I decided to start doing target training with the birds. I'm starting with Digby and Lenore. I won't try it with Sydney for a while longer as I'm still trying to teach her to be comfortable around us and take food from my hand.

I actually started with Lenore about a week ago, just "charging the clicker", teaching him that the click means treat. Today, I introduced Digby to that concept. Both of them caught on to that very quickly. I also introduced the target stick to both of them today.

Lenore caught onto the idea of the target stick within three tries. He is very eager to learn and get his treat. Digby, though, is a bit wary of the target stick. A couple of times she walked away from it, a couple of times she just looked at it, and ONCE she bit it. She got a reward for looking at it, but she got a bigger reward for biting it.

Both of the birds seem very willing to learn, especially Lenore. I'm hoping that by teaching Digby this, I'll be able to eventually get her to step up onto my hand. Digby has made a lot of progress since I got her in October, but there hasn't been any change in the past few months, so maybe this will help her overcome whatever fear it is that she has over bare arms and hands. I'm also hoping I can eventually do recall training with both of them.

Digby reached, in my mind, two big milestones this week.

The first one was one that I've seen coming for the past few weeks. Last night after I put her in her cage for bed, I left her cage door open while I gave her some new water. I left the room, got her water, and went back to the living room. Digby was no longer in her cage, she was standing on her cage door. This afternoon I decided to see just how willing she was to leave her cage. I opened her cage door and put her t-perch in front of the door. Within two minutes, she was out of her cage and on her perch. She went in when I got close to her, but as soon as backed off, she came back out. When I approached her again, she stayed on her perch and hopped onto my arm.

Tonight, when I put her in her cage for the night, I again left the door open while I got her water. She came out as I expected. It makes me very happy to see her so willing to come out.

The second milestone that she reached is a huge, huge one. She was on her perch and something startled her. She jumped down to the floor. I bent down to get her, but I had short sleeves on so she couldn't just step up onto my sleeve. Given the choice between the floor and my hand, Digby chose my hand! She hopped up onto my hand and stayed there. I also discovered she will let me pick her up using my hand even though she won't step up onto my hand. She's also been letting me pet her on her back and tail a little.

Digby has made huge improvements since I got her, and it seems like lately her behaviour and willingness to trust has been improving by leaps and bounds. One day she'll be totally opposed to something and the next day she'll be happy to try it.

I know I've posted about her improvements before, but she really impressed me last night and today and I want to share how she's doing now. It's been exactly a month since that post (found here), and she has improved more since then.

When I got her in October, I was lucky to just be able to get Digby out of her cage. She would not step up and if you got too close, she would threaten to bite. She wanted very little to do with people. She would eat nothing but seed. And the moment you got within a couple feet of her cage if you had her out, she'd try to fly back to her cage.

Now, she will happily come out of her cage and will even let you know when she wants out. She'll sit by her cage door until you get her out. Last night, she was doing that and I decided to let her out. I opened the door and put her ladder in and asked her to step up. She did so without any hesitation and without being asked twice. Then, rather than just hold on for the ride while I took the ladder out of the cage like usual, she started to walk down the ladder to the outside of the cage.

Today, I got her out before she was acted like she wanted out. She hesitated a bit getting on the ladder, and I had to tell her to step up more than once, but once she was out, she didn't want to go back in. All I usually have to do to put her back in her cage is to have her next to the door and tell her to step up onto it. Today when I did that, she refused. Once in a while she does this and all I have to do is put her on her T-perch and lift that to the door and tell her to step up. So I did that. She refused and backed away from her cage. I asked her again. She turned around on the perch and flew back to my shoulder.

Normally, I don't let my pets get away with not doing what they're told to do, but that was just too cute and she obviously wanted to spend some time with me so I just let her be. After a little while, I tried to put her in her cage again. I had to use the T-perch, but she went, albeit reluctantly.

There are other improvements too. She still refuses to step up onto bare skin, but she no longer growls or tries to bite if you offer her your arm or hand. She will even sometimes sit on my neck (on bare skin) if she's been on my shoulder.

She's also now eating pellets on a regular basis and she'll at least taste anything I offer her. Her personality is starting to come out. I have finally figured out which toys she will play with and which she won't; she prefers shreddable toys.

She's currently singing very loudly in her cage, driving my little brother and nephew crazy.

Delilah hasn't gotten on Lenore's cage since yesterday morning, and I put away the squirt bottle.

How did I do it?

First, I blocked her ability to go up beside the cage by putting some bird toys and various other things there. I thought that would be enough since that was the way she was getting up there. After I did that, though, she decided that she could jump straight from the floor onto the top of Lenore's cage.

To keep her from doing that was quite easy. I took a big, but not thick, hardcover book. I put it on top of Lenore's cage and left about 2 inches hanging over the front. Delilah has tried once to jump up there with the book there. The only time she did, she fell to the ground, knocked the book off the cage, and ran and hid. She's yet to try it again.

What's that you say? You say you can't train cats? Well, obviously, you haven't met my cats.

I started training cats back when I had my first cat. I was probably eight or nine. I had a black cat named Matilda. I found my mom's dog training book, and taught Matilda how to sit using the method described in the book for teaching dogs. She did it every time I asked her, but I never tried to teach her anything else.

When we got Tin Tin, I decided I'd train him to do stuff as well. Tin Tin will sit and stay on command. I haven't had any luck getting him to lay down. But, he's a very smart cat. He knows that water comes out of the facet in the tub, and he knows that to turn it on involves more than just tapping it. So, if he's in the tub and one of his humans is near enough and he wants a drink, he'll tap the human's hand and then tap the facet, as if saying, "You put your hand on that and make it come on. Thank you." Because he is so smart, there are things he has picked up on without being taught.

Shadow, though, as sweet as she is, wasn't blessed with Tin Tin's cognitive skills. She's figured out that if a person is sitting and they pat their leg, she's supposed to get on their lap. I can't get her to sit or do anything else. She is, however, an excellent hunter and keeps our mouse population very, very low.

I'm still teaching Delilah. I've taught her to sit and stay. She's better at sitting than Tin Tin, but he's better at staying. I've also taught her "up" and "down". I'm planning on teaching her other tricks too, but that's all she knows right now.

How do I do it? Mostly the same way I train my dogs--with positive reinforcement. But, since cats aren't as eager to please their humans as dogs are, it takes a bit more work and it works better if you can teach them to do something they already do. I teach "sit" exactly the same for dogs and cats, but other things, like "stay", have to be taught when the cat is already doing it, at least initially. When I taught Delilah "up" and "down", I took a treat and she followed the treat. Now, I can get her to do it without a treat. The "down" command works very well when she gets up on something I don't want her on.