I'm wondering the same thing. Is it because they aren't as smart as other parrots, or just that no one has tried. What have you taught yours to do? Mine is just starting to learn to fly to me when i call him. I'm not sure if that is considered a "trick" though.

I'm not really fond of the term "trick." :-) Flying to you on cue is definitely a trained behavior, and it's a useful one. It's one of the first things I taught Phoebe, my bronzewing.

She also knows to fly to a perch (to anything, really) if I tap on it, but she mostly only does that if she's on my hand. I've noticed recently that she really "get" the tapping cue unless she's on my hand. If she's on my shoulder or on another perch, she doesn't get it. Then I ask her to step up, and tap, and she takes flight. So we're working on that.

She also knows targeting (have a look at the clicker training article if that term is unfamiliar) and waves on cue and she poops on cue. I kind of regret teaching the poop-on-cue thing though - it would actually be much better if she knew to fly to designated poopin' perch when she needs to go. That's something I've been meaning to work on but haven't.

Mostly it's the flighted stuff that I find fun. We work on that stuff every day, and some friends and I are renting a big building on Sundays to practice flighted stuff, like in this picture:

http://www.featherforum.com/node/view/605

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

I have been working on improving my BHP talking. He started talking shortly after he came to live with us. DO, his former owner said he never heard him talk, but he does have Cockatoos and some Amazons that talk. So it is possible that a few of his early words he learned from those other birds. He seems to add a word or two a month, which surprised me.

He loves to play with a whiffle ball with a bell in it. So I have also been working on tossing it to me. He started out just dropping it down into my open hand. Now he will toss it, about 50% of the time, a couple inches to me. He will also pick it up when asked.

He targets his toys if you point towards that one you want him to touch and say "Toy". I can also get him to taste most foods by holding it in reach and sayong "Taste". Which is great for foods we aren't sure if he likes. If he doesn't like it he won't touch his tongue to it again, but if he likes it he will step closer and start eating.

Since his wings are currently clipped he doesn't fly but a couple feet. But I have been working on him going from me to his cage on cue. He does so easily as long as I don't have him to far away. 4-6 inches right now seems his strongest comfort zone. He has done two flies this week of about a foot to the cage, but I don't want to push the distance while he is clipped. I know if he starts missing the distance it may discourage him trying.

The other thing we have been teaching are things birds do on their own, but on a cue. For instance, he usually flaps his wings and does a little dance after bathing. So we get excited and tell him he is pretty, and what a good bird he is for dancing. He gets upto 5 minutes of specific attention and seems to have a ball. He now spreads his tail on cue--"Fan tail" and a hand signal, flaps on cue--"Exercises", he hangs down the side of his cage wings spread, tail faned on the word "Raindance". I also added flapping to our evening play sessions. "Fly" or "Let's Play" usually gets him to spend a few minutes flapping his wings like a fledgling on a nest.

The big thing is positive reinforcement. A happy upbet tone of voice. A treat. Lots of verbal praise. Any of these individually or combined seem to do the trick. My voice doesn't have to be loud just the tone bright and happy.

Dana

I started wondering how much training of my BHP I will actually have to do. I have been noticing the things I am teaching him are things he offers to do anyway and I just encourage.

For example, Pilot tends to be very clean. This passed week he has started potty training himself. What I mean is he will go when I offer to put him on me. Then he will move to a towel on a chair while on me to go, and then come back to me. I do make a point of praising him alot for doing so. In nine days he has only had one accident.

So for my Pi anyway I find it isn't so much a matter of training behavor, but of rewarding a behavor I want to keep.

Dana

Dana your last statement sums it up perfectly :), and I apply that to all of my pets - and my daughter as well.

In addition, I've never been one to "train" any of my animals but I talk to them all the time, in conversational tones, and they respond appropriately. For example, when my WC pi Chloe climbs down from her cagetop while I'm working in the bird room (rule: everybirdy must stay on cage tops when they're out in the bird room), I'll say, "Chloe, you know better than that, you'd better get back up there before you get stepped on..." or something like that, she walks back and climbs up.

Exceptions: "step up" (which most of them tell ME - lol), and "go there" (return to your perch when out with the family). That's pretty much it.

I think I prefer to interact with them as I do people, and there comes a point with every bird that joined our flock where a lightbulb goes off, and "THIS is how we do things here!" registers on their face, and they respond to my tone if not my words.

Congratulations on the potty training, it does make them easier to do things with when you're pretty sure you're not about to wear what they ate a couple of hours ago :).

ChiaOwl
http://www.owly.net
http://www.ittybittybirdiebites.com

That's great that he picked up the potty training on his own like that. Phoebe is starting to get the idea as well, but it's taken lots and lots of vigilance on my part, to make sure she's always on a designated perch when she'll be needing to go. It's finally starting to pay off, though.

And as you may have read elsewhere on this site, I finally managed to explain the 'fetch' concept to Phoebe a couple months ago. On the one hand, it took months... but on the other hand, when I started over with a prop she liked to play with anyhow, in a place she was comfortable, we went from zero to fetching in perhaps half an hour. Then it was just a matter of extending the distance. So now there's no question in my mind that pionus are as trainable as any bird.

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

One thing I am finding useful is keeping a notebook. When Pilot and I start working on a new thing I note the first session--what we're trying to accomplish, what reward seems to encourage the behavor, ect. Then I track progress over time. I find it gives me an idea of how quickly he learns, and what rewards work best for him.

For clicker work he likes Cheerrios. For everything else "Good Bird" and/or a little attention does the trick.

Also I keep the training short. I focus on it as long as he is having fun--5-20 minutes. If he seems bored, or not in the mood I don't push but try a different task. If he isn't enjoying the interaction even if he does it short term he won't repeat it later. If the session is fun for him then he'll offer the trick/behavor easily in the future.

