
WI
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Posted by NateW on Sat, 04/29/2006 - 18:25.
It sounds like you just have to make it a little more worth his while to really do the retrieve. :-) Have you found a treat that he will work for?

I think it also helps to do really small retrieves in the beginning, like picking it up from right next to your hand. They can earn more treats in less time that way, whichs helps keep them interested. Also, once they have some 'momentum' that way, earning a 3-4 treats in a row, they'll try extra hard when they don't get a treat for doing something wrong.

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA
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Posted by karen on Sat, 04/29/2006 - 19:25.
I've tried with a milk carton cap and placing it on a table. His immediate reaction is to playfully push the cap off the edge of the table. So what I was doing was putting my hand out and when the cap did land in my hand, I would click and give him a walnut piece. But he never really caught on to the idea. Maybe he just thought he was sometimes being rewarded for throwing it off the table and never realized that the treat came only when he got it in my hand.
That was all done before I got my budgie. The budgie is a major training distraction now, since the minute he sees Chico interested in something, he will fly over and try to steal it...

Karen
Chico (conure) and Pippin (budgie)
WI
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Posted by NateW on Fri, 05/05/2006 - 00:01.
I went through a phase like that with both of my birds, and eventually decided that teaching them to DROP the object into my hand is counter productive - they figure it's my fault for not having my hand under it at the right now. Instead I taught them to bump the object into my hand, and that transitions to putting the object into my hand.

In the beginning I think it's helpful to give treats just for picking the object up. And keep your hand close and give a treat when the bump the object into your hand while they're chewing on it. Once they get the idea that treats keep coming while they're chewing on / playing with the object, they figured out that touching the object to my hand was really earning treats, and over time I just got a little more particular about what they had to do to earn a treat.

I can't train Phoebe when Tangent is around, I know what you mean about that kind of thing. :-) His retrieving has gotten a lot better over the last few months, and hers is getting weaker and weaker.

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA
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