(birds chirping) - We're a mess.
(laughing) - [Jamieleigh] Okay,
just bein' upfront. - That's just,
to sum it up.
(upbeat music)
- [Jamieleigh] Norm is a blue-fronted Amazon
who's around 20 years old, whom Amber has had
for about 12 years.
Now their problem is that they don't trust each other,
he has literally flown to attack her,
finds her out in the house and goes after her.
And although they have done some target training,
it has been severely regressed lately,
so apparently it's not working anymore,
and also, the latest issue with Norm is that he does not
want to leave his cage, so now he has a fear
of leaving his cage, so as you can see,
I'm trying to convince him.
- [Dave] Did you notice how his body language changed there?
He was nervous 'cause he's surrounded, but then like,
oh there's food, I'll come out.
- [Jamieleigh] Most birds when you just open their cage
or their carrier, especially a travel cage like this one,
they're usually anxiously awaiting trying to come out,
but not Norm.
If anything, he comes out, but then he stays
on top of his safety place which is basically his cage.
So I go ahead and close the front
making it so he at least can't go back in.
I would like to keep him out because I want
to eventually get him to willingly
come off of his carrier and interact with me.
So using some treats is how I originally got him out,
but as you can see he never even actually took the treat,
but you can tell he's pretty happy and content up there.
- [Dave] So three weeks again he was targeting
but it regressed?
Do you wanna pick that back up?
- [Jamieleigh] Usually with birds that once upon a time
knew how to target,
it will come back relatively quickly with them.
So, here I see if he just responds to the target
all by itself which he does not,
so then I end up using a treat to kind of lure him
to the end of the stick.
So as he's reaching for the treat
I just kinda put the stick in the way,
he touches the stick just because it's in the way
of the treat, and he earns the treat.
This is just kind of a way to remind him
that the stick does play a role in receiving the treat.
This next repetition happens actually a little bit easier.
Instead of having to lure the entire time,
I only have to do it a little bit.
So I start off by waiting for him
to finish his previous treat,
then holding up the target seeing if he'll go
for just the target in view which he does not.
So then I simply hold up the treat as a reminder
of what he's actually working for,
that seems to entice him enough to come over to the stick.
I put the treat out of view for a second,
wait for him to touch the target,
and then he earns the reward.
Then as you can see on this third repetition,
there's no sign of the treat, it's not in view,
it's only the target being presented,
and he successfully touches it.
- [Dave] So she's, while she's doing this,
one of the things to take away is,
if you're struggling with training on a t-stand,
switch to a countertop.
If you're struggling with the countertop,
switch to a travel cage top.
If you're struggling with a cage top, go to t-stand.
But it doesn't have to be,
just 'cause you see us use a t-stand a lot,
it doesn't necessarily mean that that's gonna be best
for your bird.
So one thing you're seeing here is you can target
to one spot, but if you want the bird
to go a little further you can give
the treat slightly further.
- [Amber] Yes, that's what I was like
how far do I actually have to go?
(birds chirping)
- [Dave] So like she can get a target,
and then the treat's further.
- [Amber] Good job, buddy.
- [Worker] Safety's gone.
- [Jamieleigh] Thank you.
(laughing)
So now that we've got Norm's travel cage out
of the equation, I wanna make sure that I go ahead
and build his confidence, make sure
that the target training looks really clean and clear
on this countertop which he's never trained on before.
So he actually ends up being a lot more willing to interact,
a lot more excited about the training
and way more enthusiastic without any sort of hesitation so,
he just gets right in there
and we have a successful session.
- [Dave] So when you strip away the bird's comfort zone,
you saw a huge difference in the willingness
to train, right?
- Come here, bud.
- [Dave] Was that aggressive or could you tell?
- [Jamieleigh] No, it was enthusiastic.
(birds chirping)
- Good job, buddy.
- Here you go.
- He jumped-- - [Dave] He's like holy hell,
where did you come from?
- Yeah (laughs)
All right come here, bud.
- [Dave] Show her one more example of you doing it.
- 'Cause if you look at the end of our stick,
there's little chompies out of the end. (laughs)
- [Dave] It's evidence. - [Amber] So that makes sense
when you're saying that. - [Jamieleigh] Yeah.
So that's where you started to go.
You started off great, and then it starts going there.
- [Amber] Okay.
(bird screeching)
- [Dave] Barely touches it.
- Like, this is a big deal.
(clicking) Good job, bud.
- [Dave] See how Jamie clicked in anticipation
he was gonna touch it.
Versus he bit, could chomp harder, then click.
- [Amber] Right. - [Dave] And so,
what she's doing, she's capturing it
before it's an aggressive bite.
She's capturing it where it's just the beginning of a tag.
And every interaction is a training session
(cross talking and clicking)
We want it to be gentle touch. - Good job.
So one of the things that Amber and Rusty
have struggled with is getting him to train on a t-stand
because he will not leave his cage at home.
So this is something that I start working on
using the same technique of targeting.
I'm just simply targeting the bird.
What this does is instead of asking the bird
to go onto a t-stand, I'm not asking that,
I'm simply asking to touch the end of a target
which he's very confident doing.
So it's kind of a mental misdirection we use
with animals.
A lot of times when horses are scared to go into trailers
you simply use a target to target them in,
and instead of asking them to go into a scary trailer,
you're simply asking them to touch a target.
Here I'm playing with being able to move the t-stand,
so I just slide it across the ground a little bit,
I wait for him to relax 'cause he does go
a little bit streamlined when I do it,
and I click and reward.
Now, it's very important when you're targeting a bird
to a scary or unfamiliar place that you target them off.
And here you can see, Norm lets himself onto the t-stand
when I don't even ask.
So on his downtime when I'm takin' a break,
he's letting himself onto that t-stand,
understanding that that's what got him a treat before,
and understanding that there's nothing scary
or bad about it.
So I actually add another t-stand
which you see him go onto here,
to just continue to expand that comfort zone.
Now the real test is bringing his travel carrier back
into picture and seeing if he will actually target
back off of it.
So I know that he'll probably rush to it as soon
as I bring it back, but I wanna see if he'll come down,
and see if I really have expanded his comfort zone,
or if it's all a facade because he doesn't have
the option to go back into the carrier.
So here I go ahead, I grab his travel carrier for him,
I give him the option to go back to it,
and we'll see what happens.
So I hope this is really clear from his body language,
and that you guys can see this,
but the really cool thing is even though I bring
the carrier back and he's immediately curious about it,
I feel like from his body language of turning and looking
at me first, and then climbing up and looking at me,
he's waiting for me to ask something of him
or initiate some sort of training.
He's wondering, hey do you still wanna interact with me?
(laughs)
To me the difference is huge because as soon
as I present the target stick away from his cage
which he could happily go into,
he comes right off with no hesitation
and wants to continue the session.
(gentle music)