- She hates going back into her cage,
and she does this weird flip thing,
and I don't make her do it.
Like if she's sitting on my hand,
she'll just decide to spin under,
but then she attacks me.
(upbeat music)
- [Trainer] How much time does she spend out of her cage?
- Lately, all day, till about seven or eight o'clock
at night because I can't, yeah,
she just wants to be with me.
- [Trainer] The other thing you described, she was playful?
(laughing)
- Yeah, but then turns nasty, sort of thing.
- So, I think I'll probably come back to this
but one of the reasons that I believe that that's happening
is if she's out all day, there's no structure to her,
like we were saying in the workshop,
every interaction is a training session,
so if you're not really set up for success in the beginning,
she's just out all day,
then you're gonna run into these issues
where there's no expectation
for how to interact with you properly.
And so that's where gonna run into these like,
"Oh, I don't understand why that happened."
Whereas instead of looking at the whole thing
like, "How long can I keep my bird out all day?
"I'm a better parrot owner than you,
"'cause my bird stays out 12 hours."
Try to look at it as,
"Hey, I have three really good interactions with my parrot.
"She wanted more interaction.
"I gave her a lot.
"It was all positive, and at the end she was willing
"to go into her cage to get the food."
So she likes the cage.
She likes you.
That's a better balanced parrot,
than the person who thinks that they're better,
because they keep the bird out all day.
It's not necessarily about keeping the bird out of the cage.
It's about that proper enrichment when they are out.
So we'll look at your overall structure
and see how we can make the cage really
a good place to go back to.
Like I said in the workshop, it's like my mom's like,
"Go to your room!"
And I'm like, "Okay."
(laughing)
I like my room.
Your bird should be happy with its cage
and feel safe and secure in there.
And likewise, it should be very excited to come out
and interact with you.
Does that make sense on kind of how the interaction is?
- Yeah, yeah, I'd love to be able
to put her in her cage more often,
even to pick up the kids from school.
I worry that she's gonna chew something
or get into mischief.
But yeah, it's like I'm carrying her,
and as soon as she knows where I'm walking to, off she goes.
So then I go back and then when I go to,
if she's up high on the kitchen cupboard,
that's when she starts to get,
"Okay, I'm not going back in."
- If your interactions are chasing a bird around
to try to get her back in the cage,
'cause you have to go, it's a worse interactions
than if you make the cage a happy place to be
and make it neutral, so it's not like it prefers you
and not the cage.
It should be 50/50.
The bird should be just as willing to go in the cage
as to come out of the cage.
So I think we can help you there for sure.
Like in the workshop we were talking about
having the breakfast in the morning
and the pellets in the evening.
That's gonna be a big change for you, I think.
So rather than having 24 hour access to food,
let's see how we can use that natural ability
where the bird's wanting to work
to earn its food in the wild.
And let's see how we can best focus
that into giving those opportunities to work
for the food or earn the food
through positive interactions with you,
as well as going into the cage nicely.
We typically tell people to get,
to become consistently inconsistent,
meaning don't make your pattern predictable,
or the bird has noticed,
"Oh, when you start walking towards the cage,
"you're trying to put me away."
Well what if instead of every time the bird
is just getting put away
that's where she goes to get her dinner.
That's the only time she gets dinner.
So she's, throughout the day, choosing to interact or not.
But she knows that around five, six, seven o'clock
there's going to be dinner.
She'll probably start putting herself away,
because she knows she'll get food.
And then she knows that she'll get proper rest.
- [Bird Owner] Okay, yeah, I feed her in the cage, yeah.
- Yeah, if that's the big issue right now,
like a lot of people have issues
with getting the bird in the travel cage,
so for them because the travel cage
is only associated with vet trips.
- [Associate] Yeah, I mean, for example,
I worked with Rasta and Alexandria and Parakeet.
And when I got him, I knew that getting him back
into that little travel carrier,
which he had taken his very first flight on
was gonna be horrible.
So from the day one, I attached the travel cage
to this kitchen table and it was pinned open,
so that the door couldn't accidentally shut on him.
But I trained him to go in for treats
and then one meal and then two meals,
and then he just got so comfortable going in and out of it,
he knew I wasn't gonna be like, "Ha ha," slam, you know,
when he goes in there?
(laughing)
Yeah, so I think that's a lot of it with birds
is they feel like when they're gonna be put in,
it's gonna be for a long, extended amount of time.
They're not going to get to come out.
So almost pinning that door open to let them know
you don't know how long it's gonna be for.
- So with your African Grey there's a thing
that we call the noun experience.
