End of my rope-ish.

[the1hobbit]

Hello, long time no talk! Life has been fun and interesting. My birds are all doing fine. Jackjack my Amazon is stellar. Sadie, my Blue and Gold, after her regular vet visit needs to trim a few grams. Shes still in the 'healthy' weight range, but she likes her nutri berries too much. :p Tiels are forever happy and content. :3

Comments

[zandperl]

Since you have other birds, has Rosie gotten the chance to interact with them at all? (Presumably post-quarantine and vet check, of course.) She may do well with the other parrots and be able to socialize with them if she can't socialize with you - I don't necessarily feel that every bird has to be a people bird if she has lots of mental stimulation and social interaction in other forms.

Or you may want to look up the "model/rival" method that Dr. Irene Pepperberg used with Alex and continues to use with other greys, that might work for Rosie since you have other birds. My understanding of the method is that it is usually used with two humans and the one learning bird. The trainer will ask the second human (who acts like a bird) for a particular behavior. If the human gives it then the human gets the reward, and if the human doesn't give any behavior or gives a wrong response, then she doesn't get the reward. The learning bird watches both examples (reward and not) a couple times, then the trainer asks the learning bird for the behavior, and of course rewards when the learning bird gets it right. The second human serves as a model of the correct response, and also a rival for the rewards (food, attention), and that's where the name "model/rival" comes from. If you have other parrots who get along well enough with Rosie and they are well trained on stepping up (or whatever behavior you want), then they could serve as the model/rival for Rosie.

[the1hobbit]

thanks. I actually hadn't even thought of that method. I've been using mainly the practises of Karen Pryor. After quarantine, she was introduced to the flock, and well, it's fifty fifty.
They don't like each other, rivalry for attention is the predominate behavior. Her and Sadie have to kept on perches on opposite sides of the porch because they lunge at each other, more so than just the common testing. JackJack is comepletly indifferent to them. But tthat is the way of an Amazon I suppose.

But I'm thinking with the model/rival idea might be the ticket. considering they do get jealous of when I'm giving the opther attention I think I can use that for my benefit. hmmm

Thanks for the idea! I appreciate it!

[zandperl]

If you do give it a shot, let us know how it goes! It sounds to me like it builds upon positive reinforcement training ideas, just with the addition of the third individual who serves as a model/rival, so I'm curious how it compares in effectiveness to other types of positive reinforcement like clicker training. I wonder if anyone in the clicker training LJ community has deliberately used the model/rival method.