Can you train a lovie to "stay" ?

[summerday]

Hi everyone!

I have been having so much fun training my lovebird, Summer. She doesn't know any cool tricks but she mastered "up", and I actually extended the training to have her fly to my finger whenever I say the command. Now, wherever she is, she flies to my finger when she hears me say "up".

Well, the truth is, teaching her to fly to me was pretty easy, considering she is a hand-fed bird and is pretty crazy about being with me 24/7. I'm actually a bit worried that she might be a bit too dependent on me.

So I wanted to teach her the command "stay". As in, she stays in the spot and does not fly to me until I say "up". I tried the typical positive reinforcement with her favorite treat but there seems to be no progress and I'm not even sure if I'm doing it right! (Right now, I put her down on the place I want her to stay, and begin by rewarding her if she stays there for 2 seconds. Then slowly increase the time... but she never got past 3 seconds and would just fly to me lol)

I tried googling it but nothing came up and I'm starting to doubt if it's possible to teach her that.. Do you guys know a good way or other similar tricks?

[whereswalid]

I did. But then again the minute she sees me she fkya to my shoulder....:rotfl

[shadnamber]

Hi, one of the recommendations that I read about is when trick training start with prop tricks and then progress to things like stay and potty-training. They can be done, Parrots are of course one of the smartest animals. Prop tricks are anything that uses a target stick or other prop to help train a trick or action.

If your interested there is an online yahoo group called "Bird-click" that goes step by step how to do this and of course is free. hope this helps.

[linda040899]

:happy::happy: The place I've been able to train my birds to stay is on my shoulder! They are flock animals and view us differently than dogs see us. With dogs, we are pack leaders. With birds, we are members of their flock.

One very important thing you've taught her, however, is to fly to you on command. In cases of emergency, that "trick" will be worth its weight in gold and it could help save your bird's life.

[love4birds]

This is a good article, #2 and 3 address the stay command:
http://www.robharvey.com/information/training.html

My lovies know the Stay (don't fly to me) command. They don't stay where they are, but when I give the hand signal and say "stay" they know not to fly to me at that time. By consistently blocking the birds flight path to you after giving the physical and spoken cues, they learn the command pretty quickly.

As for teaching them to stay in a particular spot, I find the best way to do that is to just make that spot a fun, desirable place for them. If I can't have the birds on my shoulder right when they want to be, I give them a treat or something fun and new to play with on a play area, for instance.

[summerday]

Haha these are such great tips!
I love teaching any kinds of trick to Summer... =)
Thank you all!

[KateBascombe]

Mine stay on their playgym unless they're invited off. Mostly because a) Their playgym always has food and toys and each other to play with, and b) Every time they leave their spot without being invited we pick them up without making a fuss and put them back. We don't say anything to them, or pick them up with our hands (we use a perch). We just put them away. It only took them a week or two to figure out that unless we asked them to come to us they were just going to end up back where they started :)