sicajess
05-26-2010, 06:54 AM
A while ago I started clicker training with Puck, but never got much further than just conditioning the clicker and letting her get used to the target stick because she was terrified of it in the beginning! Unfortunatly, because my household didn't hold to the training regime (meaning my parents would still slip her millet outside of her training) I quit clicker training her.
Now I moved to a new home, and I have good hiding places for the millet (:P) I decided to give it another go :D but this time, there's TWO budgies who I'll be training at once! They wont come out of the cage by themselves without the other one present so I wont separate them.
Day One - Day 3:budge:
I started conditioning them again, Pim was very very eager to get to the millet and at the end of the day he definitely got it. He's showing more interest in the training than Puck is. I've spread their sessions over the day- 3 short sessions of 5-10 minutes. I've continued this method for three days to be sure they got the hang of it :)
Day 3-Afternoon:budge:
At the last training session I decided to introduce the target stick. For this I first used a stripped off millet branch because I knew from past experiences that Puck was very frightened of the stick.
This worked well, Pim didn't quite understand at first why I'd shove an empty millet stick in his face xD and Puck wasn't very keen on it still. I just started rewarding them for not moving away from the stick.
Day 4:budge:
Started with the training stick again :) Pim nibbled onto it this time! I clicked at the right time and gave him his millet and after a few tries he tweaked it without hesitation. Puck was still reluctant to give the stick a nip, but she decided to be smart with me; every time Pim nibbled the stick and I clicked, she'd quickly rush over to Pim's side to be able to take a piece of millet too! Clever huh? :P
I focused more on Puck the second training session,and she finally gave in and nibbled on the stick too. After a few tries she wasn't as afraid anymore but I have to be careful when I approach her with it.
Day 5:budge:
I replaced the millet stick with a thin wooden saté stick. It's longer, so it was easier for me to hold. Luckily Pim didn't mind, he was great! I started placing the stick a bit further away and he followed it! I was so proud! :D Puck is still trying to butt in every time she knows that Pim is getting some millet. They both now try to put their foot on the millet as to keep it there. :eek:
Puck showed some major progress today! She tweaked the stick with little hesitation, I think she understands now that she can have more 'millet-moments' if she targets xD
Day 6:budge:
:eek: So suprised today! Pim now sucessfully follows the stick around on his perch, he's a bit hesitant to hop on different surfaces but I'm amazed at how fast he's progressing!
But then there's Puck! I think she was a bit millet crazy today because she did EVERYTHING :eek: She followed the stick around (she tried to get over to it when I was busy with Pim) and everything!
I tried to push my luck a bit :o, and I stepped a small distance away from the cage and held the target stick on my arm. She observed it for a little while.. but then... SHE FLEW TOWARDS IT! she just flew on my arm, tweaked the stick and got a jackpot reward from me.
It was unbelievable :O I know Puck isn't that afraid around me because she used to spend a lot of time with me before Pim came but I never expected her to fly to the target already!
Pim only just got his flight feathers back, so he's still practicing flying/landing so he wasn't so sure, but I got him to target the stick above my hand, and he was afraid to get too close to my hands before. :)
So as you can tell, i've had some great moments! Day 6 was yesterday and I've done a short training session this morning because I had to do some shopping today :P but I can't wait to get home and do the 2nd session of the day :D
Much love,
Yessica, Pim and Puck
Now I moved to a new home, and I have good hiding places for the millet (:P) I decided to give it another go :D but this time, there's TWO budgies who I'll be training at once! They wont come out of the cage by themselves without the other one present so I wont separate them.
Day One - Day 3:budge:
I started conditioning them again, Pim was very very eager to get to the millet and at the end of the day he definitely got it. He's showing more interest in the training than Puck is. I've spread their sessions over the day- 3 short sessions of 5-10 minutes. I've continued this method for three days to be sure they got the hang of it :)
Day 3-Afternoon:budge:
At the last training session I decided to introduce the target stick. For this I first used a stripped off millet branch because I knew from past experiences that Puck was very frightened of the stick.
This worked well, Pim didn't quite understand at first why I'd shove an empty millet stick in his face xD and Puck wasn't very keen on it still. I just started rewarding them for not moving away from the stick.
Day 4:budge:
Started with the training stick again :) Pim nibbled onto it this time! I clicked at the right time and gave him his millet and after a few tries he tweaked it without hesitation. Puck was still reluctant to give the stick a nip, but she decided to be smart with me; every time Pim nibbled the stick and I clicked, she'd quickly rush over to Pim's side to be able to take a piece of millet too! Clever huh? :P
I focused more on Puck the second training session,and she finally gave in and nibbled on the stick too. After a few tries she wasn't as afraid anymore but I have to be careful when I approach her with it.
Day 5:budge:
I replaced the millet stick with a thin wooden saté stick. It's longer, so it was easier for me to hold. Luckily Pim didn't mind, he was great! I started placing the stick a bit further away and he followed it! I was so proud! :D Puck is still trying to butt in every time she knows that Pim is getting some millet. They both now try to put their foot on the millet as to keep it there. :eek:
Puck showed some major progress today! She tweaked the stick with little hesitation, I think she understands now that she can have more 'millet-moments' if she targets xD
Day 6:budge:
:eek: So suprised today! Pim now sucessfully follows the stick around on his perch, he's a bit hesitant to hop on different surfaces but I'm amazed at how fast he's progressing!
But then there's Puck! I think she was a bit millet crazy today because she did EVERYTHING :eek: She followed the stick around (she tried to get over to it when I was busy with Pim) and everything!
I tried to push my luck a bit :o, and I stepped a small distance away from the cage and held the target stick on my arm. She observed it for a little while.. but then... SHE FLEW TOWARDS IT! she just flew on my arm, tweaked the stick and got a jackpot reward from me.
It was unbelievable :O I know Puck isn't that afraid around me because she used to spend a lot of time with me before Pim came but I never expected her to fly to the target already!
Pim only just got his flight feathers back, so he's still practicing flying/landing so he wasn't so sure, but I got him to target the stick above my hand, and he was afraid to get too close to my hands before. :)
So as you can tell, i've had some great moments! Day 6 was yesterday and I've done a short training session this morning because I had to do some shopping today :P but I can't wait to get home and do the 2nd session of the day :D
Much love,
Yessica, Pim and Puck