Psitta Puzzle - need instructions

[Jacob]

A month ago my boyfriend was at the bird store so I asked him to pick up a toy for Jacob. What I meant was a shredding toy or something like that but my boyfriend came home with a puzzle. It's called a Psitta puzzle and is designed by some behavior specialist. Anyways it came with instructions on how to teach your bird to puzzle but my boyfriend through away the packaging with the instructions before I could even glance at them. Does any of you have this game and the instructions? I did google it and came up with nothing.

This is an advanced game so I need to train Jacob in other stuff before we start on this but I would like to have at least some idea on how to teach him this...

[jenseits]

I love this puzzle! (More than my birds do, unfortunately )



If your bird hasn't done any sort of trick training or puzzle solving, this one might be difficult because Jacob will likely not easily stumble into the solution by himself.

So you will need to "shape" the behavior you want and then chain a sequence of behaviors together.

First, you reinforce looking at a puzzle piece, then touching it, then you reinforce picking up the puzzle piece, then you reinforce moving the puzzle piece, then moving the puzzle piece toward the board, then putting the piece onto the board, then getting it close to the hole, then putting it into the hole the right way. Once your bird gets the concept with one shape, you start over with the next shape. Only move onto the next step once you're sure he understands what you're asking of him. Some steps will take longer than others.

Work on one shape at a time; Only give him one shape to work with and only present the corresponding hole. The yellow circle is the easiest, because it fits in any way you turn it, so that's the one you start with. The square is next easiest, then the triangle, then the polygon shape (which only fits one way). Once he understands which shape goes in what hole, then you open up all the options and make him choose. You don't want to give him too many options early on because it's already pretty difficult to begin with, and you want to set him up for success. Give him too many opportunities to fail and you'll both get frustrated.

I would recommend teaching "retrieve" first, because it's easier and lays a good foundation for this trick. If Jacob knows to pick things up and bring them to you, then the first part of getting him to pick up the puzzle and bring it over to the board will be a piece of cake. But getting a bird to pick something up and bring it to you is an entire trick unto itself and deserves a lot of attention early in your training process.

Retrieve is the foundation for a lot of tricks, including "basketball" (aka, "ball in a cup/hoop"), rings on a peg, pull the flag up the flagpole, coins in a piggy bank, etc.... even riding a scooter can be taught with retrieve as a base, because they all involve the bird understanding that it needs to move an object from one place to another.

I find this particular puzzle difficult because the shapes are so small and the holes so close together. I found that it takes a lot of work not only to get a bird to understand the concepts that you're asking for, but also to develop some of the coordination a puzzle like this takes.

p.s. We stopped with this one after Stewie got the circle shape and haven't progressed beyond it. He still struggles a bit with the circle, even though it's the easiest shape, and when he gets frustrated he starts throwing things and biting me. LOL. I think part of the challenge is that the piece is so small and since a birds' eyes are on the side of their head, he can't see what he's doing and has to go entirely by feel.

[jenseits]

p.p.s. If you haven't read up on how clicker training works, I think it'll be really helpful for this trick because it'll be important for him to understand what approximations are getting the reward.

I highly recommend these two books:
Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training
Clicker Training for Birds: Getting Started

[Jacob]

thank you jenseits :) I have read the clicker training book and have trained Jacob to target a stick. We are working on retrieve but it's taken a long time since Jacob was afraid of my open palm. So I had to work on that first. I'm thinking of getting the level 1 toy from the same series and work on that first. It's a box with plastic coins and the same shape as in the puzzle but you teach the bird to put the pieces in the box. The box also has a lid with slots on it so you can then teach the bird the piggy bank trick :) So two tricks in one.

I think that will be a good practice for me as a trainer and easier for Jacob as a starter trick.

[jenseits]

Originally Posted by Jacob

thank you jenseits :) I have read the clicker training book and have trained Jacob to target a stick. We are working on retrieve but it's taken a long time since Jacob was afraid of my open palm. So I had to work on that first. I'm thinking of getting the level 1 toy from the same series and work on that first. It's a box with plastic coins and the same shape as in the puzzle but you teach the bird to put the pieces in the box. The box also has a lid with slots on it so you can then teach the bird the piggy bank trick :) So two tricks in one.

I think that will be a good practice for me as a trainer and easier for Jacob as a starter trick.

Does that mean that he has retrieve down now? Or are you still working on it? I wouldn't rush past this and make sure he's very comfortable with it and then work on generalizing retrieve to a few different objects (and locations).

When I started working on retrieve with Stewie, I thought he had it down... until I realized that I hadn't actually taught him to drop the item into my hand per se, but to bring it to one particular corner of his cage (where I just happened to stand consistently). I figured this out when he just kept taking his toys to the same spot and waiting for me (and eventually drop them off the side).

