Only ten days after little Flo had learned the recall, we
started the next stage - fly to the perch. I used the cue of a twirled forefinger thatAustralian trainer,Nic Bishop had taughtme at a parrot trainingworkshop three years earlier.
Each morning as soon as she heard that I was up, Little
Flo chirped loudly to come out of cage. Once out, she did at least twelve recalls for slivers of nut. Then she had enough and flewround the two adjoining rooms in a burn up and landed on the ropes.
It was summertime, I had no classes to teach, so could
easily fit in a routine of daily training sessions; each ses- sion lasting as long as Little Flo chose - the longest lasted twenty minutes and the shortest one minute. If she flew away, I never chased her (not making the mistake I had madewith Perdymy lesser sulphur crested cockatoo some years ago).
From my notes: Tuesday July 28. Tried to put little Flo
back in cage at seven PM. She kept jumping back to my hand so I took her into my office where she explored the printers. Being used to my destructive cockatoos and greys, the comparatively gentle rock pebbler is a joy.
Once Little Flo had mastered the recall from one spot, I
took her to another roomand generalized the behavior.Was her bravery endemic to her species or her individual char- acter? I still don’t know but nothing seemed to upset her.
A NEWHOME FOR LITTLE FLO Her home was to be with a pet owning family but she’d
be their first bird. I wanted her to step up, respond to a re- call, enter a crate and be able to play on her own.
Except for crate training, all of these were already
achieved since she had been brought indoors nine weeks earlier. I showed her a crate and she flew away; I did not persist. However by the secondmorning of crate training, Little Flo appeared desensitized to the crate. She took a treat fromthe first slit up at the front then hopped into the back of the crate and took treats from the back. She did not react when the door was swung a little shut. After- wards she walked in the crate by herself to look for dropped nuts. The cue to walk in was my finger tapping the front of the crate.
Calum, a young lad of sixteen, her future owner, arranged to visit us for a two day crash course in handling
44 Good Bird Magazine
Calum was destined to be Flo’s new caregiver. Photo credit: Dorothy Schwarz
Little Flo. He arrived at lunch time. In the conservatory Little Flo was a charmer. She stepped up to him straight- away and flew several times between the two of us, helped perhaps by having had no food left in the conser- vatory since breakfast. Calum was thrilled. And not dis- pleased that she wouldn’t step up for his friend who’d come with him.
Flo had mastered many behaviors including crate training. Photo credit: Dorothy Schwarz
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