How to teach your bird ring toss?

[bickitrainer]

My lovebird Bicki has learnt many tricks and I'm currently trying to teach him this one. I'm having no success, I don't think I'm doing the correct method but each training session seems to be frustrating when most of the time, he picks things up really quickly. What are your methods?

[just4birds]

*EDIT* blonde moment for me there

I've never seen a bird toss a ring before ... but i have my bird fetching a ring and placing it over a play quoits stick ..

And my bird learn that by first learning how to fetch a ball


What are you trying to teach it its all about rewarding ... .i've watched a dvd on parrot training and her methods are "target training" where you have the treats in your hand ... and the bird goes where ever the hand is with the treats ... i've used this on my eckie and sun conure ... and worked with both tho the eckie was alittle faster then the conure

[vankarhi]

I clicker trained my eclectus to fetch a ball and bring it back to me. Then I taught her to bring a block (leggo) back to me or to put it into a cup, then I taught her to bring a ring back. I taught her to recall and to "hi five" and to turn around. I did it all by clicker training her. How are you teaching your bird???

[bickitrainer]

I let my bird pick up the ring then I guide it to the stick and tell it to drop, then I praise it. Then I try to see if he can do it himself but I have no luck.

Here is a video of his current tricks: au.youtube.com/watch?v=RweRg7F0Zmk

[vankarhi]

You need to either "catch them in the act of doing" the behaviour you want and then praise that behaviour (or click it). But you can shape a wanted behaviour too. You just need to have a bit of patience and do little steps. Say..........you decide on something you want to teach the bird.........you try to break it down into little steps, so you teach them the first step, then when they are doing that fine, you move onto the next step. Then the add on the next etc etc until eventually they are doing the behaviour you want.

The longest "trick" I taught Skye took me about 1 week and I cannot exactly remember which trick that was now, but I think it was teaching her to put the block into the cup. Everything else didn't take too long to teach.

You need to have paitence and persistance.

There is a yahoo group called "birdclick" and that is where I learned about clicker training and how to teach tricks.

[grego]

Great video there Biki,you have done well with your Lovebird

[vankarhi]

I just checked out your video and Biki is one very clever little birdie, you have done a great job training him ;D ;D

[bickitrainer]

Lol thanks!

He is not clicker trained, I don't know where to get a clicker but I think it would help... Ring toss would have to be one of the hardest tricks to train... well, for Bicki.

[robert]

Lovely video of Bicki. Great indeed. from Robert and Angel

[abby-oldaccount]

Finally got around to watching. You have one very clever little bird there also full credit to you for your training. Love birds often get a bad rap as nippy little so and so's. I think you and Bicki managed to dispell that myth.

[vankarhi]

I think most of their nippiness might be when housed with other birds. My mum used to call them "the little leg bitters" as they would bite the legs and toes of other birds. They shouldn't be housed with anything other than lovies.

[vankarhi]

Biki I also meant to say that whatever you are doing "training wise" with your bird is working. So keep it up. clicker training is a good tool but it is not the only way to train anything either. I taught a galah to do 2 tricks without clicker training......it just took longer for her to pick up what I wanted.

[bickitrainer]

Lol thanks for all the comments and support. I've worked more with him today and he has learnt how to flap on command now!

But the ring toss still needs working....

Lol Bicki does bite randomly sometimes! But he learnt the word 'No' recently and its working abit! ^_^

Yes the word 'good boy' seems to be as effective as clicker training I think....

[vankarhi]

The clicker is just a bridge..........the words good boy can also be that bridge......or the word yes or any word or sound for that matter as long as the bird knows that it means .......... a treat is coming and I have done the right thing.

Well done ;D

[bickitrainer]

Here is another video of him: au.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdb-NVlZ5mw

Lol to think putting a huge ball in the goal would be harder to teach than ring toss.

[vankarhi]

Does Biki throw toys around when playing?? If he does then you might have to watch for it and praise when he does it naturally and try to train him that way for the "toss" of the toy.

[bickitrainer]

No I've never seen him toss a toy, he likes to chew on them instead, or roll balls around....

I think it would be harder to teach him to toss the ring onto the ring toss than to put it on the ring toss.

[vankarhi]

Most birds I have seen don't toss it onto the ring. If they do it probably is a behaviour the owner has seen and shaped for the trick. A lot of tricks are actually something the bird might do naturally and the owner shapes it to a trick. Does that make sense??

[bickitrainer]

:(Lol yes that makes sense. For example with conures, naturally in the wild, they sometimes sleep on their backs and owners shapes this into a trick 'play dead',

Still no success with bicki's ring toss.......

[vankarhi]

don't panic about it ......... teach him other things. Even when training dogs.....some dogs do thing better than others........while others don't do at all. lol