- Hey, everyone.
So we are about to start our next Masterclass,
and we have a double yellow-headed amazon coming
as well as a budgie, so quite the pairing.
But they both wanna work on recall.
This rarely happens where we have people attend a class
who have the exact same goals for their birds,
normally it's completely offshoot.
So, I'm really excited.
This is gonna be Dave's jam.
- And we interrupt this meal to bring to you-
- Meal. - we've actually
worked with Miriam, if I'm saying it right,
through online consults for a while.
So I'm super excited to see
if some of the foundational stuff has been kept up on
and if it has, how much of an impact that has
on getting the behaviors we want, so.
This is really savory and I'm kinda drooling as I'm talking.
- What are you eating?
- Protein bar.
- Hmm. - It's a really good one.
- [Jamie] I was eating a protein bar.
- Mine's better.
- This is how we live on the road.
(both laughing)
Yours looks way better and caramely, mine's lemon.
- Yeah, and this one is delicious.
- It's fine.
- It's from 1st Phorm and- - I am not jealous. It's fine.
- Yep.
So recall training, here we go.
(upbeat techno music)
Do you have any behavioral issues?
- No. When I signed up, he was fighting a lot
with my other budgie, or she, I guess, whatever.
But just fixing sleep and diet completely solved that.
- [Dave] Sweet.
Okay, that's, well, that's the point of what we're doing,
I guess. So that's cool.
- [Jamie] Try from the other side of the perch.
- [Young Trainer] Okay. So like, what?
- [Jamie] Just show us your little repertoire.
- [Dave] Yeah. So whatever tricks,
if you need to do any kind of warm-up,
and then do some flights, then I'd love to see that.
My goal is I'd love to see
what your flight training looks like
so I can see what to fix or clean up or enhance or whatever.
- [Young Trainer] Yeah.
Can you spin?
- [Jamie] Tiny.
- [Dave] So distracted.
(clicker clicks)
- [Young Trainer] Oop, and there he goes.
- [Jamie] I thought he was gonna land on your head.
- [Dave] I wasn't sure.
Is he on the ground?
- [Jamie] Yeah.
What happened to you?
- [Young Trainer] Come.
(clicker clicks)
Oh, okay.
Yeah. She's pretty flighty.
(Jamie laughs)
- [Young Trainer] Can you come? Can you come?
It's a decision.
Show me you can do it.
(Jamie laughs)
Yes? No?
You're thinking about it.
There you go.
(Jamie laughs)
Can you shake?
- [Dave] Aw.
- [Young Trainer] That's close enough.
(Jamie laughs)
Come.
No.
- [Jamie] So just be mindful to wait
'til she's totally done eating before you give the next cue.
- [Young Trainer] Okay. Come.
(clicker clicks)
- [Dave] So cute.
- [Jamie] They are, adorable.
(clicker clicks)
- [Dave] How many flaps was that in a 12 inch jump?
- [Young Trainer] Yes? No? Yes?
- [Jamie] A little distracted.
- [Young Trainer] Lots going on.
- [Jamie] Flash remind-
(clicker clicks)
- [Dave] Cool, so I see something real quick
that I can explain.
So when, so far I've seen you set everything up
to where she succeeds
and one of the most important things to understand
is that I call it the "participation trophy effect."
Like, if everybody shows up and gets a trophy,
why would somebody want to work harder to get first?
- [Young Trainer] Sure.
- Right. So in other words,
we need to allow certain amounts of failures
in a certain amount of repetition.
So rather than, on your next set,
rather than holding out your hand
and continuing to give the cue,
and then I'm gonna exaggerate it,
five minutes later she makes a flight and you click,
well, you just clicked for
"wait for five minutes and then come to me."
- [Young Trainer] Oh, yeah.
- But if you're holding it for five minutes
and then you're like, "okay, you lost the opportunity,"
and you take it away for a moment.
Now she's gonna be looking out like,
"well wait, where's the millet? How do I get that?"
When you come back the second time,
you'll have a much faster response,
because you intentionally allowed failure.
- [Young Trainer] Oh, okay.
- So if she got second place on that one,
the next time she's gonna think of,
"how do I work harder to get first place?"
In this next repetition,
at the same distance you were just at,
try to get a recall
and if you don't get in a pretty decent amount of time,
I'm just gonna have you kind of pause.
And by pause,
you're not changing everything by stepping back.
You have the opportunity here
and you're just going to take the opportunity away
for a second. Turn a little bit to the side.
And then when you're ready,
you'll come back and you'll offer it again.
And it might be about 20 seconds of waiting.
By taking your attention away for maybe 20 seconds
before you reset and try again.
So let's just try a regular recall.