And it's really, really, really important for African Grays.
So a noun is a person, place or thing, right?
And so every day of this bird's life you wanna introduce,
I'm sorry, her, to a new person, a new place, a new thing.
And by doing that every single day,
you will help prevent your bird from becoming very phobic.
So we'll start, I think with targeting.
And the reason that targeting is so important,
as we talked about in the workshop,
and this applies to you guys as well,
targeting is getting the bird to touch the end of a stick
with its beak, or it could be touch the can with your foot.
I mean, it could be anything.
But it's getting the bird to touch a part
of its body to an object.
So the easiest thing is a beak to a stick.
What that does is immediately tells the bird
that we speak the same language.
So if you end up training Bubba
how to touch the end of a stick, you give me the stick.
Now I approach the bird and the bird's like,
instead of clicking at me, she's gonna be like,
"Oh, okay, I know we can do this.
"Let's touch the stick together."
And that's one way that you can help her get associated
with experiencing different people, different places,
different things by misdirecting her mind through
instead of walking near the scary phone,
she's walking past the phone to touch the stick
and starts to get used to these other objects
that otherwise would be terrifying to birds.
For whatever reason, Cresta is terrified of chap stick.
Now during the wrong season,
she really loves the chap stick.
(laughing)
So there's different things you want to work
through to keep bad situations from coming up.
But then the whole noun experience
with a Gray is so critical.
I would say it's important for all birds,
but it's a whole different level of priority with a Gray.
- [Bird Owner] Good girl.
- [Associate] Did you bring you own stand?
- I've got just two little ones.
- This is a really bad habit to start with,
going to the shoulder.
So we teach a lot of basic handling.
In fact, that's what most of our classes were
all day yesterday, is how do you get the bird to step up,
how do you get the bird to step down.
After today, say no shoulder.
It's gonna happen a little bit,
but do your best just to try to work away from that.
- [Bird Owner] She used to always go straight to the head.
- So this is good?
(laughing)
- [Bird Owner] Yeah, because, yeah, this is really good,
but now it's like the shoulder.
At home it's pretty okay.
She'll be more around here, but yeah.
- Okay, are you able to get her down to the perch thing?
- [Bird Owner] Come on, step up.
(bird squawking)
Come on, step up, good girl, step up, good girl.
Come on, oh no, come on, wanna get down, no, no.
- [Trainer] Can I help?
- [Bird Owner] Yeah, yeah.
- [Associate] Is she more likely to like men or women?
- Women, I'd say.
- [Associate] You still want to help, Dave?
- Hey, (bird squawks) come here.
I know you're close to me, but come on.
(laughing)
(bird squawking)
- [Associate] That's what you were talking about.
Catch her, catch her.
- [Trainer] There you go.
Now to the perch.
- [Bird Owner] No, no, you're one.
- She flies a lot like--
- [Associate] She flies nicely, a little hoverer,
like a helicopter flies.
- No, Bubba.
Look, come on, look.
- Do you have did you happen to bring anything
that she's good--
- [Associate] No, what was that?
You just gave her a treat, why, why, why, why?
- [Bird Owner] Because I was hoping to get her down--
- [Associate] No, no.
- [Bird Owner] I know, this is why I'm here.
This is why I'm here.
Look, here we go.
- Do you have a certain perch that you brought
that she's used to?
- [Bird Owner] Yeah, I'll see.
- Let's try that.
In that flight, she got kind of here.
We want to catch on the hand.
So when the bird lands, fingers on the toes.
You just have more control over the bird,
and you can also feel when they are starting
to be afraid of something.
You can work through it prior to the bird flying off.
- [Bird Owner] When she's scared of something,
we'll actually get rid of the scary thing.
Step up, Bubba, do you want to step up, come on.
- [Trainer] Give her a treat on the perch, please.
- Good girl.
- So now that she's calm, click.
Go ahead and give her a treat.
- Good girl.
- [Dave] Wow, that was easy.
- [Bird Owner] Ah, ah, ah.
This is why, I know they chew, but.
- [Associate] Whoa!
- [Trainer] Give her a treat.
- Good girl.
- [Trainer] See how I'm holding her here?
Now watch what happens.
I get close to the perch and then release the other thumb.
So she really knows where I want her to go.
- [Associate] I think you're going to have a new buddy
by the end of the day.
- [Trainer] I might, do you wanna do that again?
What happened?
- [Associate] That was so random--
- [Trainer] Okay, so we're just going to see,
she doesn't seem as fearful as she was.
(clicking)
- Good girl.
- [Trainer] So we get a curious touch.
That's one of the best things for targeting.
