How I trained doing 360s
Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 1:31 am
Hi All
Someone asked me how I trained Janey to do 360s so here it is!
Here is a demonstration of what the behaviour looks like:
http://youtu.be/N4ACEumfH4s
I cheated a little with this one. Janey would sometimes do 360s on her own when she was excited... so I'd wait for her to do it and as she did it, I'd give a hand signal, say the word 'twirl' and follow up with a treat. I think this is called 'capturing' a behaviour. You take a natural behaviour and add a verbal and/or non-verbal cue to it. You can do this with talking and any other natural behaviours.
Despite it being her natural behaviour it did take her a while to catch on, partially because it wasn't a behaviour she exhibited that often.
At first she'd only do it on a "happy perch" (see http://www.happy-perch.com/happyperchflyer.html) which is a suction cup perch I use in the shower and sometimes I put them up on windows or glass doors in the house... but eventually I was able to train her to do it on her gym and her T-perch.
I trained Charlie the same way but it took longer... partially because he doesn't get as excited as Janey so he wasn't naturally presenting this behaviour... and he's either not quite as smart as Janey or it's that he's almost a year younger or it's because she is very fixated on humans and he's more fixated on Janey... not really sure.
Now, they'll be sitting on their T-perch presenting this behaviour even when I don't ask hoping for a treat... It's very funny!
I have heard of others training this behaviour by pushing the bird with their hand... but my birds don't like too much man-handling and I don't like to force them to do things that they don't want to do.
Another way you could try training this behaviour is by offering the treat or target below the perch so they have to hang off the perch to get it and then try guiding them that way. I did try that with Charlie but it isn't the way he ended up learning the behaviour.
As with any training, it takes lots of persistence and patience and trying to think of new and inventive ways of approaching your teaching.
Good luck & best wishes.
Ellie.
Someone asked me how I trained Janey to do 360s so here it is!
Here is a demonstration of what the behaviour looks like:
http://youtu.be/N4ACEumfH4s
I cheated a little with this one. Janey would sometimes do 360s on her own when she was excited... so I'd wait for her to do it and as she did it, I'd give a hand signal, say the word 'twirl' and follow up with a treat. I think this is called 'capturing' a behaviour. You take a natural behaviour and add a verbal and/or non-verbal cue to it. You can do this with talking and any other natural behaviours.
Despite it being her natural behaviour it did take her a while to catch on, partially because it wasn't a behaviour she exhibited that often.
At first she'd only do it on a "happy perch" (see http://www.happy-perch.com/happyperchflyer.html) which is a suction cup perch I use in the shower and sometimes I put them up on windows or glass doors in the house... but eventually I was able to train her to do it on her gym and her T-perch.
I trained Charlie the same way but it took longer... partially because he doesn't get as excited as Janey so he wasn't naturally presenting this behaviour... and he's either not quite as smart as Janey or it's that he's almost a year younger or it's because she is very fixated on humans and he's more fixated on Janey... not really sure.
Now, they'll be sitting on their T-perch presenting this behaviour even when I don't ask hoping for a treat... It's very funny!
I have heard of others training this behaviour by pushing the bird with their hand... but my birds don't like too much man-handling and I don't like to force them to do things that they don't want to do.
Another way you could try training this behaviour is by offering the treat or target below the perch so they have to hang off the perch to get it and then try guiding them that way. I did try that with Charlie but it isn't the way he ended up learning the behaviour.
As with any training, it takes lots of persistence and patience and trying to think of new and inventive ways of approaching your teaching.
Good luck & best wishes.
Ellie.