- Come.
- [Dave] And good, yep.
So now just kinda wait for 10 seconds, maybe 20 seconds.
Something that you could do on the next one to also help
is just kind of flash the treat quickly,
so she's like, "oh yeah, I'm training."
Now this time let's take just a small step forward.
So you're right back where you had left off
before where it was successful.
You were a little closer than what those two attempts were.
- [Young Trainer] Right.
- [Dave] So give that a try.
- [Young Trainer] Come.
(clicker clicks)
- [Dave] Nice.
So, a rule that all my free flight students
are probably tired of hearing
is that when you experience failure,
we pushed too far, too fast.
Go back to where it was last working well
and slowly rebuild it from there.
So let's see if you can get another recall.
- [Young Trainer] Can you come?
I don't remember what distance it is.
(Jamie laughs)
- [Dave] You're right about the same spot.
- And take away the opportunity.
Okay, so the next one you'll go ahead
and just flash the treat a little bit,
remind her real quick.
- [Young Trainer] Come.
- [Dave] She doesn't look super motivated.
(clicker clicks)
- [Young Trainer] There you go.
- [Jamie] I also don't think it's like 100% trained
'cause the only time she's done it,
is when the millet is in view.
- [Young Trainer] Right, it's not.
- [Jamie] So I think that you're still relying
on the lure a little bit.
But yeah, I think we should probably put her up for now
we're gonna lose her.
So we're gonna put her back in the cage.
- [Young Trainer] Sure.
- [Jamie] And take a little break.
- [Dave] Lot of potential, for sure.
- [Jamie] Yeah. I think we have to look
at it a little bit more as luring.
Yeah. That's so funny.
(clicker clicks)
- [Woman] Even if he doesn't though,
that's part of training.
- [Jamie] So it's easy.
(clicker clicks)
So wait till he's done eating before you ask.
- [Dave] If you hear me going
(Dave imitating eating)
I'm just translating what your bird is saying.
- [Jamie] It means the same thing.
(laughing)
(clicker clicks)
- [Jamie] Aww
- [Dave] That's cute.
- [Young Trainer] And can we do a spin?
(clicker clicks)
- [Jamie] Yes!
- Can you come?
(Dave imitating eating)
No.
Come.
(clicker clicks)
Step up.
- [Jamie] Give more time for her to finish eating
before you ask for the next thing.
- I see a pattern.
(laughing)
- [Young Trainer] Okay. Come.
- [Dave] So show the treat.
- [Jamie] I mean, I haven't done it yet.
(clickers clicks)
- [Young Trainer] Good job!
- [Jamie] Whoa! Double click.
- [Dave] That was me.
I didn't see that you had the clicker ready,
so I was like.
(Dave laughs)
- [Jamie] So I do think that she requires more luring,
so I think that you're gonna have to show the treat
initially to get the behavior and then phase it out.
(clickers clicks)
- [Young Trainer] Are you clicking?
- [Dave] It's exact same timing, yeah.
(laughing)
It's on you though.
I'm used to people not like being ready for it like you are
but you've proved to me twice in a row
that you're ready, so.
(clicker clicks)
- [Jamie] Good. That was a great one
without the food in view.
- [Dave] And you were able
to slightly increase the distance.
- [Man] She's like, "oh now I understand what this game is."
- Come.
- [Jamie] Take away the opportunity.
- [Dave] So, to experience failure,
you push too far, too fast.
Go back to where it was last working
and slowly rebuild it from there.
Perfect.
(clicker clicks)
Yeah.
Here, I'll take the paintbrush from you
because what was happening is you were treating
and possibly cuing at the same time.
- Ohhh.
- [Dave] As a target stick,
you were in her bubble or his bubble or whatever we decided,
(laughing)
and so was the target stick,
and so it can be misleading
because she's engaged in the training and she's like,
"do I get the food? Do I get the stick?"
And so there's sometimes it'll happen really quickly
where they're like
(indecisive uming)
- Right, right.
- [Dave] So I'll just set it here for now.
- Can you come?
- [Dave] It took Blueberry like a year and a half
before it was obvious.
- [Woman] And there's some color mutations
where they've changed differently than others,
so you have to base, if it's like a bright pink,
not the rusty brown then it's female.
If it's bright pink, it's a male. It's super weird.
- [Jamie] We might be losing motivation.
- [Dave] She doesn't look super hungry but,
she looks super cute.
- Can you spin?
- [Man] That's amazing
- [Dave] Okay, so, be cautious and this is so perfect,
'cause you guys are both getting to see each other
make the same mistakes,
I don't think it's a mistake yet, but be cautious
that you're asking for more difficult behavior
and she refuses and you follow up with something easy.
