Gay Noeth's "BG" Doing Recall Training Indoors
view or download video (approx 15 Mb)
BG, a Congo African Grey
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** Video section in progress **
This video will be edited to highlight specific responses. The purpose of this demonstration is to illustrate what a "good response" is, compared to a poor or latent response.
This is a session in which the trainer is practicing already established behaviors: A-B recall (from chair to hand), and flying through a hoop. You will see a difference in this session in the response of the bird between the easier behavior (straight recall) and the more difficult (and recently learned) hoop trick. Look for differences in response time, as well as the bird's body language. Also, how does the trainer respond to the latency?
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Can you see:
- No latency in response on straight recalls to hand. If the bird is still eating, or in one case pooping, the trainer waits to cue (or re-cue) the recall.
- When the hoop is added, the response time gets longer, there is a hesitancy to do the behavior, a bit of fidgeting, and usually a failure to do the behavior as asked. If this were an outdoor situation it is critical: DO NOT CONTINUE. Time to go in or decrease the difficulty.
- When the trainer sees this latency, she moves back to the lower difficulty behavior (straight recall) and does variations on that, which brings back the good response. No pleading, begging or bribing! If the trainer were trying to train the hoop trick specifically in this session, the strategy is normally to decrease the distance to make it easier, just like when training straight A-B recall, in order to improve the response.
- Leaving the hoop up for so long on the last attempt prolonged the visual cue too much, even though there was no continuous verbal cue, and allowed for the latency.
- The trainer tries to set the bird up for success by making sure he is ready to perform before she asks for the behavior (note checking to see if he is still eating his treat, not cuing until he's finished pooping). And even though she knows BG can do the hoop trick at this distance, she does not push it in this session. (Again, an alternative if she wanted to ensure practice with the hoop would be do decrease the difficulty by moving closer.)
~ IMPORTANT IF TRAINING FOR OUTDOORS ~
On the last hoop attempt, where BG overflies onto a ceiling fan: the equivalent outdoors with this type of latency and reluctance to do the behavior would be flying UP into a tree or worse, which a new outdoor flyer may not be ready to handle. That's one reason why being alert to latency and the bird's body language is important.
Comments from Other Trainers
- Darren: Some GREAT things in this video. For the newer people starting recall training, some things to point out:
- Very enthusiastic owner - Great voice tone (with excitement).
- Very short session. About 10 minutes .. That is GREAT. Don't make it "work" ... Make it FUN.
- Very clear cues ... and the bird did them very enthusiastically.
But, some things to point out also:
- Distractions: Other birds flying around. For a very experienced or trained bird, probably NOT a big deal, but if your starting out .. I would AVOID this. :))
- I would start the session with just the recall's maybe 2 (something easy to get the bird started) .. and go immediately to the "new" or "more difficult cues, as the more treats given, the less motivation you will have as the bird is eating. Also use SMALL pieces for treats. The idea is not to FEED the bird, but to "treat" the bird. They can finish the meal in the cage when you are done .. WHICH also encourages them to go TO THE CAGE also when done.