Honeymoon over!

[ShellyBorg]

So I have figured out Paris will step up happy to get out of her cage, she will step up if I am getting up to move. She does not see any reason to step up if she does not need to thank you vary much. If she is rampaging on my bed she does NOT want to step up thank you vary much! ANd if your right arm is tired and you need to shift her to your left, well suck it up buttercup I am not moving from this arm!
So we started step up training. She ran away. We get back to the stand and try again. I got bit HARD. (no blood its all good) I even break out the almonds, ok may be I will step up.....maybe. LOL I have worked with so many scared , mistreated, untouched birds, and I am having issues with the beloved spoiled one! LOL

So any ideas would be nice. I am clicker training and she is targeting well for our first day. I was jumping ahead to the step up figuring she was just needing some practice. She may just be testing me BIG time with it. She is still supper loving and after biting me she she licked the finger and worried over it. *rolls eyes

[jacksmom]

Oh geez, kiss it and make it better after I bite you, huh? It is probably because she is so spoiled...Paris has likely never had to do anything she didn't particularly want to do her entire life...that bite has always worked to get the person to stop. I never pushed her much, since what she wanted most of the time fell in line with what I wanted...and probably should have!

Eh, well, I can't imagine what she was like when she wasn't getting attention on the regular. Her previous owner told me she once told a person to "Come here" and when they offered their arm to her, bit them hard. Then laughed her evil laugh. Yeah. At least she hasn't pulled anything like THAT in awhile!

Honeymoons always have to end, I am just so thankful you are committed to figuring her out. She is really something else, never met a macaw as smart! I vote for testing...BIG TIME! Too smart for her own good, lol!

[coltfire]

So she has excepted this is her new home , now how far can i push it, lol yes the honeymoon never last, but it sounds like she has settled in very nicely

[spiritbird]

Sounds like an experimenting teen-ager needing to test the limits. Have you tried taking her in a strange room for training? Perhaps just try playing with her, having no expectations for a step up.

[ShellyBorg]

Sounds like an experimenting teen-ager needing to test the limits. Have you tried taking her in a strange room for training? Perhaps just try playing with her, having no expectations for a step up.
We have done lots of playing with no expectations. :D She is wonderful, gentle and smart, but I need her to start doing a few things when I want, not just what she wants. We do most of our training in the kitchen where they normally are not allowed. Some day I will have a training/bird room. *sigh* Today I will see about getting her to use a step up stick. Wish me luck or call me stumpy!

[ShellyBorg]

Step up went great! I pulled the whole flock into it. First Danny then on to Demon and Spirit. She watched the whole time. When it came to her turn she was NOT happy. and would run up the stick to me when she would step up. I would firmly put her back on the stand and try again. I ended up putting a paper plate "guard" to keep her from running up the stick and it worked great . I only worked with her for 5 min, then using the stick put her back and rewarded with a almond (she was being rewarded with peanuts for stepping up.) She is thinking about it right now and talking softly to me. So I don't think I rocked her boat to hard.

[Debra]

I love hearing about her progress. I can just visualize what you are saying and can't help but chuckle a bit. Impish little girl, isn't she.

[ShellyBorg]

Oh she is a brat! She knows what I want and is trying hard to do as she pleases. She was even flipping upside down to avoid the stick. She was nowhere near a panic when doing it so I know it was just avoidance. I would just put my hand on her back and flip her back up right. *rolls eyes* She is a handful, but so sweet and smart she is so worth it. As I have two teens in the house anyways, what is one more bucking the system! LOL

[jacksmom]

Oh, what a day! :) So nice to hear! I love it that you are challenging her so much, she really needed it! :)

Heh, that's twice now you called her a brat. ;) I am sure she has been earning it...that really made me chuckle to imagine her flipping upside down to avoid the stick...I am sorry, I just can't help it!!! :D. Yeah...what she wants, when she wants. Luckily, most of all, she wants you...and that gives you a very powerful training tool besides the nuts. ;)

