More flight progress!

[asterroc]

Gabe's really starting to get the hang of flying when I want her to. :) I have to admit it's a combination of her knowing what I want, and me knowing when she's receptive to it though.

So evenings she often starts screaming fits when she's on her cage and I'm not in eyesight. Last night I walked up to her cage during one of these moments, held up my arm and said "Fly!" in an eager voice at the same moment as she launched herself and hovered down to my arm. Tonight she launched herself straight to my shoulder; I don't think there was any hover, but I couldn't see too well. And all this for no physical reward, since she hasn't yet responded to treats from my hands, so the reward she gets is praise and being next to me. :)

Also tonight, I wanted to weigh her. The scale is on a table in the same room as her cage. I got her to step up onto my right hand, and as I moved it towards the scale I kept my left hand hovering above her so she didn't think she could fly. I then deposited her on the scale and weighed her (a healthy 93g) and as soon as it was done I said "Fly!" and made some gesture and she immediately launched herself up and flew back to her cage. She sat on the scale (impatiently) right until I said she could go. :-D

I still find it quite intriguing that I'm watching how her behaviors are shaped by positive reinforcement, where the only reinforcer is social. I essentially did the same thing with Peeper her whole life without knowing it, but now that I know "better" that it's "supposed" to happen with treats, and it's still working with Gabe, it seems amazing to me.

Comments

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

but now that I know "better" that it's "supposed" to happen with treats, and it's still working with Gabe, it seems amazing to me.

Neither food nor attention is a more valid reinforcer. It's all about what motivates the trainee. If Gabe prefers to work for attention instead of treats (unlike my flying garbage disposals), good on her.

It's exciting to hear about her flight progress! Very cool! Have the signs done the trick on helping T$ remember to shut the doors? I think I'm going to do a similar thing to help us remember to shut our toilet lid and bathroom door.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

The signs definitely work with the outside doors. :) Guests don't seem to notice the signs in the bathroom to shut the toilet lid, I think b/c the font is smaller, so I'm going to redo that sign w/ bigger font.

Gabe's excellent about returning (flying) to the cage when in the same room, and she's much better about stepping up for T$ than when we first moved in together - though that one I think much of it is T$ realizing the proper way to offer his hand to her. :-P She's slower about figuring out flying from the cage to me or from other things to me, but it's definitely progress and makes me proud of her. :)

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

That stuff definitely takes time, especially if you don't have a pig-bird who will pretty much fly through a hoop of fire for a treat, like I do. :P (The disadvantage of that is that they do NOT want to leave me alone when I'm eating!)

I'm impressed with how fast Gabe is picking up flying on cue!

I'm just now starting to really work on out-of-sight flighted recall. I haven't had much time to devote to training lately, unfortunately, but the birds are getting better at it, slowly but surely. It's amazing how things like that, which I think of as a logical extension of the regular flighted recall, can take a while for my birds to learn. It really reminds me that I need too look at things from their perspective, not from mine, when training. :)

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Slightly off-topic, but I noticed a couple red spots on the bottoms of Gabe's feet, and now I'm worried she's starting on pressure sores. :( I'll post about it on PL in a few minutes, once I upload the photo, and brace myself for the inevitable "you're a horrible bird owner" attack. :-P If people can figure out what's going on for me though, I'll put up with it.

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

Hmm... Where in the cage are her pedi-perch and dowel perches? Are they up high, or near her food dishes? Could she be spending too much time on them? Those are the only things I can think of immediately. I'd say make her rope perch the highest one, since it's soft on her feet, and keep an eye on her to make sure it doesn't get worse.

If you want to buy a natural manzanita perch to swap in, the Dave's in Hadley carries them. (Sadly, the local Dave's does not. Hmph.)

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/parrot_lovers/3191934.html

Not sure what you mean by "pedi-perch." She had a heated perch up high and a dowel perch up high (for the last month only), and she was sitting on the dowel one a bunch. When I noted the red spots I swapped out the dowel for a rope perch. There's another dowel halfway down the cage that she rarely uses, and a natural perch between the middle and the top that she also rarely uses. Someone on PL recommended I keep the rope one high until her feet return to normal, and then put natural wood high. There was a consensus that I don't need to panic as of yet, but if they get worse I should make a vet appointment.

I'm planning on stopping at the PetCo near the Holyoke Mall on my way home today, since I'm rarely in Hadley but drive by the mall every day. That PetCo has quite a few natural wood perch choices, though I think Dave's did have more.

One thing that T$ pointed out to me that I hadn't thought of is that Peeper never appeared to have any problem with dowel perches, and I think that's all she had for most of her life. My best guess is that Gabe is just less hardy due to inbreeding (she also breaks blood feathers every few months, and Peeper never did her whole life), but it's also possible that Peeper had different sized dowels and that made things better, or she got used to the dowel perches somehow, or since her feet were darker colored than Gabe's that she actually did have problems but I never observed it. *shrug* What matters is fixing things for Gabe now.