Training my amazon not to rush

[jylu97]

My husband had been the one to take Tori out of her sleep cage in the morning. His stick skills have been a little unsteady, but now much better with my training. I've had Tori for over 20 years and he has been with Tori over a year. Tori adores him, so there is no aggression on her part, BUT she has now developed a bad habit when we take her out of her sleep cage. She looks so rushed when my husband or I offer the stick to get her out. She anxiously runs onto the stick and wants to get off it ASAP even though it's steady. She will also do this when I offer my hand. Last week she bit my hand and this morning she ran on my hand like it was an unsteady dowel. I think she bit due to anxiety.

How do I "undo" this? She is not clicker trained, but I have been thinking of doing this. Even if she was clicker trained, how do I train her to calmly come out of the cage onto a stick? She has also rushes onto the stick in other situations.

Thank you for any advice.

Liz

[leelf1]

Have you considered offering her a favorite treat as she gets onto the stick? (Present it to her near a part of the stick far from your hand to avoid efforts to climb on you). Being occupied with a treat that she takes will automaticallhy slow her down. This can be done using a positive reinforcement technique (bridging with praise or a clicker.)

[ravengirl9]

Try training away from and off of the cage. The way you could clicker train her is start with "click" then as soon as they hear the sound, they get a favorite treat. do this several times with out her doing any thing for the treat, so she understands that no matter what, "click = treat".

then, ask her to step on to the stick, and as soon as she does, "click & treat". keep clicking and treating while she is on the stick, to show that being on the stick means you get treats and attention.

after a few treats on the stick, ask her to get down, and give her one more "click and treat".

This is how I got my lovebird Takya to be calm while with people.

[Lori~D]

Man I dunno, Amazons tend to get "weird" at times. Willow has been doing something similar in that when I go to get her out she has to Flop down to the floor of the cage and growl and then she just nicely steps up. She is in the TOP of a very large double condo,lol, so he floor is at my chest level or so. NOw all of a sudden she just stopped. She puts her foot out and steps from the perch. I didnt change a thing and just kept asking for the same thing everyday. She just "changed" and then "changed back",lol. Sometimes she will do his from the stand as well...or just after stepping up from the stand...like she is rushed per say.

[jylu97]

Hmmm. Thank you for all your excellent intelligent replies! I just hate to see her so pressured to come out of her sleep cage. She just seems to take forever to step up on my hand when she is inside her sleep cage. She loves to climb up and down her perches almost purposely to avoid coming out.