She just touched it, 'cause she was like, "Oh, what's that?"
So now I'm going to continue from the same direction,
the same angle, similar speed.
And then once I get her to start to understand it,
I'll switch it over to where you're doing it.
Okay, she's definitely interested.
(clicking)
- Good girl.
- Okay, There's another really big thing
that happened there, and I'm going to try to explain
while she's eating.
I didn't go in so close that she could just chomp down.
She's looking for it, looking for it,
looking for it, bam, touches it.
I didn't go in close where she would chew the whole thing,
'cause then we'd be fighting for the stick and I'd lose her.
- [Associate] Really interesting, yeah.
(clicking)
- See how far, I start far and come in slowly.
That's her bird that's curious about touching the stick.
It's gonna be totally different with your guy.
Okay, so now I'm giving it a little direction change.
(clicking)
Got her to move a little.
- Good girl.
- Now I'm gonna try to get her to move to the other side.
You're fine there.
Notice I'm waiting for her to finish eating
and come this way.
(clicking)
So this is going to be really important for you to help her
with that whole noun experience.
Your kids, your spouse,
everybody is gonna have an opportunity.
- [Associate] She's coming.
- Okay, again, holding her feet, yep, and let go and treat.
Since what we're trying to get is just more familiarity,
to get her used to being around other people.
This is why we'd reward this.
- [Associate] Oh, she wants to fly to you, Dave.
(clicking)
So you can tell that they understand the target
when they're making a step with both feet to get to it.
So I'm gonna let you go ahead and take over.
Before you start, notice how I started far,
and I came in close.
Don't start too close,
'cause I don't want you to pull it away.
It'll come off as taunting, okay, go ahead.
(clicking)
Good, now this time, whatever side of the perch she's on,
try to get her to the other side.
It's not going to be putting the stick this way.
It's going to be this way,
because you don't want her to bite anywhere on the stick,
You want her to bite the tip.
Okay.
(clicking)
So next we'll have you take her to the other side.
- Oops, hold on, wait a minute.
- She's very interested in,
a bird that's very interested in training.
You don't get this all the time.
Okay, yeah.
(clicking)
- Good girl, good girl.
- Okay, anybody catch what was happening there?
(observers commenting)
- And I was saying, "Good girl."
- You went a little too close and you were bridging.
You were saying, "Good girl," when it wasn't good.
So this time go a little bit slower,
so she gets just the tip and got it.
(clicking)
See how she she's barely nicked it with her tongue?
I'm gonna move you just a little bit.
- It's okay.
- Good job.
- [Associate] Taking a ride.
For allowing you to do it,
I think you should give her a treat.
- Good girl.
- [Associate] So that kind of stuff,
it seems like no big deal,
but you could see she was uncomfortable.
She could have fleed.
Like she could have just left the situation, but she didn't.
She stayed, and she overcame that fear.
So that you want to make sure you reward with these guys,
because that's like a small bit of desensitization.
That's the kind of stuff that you want to constantly do
every single day.
- Just imagine what else she's learning.
Like if she's really afraid of something
and doesn't have the opportunity to work through it,
imagine how fearful she could become.
Gosh, she's still showing signs of wanting to work.
- [Associate] What about doing it on the flat surface
and getting her close around the cage,
'cause that seems to be your biggest issue,
so I think we should work on it.
(bright music)
(people conversing)
I think one of the things you could do with her
is just literally have the crate like this somewhere
and put treats around it, in it, toys in it,
things that she just really likes
and just let it be like a little play area.
- [Trainer] Feed her dinner there,
or breakfast, if you're training, put breakfast,
day one, put breakfast here.
Day two, put it in here.
Day three, it's gonna be there.
(laughs)
It's like little tiny moments.
Think of it this way, if you protect her
from all the scary things now, as she gets older,
she eventually is going to face those scary things
and not know how to handle it.
If you expose her to balloons popping, kids playing,
dogs barking, Velcro ripping open and closed,
doors opening and shutting,
not that you're trying to startle her,
but you're not babying her.
You're just saying, "Hey, this is your environment."
And at this age, it's really important to just,
a lot of people tip toe around their bird,
so they'll walk like the bird's going to fall off
and then the bird doesn't ever gain this confidence
and the proper handling, and especially with Grays,
just getting them desensitized to stuff early is critical.
- Okay.
- Mommy.
- [Mommy] What'd you get?
(people laughing)
Furry Friends!
Milk chocolate!
(gasping)
Yay, oh look, press here, Capri.
It says, "Press here."
- Okay.
(toy chirping)
(laughing)