Smart a** Caique!

[Holly-Noelle]

I started clicker training with Caia & Cai with the goal to have them take a coin from me and put it in a little metal bucket. I was working with Caia and she was very attentive but Cai was being the class clown so I put him in the cage until Caia was done. She was on the T perch Rich made and the bucket was hanging on the end, she was being very good about taking the coin but she liked playing with it before she gave it to me. When she got the coin in my hand I clicked and gave her the treat and praise. We did this until she lost interest so I put her in the cage and got Cai.
I placed him on the T perch and showed him the coin and the bucket and told him I was going to train him to put the coin in the bucket. Rich was sitting there and he said he's going to do it the first time, but I said he couldn't cause he doesn't know what's expected of him yet. I held the coin up and told Cai to take the coin and he did, but before I could turn my hand over and point to my palm and ask him to drop it in my hand...he turned his head toward the bucket hanging at the end of the perch and tossed the coin in it! I was very surprised and Rich and I both started to laugh, then I made sure to reward him and praise him even though he might not realize he did what the end result will be. I continued to work with him to take the coin and put it in my hand and he was fair doing it, he wanted to throw it...on the floor, acroos the room, in my lap, and he wanted to keep getting on my thumb which made it hard for him to put it in my hand and he'd miss. I'm sure he connected the click with doing something right and getting a treat, but he was more interested in chewing the clicker than anything else! :lol:

[sweetpeaches]

holly..i am also very interested in clicker training bailey. i bought a book on clicker training and i bought the book "don't shoot the dog" which was recommended to me. what book did you get? also what are you using as a treat? i haven't started the trianing yet but will as soon as i finish reading the books.

[Holly-Noelle]

Sue,
I bought Chet Womack's training DVD's and books. A lot of people don't like him and will say he trains by food deprivation but that's not what he does, or teaches. With his method a bird can learn faster and still be very healthy and well fed. He uses a portion of the bird's daily favorite food for the reward so the bird will get to eat the amount of food it's used to eating. His way is to give the bird a certain amount of food, weigh it first, then weigh it at the end of the day to see how much has been eaten. Reduce the amount but not to the amount eaten and see if the bird eats more or the same amount the next day. You find out how much your bird will eat each day, the pellets, fruit, nuts. Then when you know how much you can keep the favorite food, usually some kind of nuts, out of the cage for training. Now you need to weight your bird also to be sure it's not losing any weight. He suggests two or three training sessions a day of about 5 to 15 minutes depending on the bird's interest. Also the other food can be removed from the cage at night before you go to bed if you plan to train first thing in the morning, then when you get home from work remove the food for a couple of hours before training then return it, and again in the evening and only remove it after bedtime.
I didn't do any of that, I started on a whim and they still responded. I have safflower seeds to give as treats and sunflower bits, I was planning to start a while ago. I'm going to break up peanuts to have tiny bits since it takes them so long to eat a whole piece. You need to have more than one treat cause they could get bored with one and you can switch to another one to keep their interest. But the sessions can't be too long and it's up to the bird how long it will be. When they lose interest end the session on a positive note then move on and do something fun with him.
I'm just starting so I don't know much and there's others who have a lot more experience and could probably give you lots of good advice and pointers. Just keep us updated on your progress!

[Emily]

Chet Womach uses clicker training? Amazing! Last time I looked into his programs, he used flooding methods and food deprivation. He must have switched his tactics.

If you are interested in clicker training you can also join the Bird-Click Yahoo! Group, and check out Karen Pryor (author of Don't Shoot The Dog) website at http://www.clickertraining.com, they have a small section there for birds. I love the concept of clicker training. Yay for positive reinforcement!