I think the box/piggy bank trick is a great next trick after retrieve. Once he has retrieve solid, moving from putting the object into your hand to putting the object into a different object should go fairly smoothly; Just hold your hand over the opening and let the retrieved object fall into it. C/T as soon as it falls where it's supposed to.

However, you can make your own prop much cheaper than that particular toy. You can just use a bowl from your kitchen or a small box cardboard box that you cut a hole into.

Does Jacob get excited about training? Isn't it a lot of fun?

[Jacob]

I did target train him soon after we got him (we are his 5th home and he is 4 years old) I think that made him more comfortable with me sooner. And he knows when he sees the clicker and the bowl with sunflower seed that he will be getting some so he gets excited.

He doesn't now how to retrieve yet. We sort of got stuck with me holding the prop in my fingers with my palm up and letting go of the prop so he would hold it. He would get scared of my hand. I worked on that fear. Now if I let go of the prop he also lets go and drops it on the floor. Or walks away with it and drops it. He then gets frustrated because I don't click and treat for that and gives up. He gets excited when he sees the target stick because he knows how to do that. So after a few failures with the retrieve I let him target a few times so that he gets treats. I then go back to the retrieve and usually he just beaks the prop and I have to start again with lengthening the time he holds onto the prop. We've had a few sessions like that so we are kind of stuck... I haven't had time to train him lately but I am planning on starting again soon and am trying to find a way to get him to bump the prop to my hand and not just drop it on the floor. Maybe I'm not letting him hold on to the prop long enough before I move to the next stage? How long did you let Stewie hold the prop before you moved to the next stage of letting go of the prop so he would hold it by himself?

I'm trying to get him comfortable to be on our living room table so I can train him there. His cage is so tall so it's sort of awkward to train the retrieve on top of it. When he drops the prop it usually goes far and it takes time for me to find it :)

I don't have many bird friendly objects that I can use to make my own props. No old toys or stuff like that.

[jenseits]

Originally Posted by Jacob

IHow long did you let Stewie hold the prop before you moved to the next stage of letting go of the prop so he would hold it by himself?

Well, Stewie is a lot smarter than I am, so he taught himself "put the ball in the cup" first. From there I just had to put my hand over the cup and C/T for contact since he was already trying to aim for something.

See: Teaching My Parrot to Fetch: Step 1 Best in Flock – Parrot Blog

If backward chaining isn't working, then maybe try forward chaining for a change of pace? Maybe starting from scratch will help "reset" his expectations. I.e., instead of holding the prop and asking him to take it from you, start training all over again by just putting a prop down and C/Ting him for picking it up from a surface. Then put your hand directly underneath the prop so that it makes contact when he drops it. Even use a different prop, so it seems like a completely different trick and he isn't frustrated by it form the get-go.

I also find retrieve to be the hardest single trick to work on, but it's recommended as a second trick for a reason: I think it's more about us learning how to be patient and creative than anything else Once Stewie broke through that wall, the rest seemed to be a lot easier.

If you really aren't making any progress on retrieve, maybe you can just work on something else and come back to retrieve later? Sometimes that helps everyone to get out of the rut of not "getting" it.

And don't let yourself get frustrated or underestimate how much you've already accomplished. You're making terrific progress. The fact that he's less afraid of hands is huge progress, and is much more important in the big picture.

[Jacob]

Originally Posted by jenseits

If backward chaining isn't working, then maybe try forward chaining for a change of pace? Maybe starting from scratch will help "reset" his expectations. I.e., instead of holding the prop and asking him to take it from you, start training all over again by just putting a prop down and C/Ting him for picking it up from a surface. Then put your hand directly underneath the prop so that it makes contact when he drops it. Even use a different prop, so it seems like a completely different trick and he isn't frustrated by it form the get-go.

I was thinking of using another prop and start from scratch but I will try the forward chaining also. That is a good idea thank you.

Originally Posted by jenseits

I also find retrieve to be the hardest single trick to work on, but it's recommended as a second trick for a reason: I think it's more about us learning how to be patient and creative than anything else Once Stewie broke through that wall, the rest seemed to be a lot easier.

I think you're right. I think the problem is that I'm also learning to train but not that Jacob is a slow learner.

Originally Posted by jenseits

And don't let yourself get frustrated or underestimate how much you've already accomplished. You're making terrific progress. The fact that he's less afraid of hands is huge progress, and is much more important in the big picture.

Yes the whole training thing is not so that he can do cool tricks but so that we can have a fun time together and get to know each other :)