- [Jamie] And that was a really big bite,
like you let her nibble on that for a good go
when that shouldn't have been a jackpot,
you know what I mean?
'Cause that was easy, she already knows that.
- [Dave] But I haven't been looking for it
as specifically with you,
but I don't think it's a pattern yet
but make sure it doesn't-
- [Jamie] Just be mindful.
- [Dave] Become a pattern.
So if you see that she's not receptive,
then just wait, kind of reset and then try it again.
- Can you come?
Nice girl.
- [Dave] Maybe lure her a little bit.
- Come.
- [Dave] Ooh, so cute.
- [Jamie] Did she switch hands?
- [Dave] Yeah, you did switch switch hands.
- [Jamie] Did you switch hands?
- Yes.
- [Dave] That goes back to speaking with an accent
that I was talking about.
- Can you come?
- [Jamie] I think we're losing her.
- [Dave] Sleep?
So cute.
- Do you want the millet?
You want the millet.
- [Jamie] I really don't.
- [Dave] There you go and that was good,
I wouldn't have clicked on that either.
- [Jamie] Yeah. Yeah.
- [Dave] 'Cause it wasn't perfect.
Wah, wait.
Yeah, just let her hang on for a second.
But you still give her the treat 'cause she did do it,
but the click has taken a picture of that exact moment,
you wanna see again?
So, it's not perfect, don't click
and you did a great job at that.
You wanna probably put her up for now
so that we don't lose her.
- [Jamie] I think we're losing her.
- [Dave] Okay. So, you can take her back in the cage
for a little bit.
I think Jamie's observation that the flights
weren't fully trained yet,
we can keep cleaning that up and training it,
and think of using the same hand every time for the cue.
- Come.
Yeah, you're not gonna do it. I can kinda tell.
- [Dave] So cute though.
- [Jamie] But you're adorable.
(clicker clicks)
(laughing)
- [Dave] So worth pointing out, that's the second time
where she didn't do a long flight,
so you bridged for an easy behavior.
- Yes I did.
- [Dave] Yeah, so just be aware
that that's a tendency you have
and also be okay that like everybody has a tendency.
- Come.
- [Jamie] You might change where she's flying from.
- [Dave] You could change the environment slightly.
- Am I doing it with the right hand?
- [Dave] Hm-hmm.
- Yes, okay. Can you come? Allie?
Yeah! You did it!
- [Dave] Can I see-
- [Jamie] This motivation is scary.
- [Dave] Can I see the millet?
- Yes.
- [Dave] Let's see.
Will you do it for me?
- She's usually good with other people.
- [Dave] Do you want this?
Come on! Right.
So see how I work through the challenge on that?
Whereas like I wasn't getting the behavior,
so it's almost a lure
and then what happened when I brought this super close,
she's like, "yeah, yeah, yeah!"
And now her mind's like, "I'm going to eat that"
and then it's like, "oh, I gotta go get it to eat it."
- [Young Trainer] Ohhh.
- [Dave] But I connected it, now she's like, she's all in.
And I got her attention, so now I'm redirecting
how far she has to go to finish
that thought process in her mind.
'Cause she knew she was gonna eat food.
I'll let you try this one.
So try changing things if you're not getting it,
rather than just getting a step up.
- [Young Trainer] Right.
- [Dave] She's more likely to do it for you than me.
- [Young Trainer] Can you come?
- [Dave] Nice. So that was a short one,
so let's do the next one...
- [Young Trainer] Should I be clicking
for like the short ones?
- [Dave] You can click for the short ones, yeah.
- [Young Trainer] Can you come? Allie, can you come?
- [Dave] She's just so...
- [Jamie] You guys are like on her,
you guys are pushing so far.
(clicker clicks)
- [Dave] There we go. I did on that.
So that's a good illustration to part of your question
of like if they're disconnected
and you can't get it, what do you do?
We try resetting, we troubleshoot,
we try maybe a little bit of luring, we try to redirect.
Yeah, see, she wants to do easy stuff now.
So we'll redirect like yeah, you could do it for this.
You could, you know, here's the treat,
show them the treat in your hand,
but you wanna try doing whatever you can
to get that engagement
and that was kind of where I was gonna go
with the chart of like you wanna stop
before the unwanted behavior of losing them.
But it's still too far at this point.
- [Jamie] It's hard
because it's a lot of troubleshooting.
- [Dave] Yeah.
- [Jamie] But I get
where you're were trying to go with that.
- [Dave] Let's see if we can end
with like a couple easy tricks on there and so,
before you cue a trick,
we're going to do what's called "FR2",
are you familiar with- - No.