Dana

I agree 100% about taking notes to record training progress. Just writing stuff down often gives me ideas about how to do better, simply because it motivates me to think about what happened.

That training-notebook idea is actually the main reason I started this web site. I was keeping such notes on my old web site, just by editing a file on the web server, and wanted a better system... one thing led to another and now there's forums and photos and all this other stuff too. :-)

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

I started a notebook way back when I rode horses. I found it helped me keep track of progress, as well as helping find info. I rode alot of different horses and it helped to keep alog of their different quarks so that when I would work with them again later I could read my past notes.

I carried it over to training my dogs and cats over the years. So starting one for Piolt just seemed normal.

I agree it helps to see the progress. I also think it will be useful if I get another Pi later. The notes will give me ideasa for what works and what doesn't. I know each bird is different, but it helps to have a point to start from.

Like when we first got Pilot last August. Everyone we talked with told us it usually takes six months to a year to build a basic bond to work from. 6-12 months before he would settle in and know that his new cage was home. 6-12 months to do more then step-up and be ready to train more. At least a yaer before he would start to talk--if he talked at all.

Pilot surprised me with settling in fast. Granted he wasn't completly settled at the start. But he did take to handling very quickly--by his second day I could let him out of his cage to be on top; and get him back in without fuss. After about 2-3 weeks he started trying out words. He had never had toys until he lived with us--and figured out what his whiffle ball was for in about 5 weeks. True it took him 5 months to try out the branches we got him, but now he loves them. As for the 6 month rule... Well right on month 6, to the day of his arrival, he acted the most at home I have ever seen any bird.

Pilot now has about 20 words/phrases in his vocabulary, and 5 toys that he loves. He now accepts new things in minutes since I've learned how to present it to him, and his trust of me has grown.

Dana--Pilot's perch

I have been looking over my notes on Pilot's progress. I am starting to see a definate trend to his learning curve. For simple tasks that are immediate one step process things he seems to pick it up in 3-5 repertitions. For things that have more steps to put together or take more trust he is averaging about a month to get it down.

I was wondering if others are finding their Pis to learn in the same time frame? Or if Pilot is an exception.

Dana

You know, I really don't train my pets to do anything, with the exception of "go there" (return to perch) for the parrots and a few basic obedience commands for the dogs. But they do what I request most of the time. I talk to them all the time in conversational tones, all day long, and when I need them to do something I continue in that manner, and they just do. For example, when I'm cleaning cages in the bird room each bird has to stay on his own cage to prevent chaos in there. When Chloe (WC pi), for example, starts to climb down - yes, she's flighted, but she likes to see what's been dropped on the floor - I will say something like, "Chloe...you'd better get right back up there so you don't get stepped on!" or something along those lines, and she waddles back to her cage and climbs back up. I've never provided a reward other than saying, "That's a good girl, you stay there now ok?" or similar. And if I had to describe how we get to that point, I couldn't. But if it's considered "training" then I guess I have?

ChiaOwl
http://www.owly.net
http://www.ittybittybirdiebites.com

If they generally do what you want them to do, you've trained them. :-) Setting out to train something, just for the sake of training, is one aspect of training, but getting a wild animal to coexist peacefully has to take some degree of training.

With behaviors that I set out to teach Phoebe, like fly-to-me, fly-to-perch, target, retrieve, etc, she catches on very quickly once I make it clear to her that THIS (whatever 'this' is) earned her a treat. For retrieve, it took me forever to think of a way to teach her, but one day it just clicked.

Once we get the first few rounds of do-this and get-treat, she will usually do it readily but only in exactly the way she learned it. For example she was very good at retrieving an object and putting it into my hand, over a distance of maybe two inches, right away. But it took several days of regular training to get her doing it over a distance of a few feet. Recall and fly-to-perch and targeting were all the same.

For behaviors that I capture, like pooping on a particular perch, it takes many more repetitions before she "gets it." That's much more gradual, whereas with other stuff there's a very clear moment when the light bulb goes on and she goes from wondering what this game is all about to understanding and being eager to do it again to earn another treat.

I'm about to try to capture a wing raise, we'll see how long this takes...

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

Yeah, I'm finding with Pilot that he seems to work for verbal praise over treats. The emotional reward makes a bigger impact. Treats work well if he is not in the mood and needs more promting.

We started working on a wing-raise. So far he will do it everytime, as many times asked, after his bath. He is still hit and miss other times. But I think it will click soon. Yesterday I asked for one in the eve just to try and he surprised me and did it. Of course, it doesn't mean he'll do it today. LOL

From what I'm noticing with him he learns quickly. My friend in California that has a Grey says her Grey learns slower. But once he has it he has it. He was a hand raised baby and takes between 2-4 months to catch on to a new trick. He is 7 yrs old now. So it seems Pilot is slightly quicker in the catching on department.

The things I train/practice with Pilot vary. Most are things that I think would just make it easier to handle him, or for vetting. You know like basic obedience stuff--got to your house, step-up, stay, lift wings,ect. The more trick things are for fun--both for him and me. The training gives him interaction and playtime. It also gives him an outlet for energy so he doesn't choose bad things to fill his time.

I figure if I don't give him something to do he'll find things that maybe wouldn't be good for him to do. I break the sessions down. Usually we have some time in the morning, some in the afternoon, and then a short eve session. It is a mix of play and specific tasks. That way he doesn't just get drilled.

I do find that he tends to respond to conversational cues. Like saying I'm going to go do homework has now become a cue that he responds to with begging to come with me. Other times if I say I'm going to my room he doesn't ask to join me. But he loves sitting on me while I do homework. He sits on my shoulder and looks out my bedroom window. But if I'm just going in there to watch TV or something he isn't interested.

Dana