Enforcing Step-ups?

[jomo]

I'm about three weeks into parrothood with my 3 month old Dusky Pi. He's very good with his step ups, but on occasion, if he's in a bad mood or overly excited, he'll refuse and move away from me. Everything I've read says that it's imperative that I be strict about this, but when he starts to flee from my hand and squawks at me I can't see this being particularly productive -- after all, it's early in our relationship, and I'm still earning his trust.

What's the better option? Always enforce the step up, even if it means cornering him and possibly frightening him, or let it slide every once in awhile?

[lisark]

Rather than "enforcing," you should start "reinforcing" the step-ups. Reward him over and over for stepping up with food treats and he will become much more willing to step up at times when you need it and it wasn't his idea.

Find a treat that he particularly likes, and use the best treats for step-up. Make sure to use the words "step up" for a cue each and every time he does it. You could plan to do this every time for about two weeks.

Then, after he gets really good at stepping up, you would begin to reward him *randomly* for stepping up. At first the rewards would come pretty often, about every three to four attempts, and then you would be able to space them out more as time goes by.

If you force the step-ups you run a big risk of getting bitten or teaching the bird that you are the source of stress and fear. You might get the bird to consistently step up, but at what cost? Positive reinforcement is the only way to go with birds. They are not like dogs or other domestic animals that can be fairly successfully kow-towed into behaving the way we want.

[tielfan]

If a bird just simply doesn't want to do something and it isn't an emergency situation, the best thing to do is leave him alone for a little while, then work on adjusting his attitude. You don't want to start the attitude adjustment immediately because he might see that as a reward for his refusal to step up. Calm him down with some nice attention and some food treats, and he'll be much more likely to cooperate. Once he's relaxed a little, you can use those food treats to lure him onto your hand.

I don't see why it's imperative to be strict. Wild parrots don't have a dominance-based society like canines do, and attempts to enforce your will on an uncooperative bird will provoke an aggressive response, or maybe even fear. If you act tough enough you can eventually defeat the bird but as you noted, this is not a productive way to build a good relationship.

[Pepper's Pa]

This is the time when it is most important to build and develop a trusting bond with your Dusky Pionus. Do you want to build a relationship where your Pionus has been trained to submit to your wishes or a relationship where he chooses to come to you, wants to be with you, and willingly follows the prompts you give? There may be times where your wishes need to be immediately followed, but as other members have shared, this is not one of those situations.

These two articles may be of interest to you:
1) Don’t Ever Make A Parrot Do Anything He Doesn’t Want to Do? Good Advice or a Recipe for Disaster?
2) The Basics Of Nurturing Guidance as it Applies to Companion Parrots

Good luck in building a trusting and cooperative bond with your Dusky. Please keep us updated on your progress with him.

[jenseits]

Love the responses you've gotten so far. I agree with everything being said here. Sometimes I really do need my birds to step up or go back in their cage even if they don't want to (e.g., when I'm already late to work or I have to cook) and so I might be a little more insistent than I would be for pure training purposes, but I don't get physical or aggressive, I don't bully them, and when they do what I need I give them lots of praise and a nice reward.

With proper positive reinforcement, you'll soon have a bird who does what you ask because he wants to and it's fun, not because "you're the boss of him".

I recently acquired a white capped pionus and she's the sweetest thing in the world. If she's typical of the Pi personality, then you've got yourself an awesome parrot! I'll post some training vids of her when I finally get around to it =)p

[jomo]

Thanks a lot for the advice, everyone. Phew, so much to learn! I find that keeping continually aware of my own behaviour as perceived by the bird is the most difficult -- already I've noticed a number of ways that he's started to train ME! He's a smart boy, just gotta keep him headed in the right direction.