- [Dave] These terms? Okay. So "FR1",
"FR" just stands for "Frequency of Reinforcement",
how often do they get the treat.
- [Young Trainer] Right.
- [Dave] So "FR1" means that we get one flight,
one flight gets one click and that gets one treat.
What we're going to do on the next one,
she spins and she does the shake, right?
So let's do the cue for the spin,
she completes the spin and then we'll hang on,
she'll complete the spin and then you give a click
and then you could then cue another spin and a click,
before you give the treat or you could do the shake.
- [Jamie] Ask for two easy ones.
- [Dave] Before you give the final treat, one time.
- [Young Trainer] So you want me to start with one?
- [Dave] So what I would do, is I would say,
I would do spin, click and wave, click, treat.
That's kind of our normal "FR2" for our birds.
- [Young Trainer] Okay. Can you spin?
Whoa, not even that?
- [Dave] Aww.
- [Young Trainer] Here, step up.
That's an easy one.
- [Jamie] So remember he said "FR2",
so you were supposed to ask two easy behaviors
for one treat.
- [Young Trainer] Right, can you spin now?
(clicker clicks)
No! Okay.
(laughing)
- [Woman] It's basically asking you do two tricks
in a row, you'll click for each
and then just a treat at the very end of both of them. Go.
If I understand correctly, go.
- [Young Trainer] Can you spin?
(clicker clicks)
Can you shake?
(clicker clicks)
- [Dave] Nice.
- [Jamie] Perfect
- [Dave] 'Kay. so the reason we do "FR2",
that was perfectly done,
is we can increase the motivation
without having to increase the hunger.
- [Young Trainer] I think I know like what to do now.
- [Dave] Yeah.
- [Jamie] Yeah, and I think that at home,
you can really play with that motivation,
like that's what I do for Blueberry,
is I just kind of give-
- [Young Trainer] There is a lot more motivation at home.
Like a lot.
- [Jamie] Yeah, yeah. The comfort level's different,
and I think that you'll be able to expand
on a lot of the things that we showed you here
and be able to catch your own patterns,
'cause you're really in tune with that.
- Right.
- [Jamie] So every time Dave said like,
"oh you did this", you had a reason behind why you did it.
Which is the important thing,
is that you're doing those things intentionally.
So I think as long as you feel like you're going home
with the tools to be able to progress from here,
that you're good to go.
And just remember if you're gonna work on harder things,
to do it when your bird's at the higher motivation,
so it's usually at the very beginning of the session
instead of at the end.
- Yes.
(Jamie laughing)
- [Dave] This was a pretty unique class,
we don't normally, like we never teach free flight
in a masterclass, but this one's full of tons of flying tips
obviously for indoor,
but just really understand that it's,
like I said for Miriam too,
it's all about the the cleanliness of your cues.
So if you're cuing with your right hand,
always cue with your right hand.
And eventually you could change it up
once it's become a perfected trick.
You can change that cue
but just make sure you're really clean and consistent
with how you do that in the beginning
and until it's a known behavior.
Just really also bookend with the easy tricks.
So your tendency, knowing that your tendency is to like,
"oh, you don't wanna do a long one,
let's do something simple."
If she's grown to expect that,
then push for the hard stuff in the middle
or right at the very beginning
and then end with something super easy.
And just make that the, if you're gonna have a pattern,
that's a good pattern to have.
- [Jamie] Yeah.
- Otherwise you think like, "oh no, I don't wanna do that,
'cause the next flight's gonna be 10 feet
and the one after that's gonna be 12 feet".
Right? And if they're always thinking
every interaction's gonna push them to like exhaustion,
they're going to start to self regulate
and say " I don't wanna do flights
because she doesn't know when to stop."
Right? That's like what I've seen people do for 20 years
and so now we really start to focus in on,
and it depends on the age of the bird and the type,
and you know, there's so many variables,
but as a general statement,
we'll start with something easy like a target or a spin.
We'll do the hard stuff, easier, easier, easier,
and then really easy at the end.
(cut-scene bleep)
- [Snake Handler] Here you go.
- Nice. - Ooh, yeah, yep.
- [Snake Handler] See, yeah, you kinda need both hands
to move around with them.
- Go ahead.
- I'm just milking this.
- [Capri] It's already filming.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
Come on babe. - Do you want this one too?
- No. She said you can need a lot of experience.
(chuckling)
- A huge thank you to Snake Discovery
for hosting our masterclasses here
this weekend in Minnesota.
If you haven't checked them out,
we will leave their link below.
But definitely go give 'em a like and a follow
because they have made this weekend possible
and look at these amazing snakes.
(chuckling)
- [Snake Handler] Perfect! That was great!