That was a great idea to get the whole flock involved...might help with the jealousy/concern over them! Please let us know all her updates...I admit to being very biased because of time spent with her, will always have love and warm wishes for her more than any other besides my own...but it really looks like a lot of people here like to hear about her training escapades!!! :)

[coltfire]

yes i have been following all her progress

[Blancaej]

Great job Shelly! I was going to suggest trying step up with the stick, but as I read, I can see you've done that! Savannah steps up for me great now. She had moments where she didnt' want to in the beginning. But she has been with me 5 months now and is doing it like clock work. I found when I was pushing her too much and having her do too many things, she didn't want to step up all the time. But I've listened and she has learned and all is good.

I know you and Paris will do well together, too! I mean look how far you've come already!

[Mare]

Sounds like great progress, to me! My cockatoos still aren't trained-trained, as in doing stuff at the moment I want them to. Amigo goes through periods of letting me think that YAY! Finally! He'll step up whenever I ask!! I've learned to read him well enough to know when he will oblige me with my wishes and when I will have to peel him off a perch! Sassy is pretty much the same way. I look forward to hearing more about your training methods!

[Blancaej]

One thing I've learned is you can't always get a parrot to do what you want when you want them to do it. You kind of just have to live with it! LOL!

[jacksmom]

How has the weekend been? :) Any more funny stories, or new training mishaps or triumphs? :)

I took a leaf from your book, Shelly...started training Jack to step up more reliably (he had begun to get bad...would look at you crazy a lot rather than step up) with a sunflower seed. Working a charm...he even began to rush to the edge of his branch and put his foot out whenever he saw me approach the seed dish. Little bit more of doing what I want...through bribes, of course! :) It's true, you can't make them do anything they don't want to do...you have to figure out how to make them want to! ;)

Matt had a dream last night that Paris went camping "with someone"...got any goat backpacking camping trips planned, lol? He always asks me for updates on her...and he has been loving your stories, I have been passing them all on!!! :D

[ShellyBorg]

We had a laid back weekend. Gave Paris a shower, that could have gone better. I have a small shower and she did not appreciate the closed in feeling. She seemed happy after thou. We mostly spent time being with one another. She wants up to my face so bad, and I did let her up once. She is so gentle but she needs to really settle in better before I can trust her more. She has been playing with toys more and more! She took a smaller wooden one apart yesterday! I need to get a couple a little bigger in there. She love pounding on her plastic chain.

I have been putting together what I need to take her traveling/camping with me. Will be getting a larger Tripod to set up with a perch then I have now. It was rated to 3 lbs but it was not heavy enough. I have been playing with my amazon sized harness with her. I need to order one her sized at the end of the week when I get paid. LOL as I love to go to the coast I was looking at the parrot hoodies wondering how she would do with one. But no trips planed yet, we have a long way to go before we do that!

[jacksmom]

I am so happy she is showing more interest in toys! She only chewed a few things here, and anything fun to rattle/bang I am sure Jack made sure she couldn't play with, Jack the jerk! I wonder now if he was intimidating her more than it looked!

Oh yeah, forgot to tell you about Paris and water! She hated water in general when she came here...not in her water bowl, but she was even terrified of the spritz bottle. The first couple baths she got in her hospital cage whether she liked it or not (she did NOT) and after she lost that haven't-had-a-bath-my-whole-life look, I began giving her more of a choice.

Fortunately, Jack loves a bath... (though he didn't at first either) I use a spray bottle set to a heavy mist, I never did figure out a good shower perch or train for the shower, but we go out to the greenhouse (or I perch them on the edge of the tub with a towel laid on there for grip) and I spray them there. At first, Paris ran away from the spray as usual...but then once she had ample opportunity to see Jack loving it (and me not forcing her) she chose that yes she DID want to stand in the side spray from Jack...and okay maybe you should spray me, too! I never got her to quite trust the spray bottle like Jack, I had to stand a few feet away - he will drink right out of the bottle while I spray it gently in his mouth, lol!

I keep thinking about the shower thing...Jack may be ready for this now! :)