- [Dave] Is that?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
- Guys, this is one training session.
Two together,
that's awesome. What a cutie.
(upbeat music)
- This is Rasta.
- [Dave] Rasta?
- [Jamie] No way, really?
- [Dave] Well, that would be easy.
- We did a lot of research beforehand and fell in love with
Rasta on your channel.
- [Jamie] Really?
- Yeah, and I had owned alexis, quakers,
cockatiels, lovebirds, everything, growing up.
He's kind of similar bird, like if she was.
- [Jamie] Okay, it's good to know.
- I feel like we cursed him with the name.
- [Jamie] Oh no.
- It's a little bit like.
- [Dave] Have you done formal training sessions?
- Yeah.
- [Dave] What sort of stuff?
- Maize clicker trains, like talking trains,
he loves to fly,
like he is better flying to than he is stepping on.
Most of the issues are kind of around hands
and I guess he is quite fearful of certain things.
- [Dave] I have a feeling
I know who is working on your bird today.
- I think it's mainly, he's quite fearful,
so it's hard to handle him.
And he's been like that since I got him,
like where he came from wasn't exactly perfect.
And we had a lot issues to begin with,
like the guy didn't really speak English
and he wasn't weaned.
And so it was kind of a struggle just to begin with.
And he'd been kept in like a small flight cage,
even though he was almost five months old.
So, he never developed like a lot of like Jodi skills
or flying skills or anything like that.
So, he's quite delayed a little.
That was like out closet and our young girl couldn't fly,
raise a spring and like what, literally.
- A lot of people think that
chop is just whatever vegetables
and mix they want to put in there.
And although that's probably technically true
you might be missing certain nutrients
and stuff that he really needs.
So, I would strongly recommend
like our seasonal feeding system
is a great place to start because
it's all different seasons
and what's really it's balanced basically.
So, he's going to be able to get every nutrient he needs
from the seasonal feeding system without missing something.
What we try to do is get the foods,
the bird's motivation to a certain level
without increasing hunger.
For most, almost all your interactions,
you're not inducing hunger.
You're taking advantage
of the natural hunger cycles of the birds.
So if your bird sleeps 12 hours a night,
it sounds like everybody's doing,
from 9:00 p.m to 9.00 a.m the bird's not eating on his own.
You're not withholding that food.
That's the bird's natural cycle.
Then you come in, you do your training session
where the bird hasn't eaten for 12 hours.
That should be a pretty high motivation level.
Then what we do is we have, we assign a treat value.
So, if your bird's favorite treat is a sunflower seed,
then if your bird is eating seeds all day,
the sunflower seed only has value of one
on a scale of one to 10.
If your bird is getting a colored sugary filler pellet mix,
then that same sunflower seed
might be a treat value of like five.
So you can get more of that value.
Even with that 12 hours,
you know of hunger through the evening.
Then if your bird's on, let's say a really healthy,
balanced chop and never gets the filler pellets
and other junk that same 12 hour period,
you offer that sunflower seed,
it's going to have the value of like 10.
So, really understanding that
you can change the value of the treat
without inducing extra hunger is really important.
- What's this? Do you want to offer?
No?
- [Jamie] Looks like he wants to fly to you.
- That's what I mean,
he's more keen to fly to me,
good boy than anything else.
Good job, Rasta.
Now, are you going to step down? It's okay.
Rasta.
(chuckling)
- That's cool.
- So yeah, if you tilt your head,
he'll normally hop off quite easy.
Because he knows he's not supposed to.
- [Dave] You've trained that.
- Yeah, he knows he's not allowed on heads and shoulders.
You've got seeds in your hair now.
What's this?
- Is he facing the right direction. Is he facing that way?
- He's kind of facing the side.
- That way?
- Yeah, that's better. That's better. Here we go.
Come on, step down, good boy.
Looks like you're tangled on that, what are you doing?
That's all right. Just hold up,
there.
- [Dave] Real quick.
Remember yesterday how I said we rarely use plus punishment.
What I just did was a little bit of plus punishment.
He doesn't know me. He doesn't know the camera.
So me adding the slight pressure,
decrease the likelihood
that he's going to be on Jamie's head.
So, I'm adding something.
So, yesterday I said we don't use it.
That's an example of how we would use it just a tiny bit.
It's really gentle.
And I don't even refer to it as punishment.
It's just a pressure it's pressure, you know?
So he's avoiding something
and moves away to where we want him to go.
- So what do you want to say next?
- [Dave] Oh, let's seek a target
fully left to right on the verge.
- Here we go.
Good job.
Good boy.
Oh, you're turning around for it.
Okay. Here we go.
Good job.
This is where we're at.
You spin,
spin.
There we go, good job.
Good boy.
- [Dave] Try to clean up her target briefly.
- [Jamie] How old did you say he is?
- About 14 months.
- You're looking at clumsy?
- [Jamie] Yeah, he's really clumsy and he looks very rough.
- He doesn't normally look this rough, but like I said,
I'm pretty sure going through some mold.
- As you can see, I'm coming in and stuff
- These scars get really ugly,
their very first mold
and that that's actually pretty normal.
- And it's definitely a male because we've DNA tested him.
And we've started seeing
a couple of pink feathers here and there at the back but
- It's more just like how clumsy he is on like walking.
Like I feel like he's going to fall off the perch.
- That's why I'm saying
like he was kept in a small cage till very late
- So, you feel like maybe
his muscles didn't develop properly.
