- [Jamie] Do you guys feel like you're seeing Fennel
at a more workable disposition at all?
I'm worried that you guys aren't seeing
too much of a difference
when it comes to your interactions with her.
But I've definitely felt a huge transformation with her.
I hope that it will eventually translate.
- I think probably.
I mean, I'm seeing a little bit of a difference,
not a huge difference, (clears throat)
only because I think we still don't have that...
She doesn't have that trust with me.
And we don't have this great way
where she and I both fully understand each other.
And so that's just gonna take more time.
But knowing now where I messed up,
her not actually being trained so much with the hand,
and me causing frustration instead of...
In trying to eliminate fear, I caused frustration.
I think that kind of stuff could make it where this round,
she can learn to trust me a lot better,
and I can understand her better.
(bright upbeat music)
- [Jamie] And she is more capable.
So if you made her come all the way down
for that target, she would,
versus only going part way 'cause she's on a slant.
So what's more naturally comforting for her
is to go back up to the top.
Versus if you brought her down to that lower part
and then had her try to step up from there, it'll be easier.
But otherwise, she's almost unwinding every time,
if that makes sense, based on what you're asking.
- [Lady] I'm used to her not wanting to go the distance.
She never wanted to. - She'll go the distance.
- [Lady] Like if I had her target over here,
she wouldn't want to,
but if I had her target here, she would.
- [Jamie] Yeah.
In this case, she'll definitely...
Yeah, she'll go the distance.
But if you do too many reps,
then we'll lose motivation entirely.
Especially 'cause for me I'm training her after meals,
so you guys may find that you need that higher motivation
and you train before so that you get more out of her.
- I mean, really, it's about me figuring out
how to communicate this the right way to her
and then that's- - Yeah.
I think we could definitely do that
when she has a little bit higher motivation later
and see if that makes a difference
for your interactions with her, for sure, if you want to.
And I can watch and stuff
and just try to pick out little nuances
that I think you'll be doing
or that I can see that you're doing.
And we can say, "Hey, try to do this differently
or try to do that differently."
And we can definitely do that.
Or if you guys are just like,
"Hey, we wanna go work on it on our own time with her."
I respect that too.
Not gonna block you from your bird. (chuckles)
So it's really up to you and what your goals are
and what you'd like to work on.
- I think it's probably better...
Unless you've got a super crazy afternoon,
I think it's probably better to leave her
and then come back later.
- [Jamie] I hear bo.
Did you just poop?
- Mm-hmm. (lady laughs)
You wanna come?
Oh, you do? Okay, but I'm not taking you out there.
So when we left earlier,
I was thinking that I probably need to forget
everything that I think works and doesn't work,
and forget our history
and just kind of start over in a way.
You tell me what kind of bird this is,
and then I will try to treat her like that.
- [Jamie] Yeah.
I agree with that.
And that was something that I had to constantly do.
Like I told you, there was a point in time
where I kept replaying what you had told me about her.
And I kept thinking...
I almost was looking for reasons to validate those opinions.
And so anytime she showed me a behavior
that was, I don't know, like in a way discouraged me,
I was like, "Yeah, maybe she's just a mediary bird.
Maybe she's just not interested."
And every time I had those thoughts,
it kind of pegged me in a corner a little bit.
And it made it so that I was less creative
in how I went about it.
And I was less hopeful, which I'm sure had a little to do
with my energy going to her,
like, "Okay, I'm gonna try this,
but its probably not gonna work."
Which is never, ever a great energy to go at an animal with.
So I think with her,
it kind of goes back to our conversation night one
when I was just like, "Even if this doesn't work on day one,
it doesn't mean it won't work on day two."
Keep trying.
Even if that treat isn't great on day five,
try it on day 12 because she might just change her mind.
- Okay.
- [Jamie] The sunflower seeds
seems to be her treat of choice, the bigger one.
So she's gonna do- - Hi, Fennel.
Do you wanna come?
- [Lady] The holder, I think I put it somewhere.
- [Jamie] The other thing you could do
is just see if she's receptive with the target stick.
Let's see if she wants to do anything
just as kind of a warm-up.
She is giving me the demeanor
of like, nighttime already, for some reason.
- [Woman] Well, it's cold and rainy out.
- [Interviewer] I think it's varying weather.
As soon as I walk outside, I'm like, "Oh, man."
Even I am like, "I wanna be in pajamas." (chuckles)
So, yeah, I think just from seeing
her demeanor and everything,
I was like, "Oh, this probably won't go great,
but it doesn't mean you can't try."
(target stick pops)
Good job
- [Woman] One thing I was gonna ask is, being outside,
the weather in Houston
obviously is probably more like what you have in Florida,
I guess. - Yeah.
(target stick pops)
- Good job.
- [Jamie] I'm gonna go.
I might sneak your carrier, actually.
I might be sneaky with you,
just in case you don't wanna go.
(woman laughs)
- [Woman] She wants us to take her home.
- [Jamie] I wanna take her in.
Yeah, so she thinks I'm putting her in there.
- Yeah. - Fennel, I'm sorry.
- [Woman] Sorry, Fennel.
We got about an hour and a half drive or so,
and then we'll be at the hotel, and then a plane ride.
- [Jamie] Yeah, she thought because I opened that door
that she was definitely going back in the (indistinct).
- She's like, "Oh, no."
- [Jamie] So I gave her a couple of treats in there,
but I also need to get her a couple of ties.
- Do you have the pink bowl?
- [Jamie] Yes. (indistinct) this from you.
- Yes. - Okay.
I was trying to figure it out.
- Awesome. Well, thank you so much.
And we'll definitely keep you posted
and let you know how it's going.
I will have her take videos so I can send you,
saying, "I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
And my daughter keeps saying this, but I don't agree."
