Picked up a clicker to conduct some clicker-training. Always wanted to try this, but for some reason had never gotten the equipment.

Wow does this work well.

Ada picked up “click = good” within two shots. I already taught her a new trick, and she’s now listening for a click instead of looking for a treat. Searching for treats over listening for reinforcement was the main bane of my prior training method. I could get an animal to listen, but often it was by dangling the treat in front of them. That’s just not useful if you’re working with something which isn’t naturally inclined to mind humans.

Like birds.

Creating a click association with the caiques was a bit tougher. At first, the click spooked them. But they got used to it fairly quickly. Hear a click, get a peanut. Enzo picked it up and I got her to target to a pencil after a few minutes. Isaac though thinks the pencil is the devil. She refused to get near it, even while watching Enzo get treats for touching it. Isaac just stared at her, slit-eyed, looking as suspicious as a parrot can manage. She touched it once, but wouldn’t repeat the effort.

I’ll keep strengthening the click association for the caiques and work on more target training. This will be most useful to accustom them to new cages or toys with less stress.

Ada once again proves she’s perfect dog. Go Ada!

3 days ago · 6 notes