- [Rasta's owner] And he wasn't taught how to eat
and he wasn't taught how to fly or anything.
So, like we've spent a lot of work just trying to get him to
like almost the baby stage.
- [Jamie] I see what you're saying now.
- And like Maldy can testify, he's so clumsy,
even his landing, like the glass, like I said,
they're younger, but their landing skills
- [Dave] Step back here, please.
Did anybody see what was happening there?
We're going to lose his attention.
Cause you're shaking the treats as a part of a queue.
And he was really like,
tell me to do something, tell me to do something
so sorry to interrupt you.
But those were important little things
to catch on yourselves and with each other.
- Good job,
- [Dave] Even there you pulled slight. Yeah.
So let's just fix that real quick.
So, just like you have a tendency to pull the treat back,
you're doing the same thing with the target.
- Okay.
- So, and you're driving them nuts,
- [Jamie] You're being in his bubble.
- So, okay. Real quick. We call this the birdie bubble.
I'm not training.
I am training.
See the way he's immediately looking to me,
I can cue him to do stuff.
So if I'm talking with my hands in his bubble,
it's going to drive him mad
and it's going to break that clear communication
that we're starting to try to develop today.
So since he's shown so much engagement
and interest in training,
step in and then have them do a behavior.
So, let's do a quick target
and then step away out of this bubble
and put the stick down by your side.
- Awesome.
- Good job.
- Cool. Let's step back.
So, another thing that I do, you're not wearing jeans,
but I always put my target stick back in my pocket
so I can have a conversation
without this magic wand of mystery that he's like,
let me touch it, Let me touch it.
So, he's really responsive to it.
So, I can always come closer
see how he's not going to reach it.
I'm going to meet him half way, make it
right reach and that's doable for him. Right?
So try to do that. And just,
we'll just clean that because these are the little details
that will irritate your birds over time.
But the more clean that communication be
the better it's going to be.
- Over here.
- He's very clumsy.
- You got it. Come on.
He didn't even bother touching it that time.
You tried
- Still did what you wanted.
You see how you still holding the food there?
- Oh, yeah, Okay.
- And the stick was still up.
- Yeah.
- So, once you've done it, step back.
- Okay.
- So, there's like a thousand things that just happened.
So, I'm trying to throw really quickly.
He's little tiny clean up.
- [Jamie] What are you thinking?
- Just want to read the body language different.
Like he was really,
- [Lady] Do you want to try this one?
You said he's lifestyle and everything.
Its like he is falling backwards (indistinct)
- Does he have multiple size dallas on his perch
or in his cage?
Or is it just one size?
- [Rasta's owner] Multiple and natural branches (indistinct)
- [Jamie] I think what she's saying about
like the developmental stuff. Like I think you're right on.
- [Rasta's owner] I don't mean to just throw his
- [Jamie] No, but he was not developed properly.
- Well, that's what we were talking on the way up.
I was like, gosh,
something's here are 10 to 30 years behind.
And like, if a breeder says,
hey, I recommend seeds because they,
that thing didn't develop 50 years ago.
See if you can get him to step up to your hand,
for a treat from the floor.
You said he doesn't like being on the floor?
- [Rasta's owner] Yeah.
Come on.
- And treat,
good.
On to the perch please.
- [Dave] So, that's what we call opportunistic training.
We mentioned it a lot yesterday,
making sure that
- [Jamie] He's okay
- [Dave] because the diet,
everything was set up properly today.
That was an opportunity for us to like, Oh,
you don't like the hands. You hate the floor.
And let's see if the fear of hands and the flour is worse.
What I just saw is if we can consistently get to the floor,
we can get you to do stepping up to the hand very quickly
because you're set up for it.
So that kind of thing happens again.
We'll just stop everything.
And we'll, we'll probably pause a part
and we'll do a few repetitions
of step up, step out, down to the floor.
Because he went to your hand to find.
You even said, does he need a treat?
We want him to take the treat.
Because that's what we want to see more of. Right?
- [Jamie] Chairs,
Like they're so slippery of all things
for him to be able to do it successfully.
And he's gone.
Sorry buddy got in herself too.
Where do you want me to put him, Dave?
- [Dave] In the cage.
- [Jamie] Can you put him in the cage or you want me to?
- [Rasta's owner] Step up now. Let me put him in the cage.
- [Dave] Yeah. Okay.
So let's, let's be super clear on where, where we're going.
So, the idea is to do this in small approximations, right?
Meaning
we don't want to,
we don't want to send the bird right to my hand first.
We want to get a little bit closer,
a little bit closer, a bit closer.
If he's okay
with the procedure,
we can get him, let's see if he'll tag around the perch.
If he stops on the perch, well, clear, that's a treat.
Just stop there and like," yay. We got it." Right?
Too far too fast.
Yeah. So the goal is for him to step on the perch.
Once he does, target him back off, target him on,
target him off, target him on, target him on the round it,
but we want him to get to where he realizes
stepping onto this as a treat.
- Good boy.
Good job.
- Like here.
We are trying to get him fall off the perch though.
Didn't get his attention. Squeeze behind me.
- Here he goes.
Good job.
Good boy.
Good job, Rasta,
good job.
- [Dave] So now go ahead and go to the other side
and get him to go back over.
- [Rasta's owner] Over here.
Come on.
Over here.
Rasta.
- [Jamie] Try and calm him a little.
- Hi,
Rasta.
(music)