(both laugh)
- [Jamie] Yeah.
Video helps me so much
because I have a different interpretation
of what your interpretation is.
So it's always really nice to see video, so yeah.
- Well, and I'll probably record some of it anyway
just to see what I can see and to show her what am I doing.
And she can say, "You see this?
You're reading her body language wrong."
Or whatever. - Exactly.
Cool, guys. Well, thanks for making all the effort.
- Well, yeah, thank you so much. We appreciate it.
All right, come on, Fennel.
(Jamie chuckles)
Back to Houston. Ready? (chuckles)
- [Jamie] She's like, "What's going on?"
She'll be more content when she gets some pellets in there.
- Yeah.
She's gonna hold this against me for six months.
You made me go back to Houston. I was happy at bootcamp.
- Oh. (laughs)
Happy at bootcamp? - Yeah.
- Said no one ever.
(all laugh)
- (indistinct) She has a lot of fun.
Well, thank you so much. We'll definitely stay in touch.
- [Jamie] Thank you.
Yeah, I'm excited to see how she's doing.
I love it.
All right, travel safe. - Thank you so much.
- Bye, guys. - Goodbye.
- It's so weird because I'm like, "Oh, she's so ready to go.
I'm gonna be fine."
I had so many people be like, "Are you gonna miss her?"
And I'm like, "No, no, no. I'm gonna be fine.
I think she's ready to go."
And then there's just certain things that happen
that make me super emotional. (laughs)
So she's really sweet, though.
So the most rewarding part
is them feeling like they walked away
with a better starting point.
And I'm super excited too.
Oh, let's see how much progress they make.
Oh, I'm gonna miss her now.
It was really cute to see her wanna stay.
(Jamie breathes heavily)
- Traveling home with Fennel wasn't difficult.
She was very quiet. She was very messy.
I would clean out her carrier, give her fresh water,
give her fresh food, change out the paper towels,
wipe everything down.
We get in the plane. We're moving along.
We get to the next stop, and bam, it's disgusting again.
So that was fun.
When I got home, there were a few things
that were different with Fennel.
First of all, when you asked her to step up,
she usually would.
And like I said, I hadn't picked Fennel up in a month
before she went to Jamie's.
So the fact that I could say, "Hey, you wanna come?"
And she would was amazing.
That was great.
I felt more of a connection with her, I guess,
at that point. (clears throat)
She did not step up with her beak.
The first couple of days of being home,
she was not lunging at the door.
All of her feathers aren't coming up.
She's not striking to tell me,
don't even bother putting your hand in here.
She had much calmer body language,
more curious than defensive.
The other thing is that my daughter
could take her out of the bird room
and bring her out to the living room or the kitchen
to perch.
And so that's also new, that she just took it in stride.
It didn't seem to bother her at all. So that was great.
My first priority with Fennel is not to lose the momentum
that Jamie has coming into this.
So I will absolutely stay on the diet conversion
that Jamie did.
Jamie worked for that.
So I'm not going to let her run out
of the organic pellets again.
And I'll stay on Jamie's seasonal feeding system.
Another thing that's sort of first priority
is to understand, I think, that some days
Fennel is going to be compliant and want to come out,
and some days she's not, and that's okay.
That's something that Jamie said.
And having heard that, I think it really changes
my whole perspective
on how I'm gonna go about approaching training with her.
It's okay if she doesn't want to.
It doesn't mean that I did something wrong.
It doesn't mean that we are backsliding.
It just means she's not gonna do it today.
My goals with Fennel, long-term goals
because things with Fennel move really slowly. (laughs)
Long-term goals, I would love Fennel to be a companion bird.
I want her to be flight trained.
I want her to go everywhere, do everything,
see everyone. (clears throat)
Will she ever be that bird? I don't know.
Right now, my goals for her are much more short term.
I want her to choose to say yes
and come to me 80% of the time,
not just 40% or 50% of the time.
I would like to get her out more with the family
and have her BOK during family game night,
or hang out when we have people over without freaking out
or feeling like somebody's going to attack her.
I want her to be a part of our flock.
We have a flock of...
We've got multiple birds,
and I want her to be comfortable around them.
Ultimately, I think probably one of the things
that excites me about this the most,
that I'm really excited about with her,
is I want her to be
a well-rounded, confident, secure, happy companion bird.
That's what I would like for her.
And I do understand that that may be with me,
and maybe it won't be with me.
However, I'm committed to this.
I'm committed to her, and I'm going to do everything I can
to have her be that kind of companion bird in my home.
I have a lot of birds at my house,
and none of them are like Fennel.
She is just different.
Even my other female, Eki,
is more like the other parrots than Fennel.
Fennel is just a different type of bird.
I am looking forward to a long future with Fennel.
I'm looking forward to us
getting past whatever we need to get past,
forgetting everything that we've been through,
and just starting from day one and saying,
"Hey, girl, you wanna come?"
And her stepping up and, you know, good girl,
and setting her back down.
And that's the new relationship.
One great thing that I learned from Jamie is that's okay.
Some days are just gonna be like that.
And she has the distance of being a bird trainer
versus the bird owner, so she can see it maybe for behavior,
whereas as a bird owner, I might be taking it personally,
like, "Oh, this bird doesn't like me,
or I must have done something wrong."
And so having that perception
of looking at the bird's behavior and just understanding,
she's not gonna do it today, that's okay.
I do have other birds I can do that thing with.
It doesn't have to be Fennel.
Some days she's gonna do it, and some days she won't.
And that's okay.
My ultimate goal with her is that most days,
she'll choose to do it
because she can be content, and happy, and comfortable
with me as well as without me.
But then maybe 80% of the time,
she would rather be with me than alone.
Only time will tell. We'll see.
But I am excited to see where it goes.