Day 11

today's training is pretty much the carbon copy of yesterday, i just realized.

we started by me reading chapter 3 of my parrot behavior book to Pico (we are both learning while bonding, how nice!). Pico really calms down while i read to him. he would intently look at me and slowly his eyes will start to close - never completely but more to show "this is calming..." (or it could just mean "darn, this is boring! when is she going to let me out?!").

after about 15 minutes of reading, i take him out of the cage. i kept eye contact with him and he behaved quite nicely on the wooden perch i picked him up with. he didnt even try to lunge.

i then played with him with his favorite plastic jingly ball and a rattle toy. he was so active and wanted to play with everything i showed him (aggression?). i have tried to preen his head, but i havent had much success since i was successful when my husband was there.

**Note to me: there is a round frame around the play stand where when Pico stands on it, he is almost 7 ft off the floor - much higher than my head. Pico likes to climb this to be "above" everything and sometimes even just sits up there. I will have to talk to hubby and agree that he is not able to sit up there. allowing Pico to go up there gives him the false idea that he is dominant. that may be making it difficult to progress in my training with him.**

i gave him some time alone as i did some homework for my night class. he contentedly preened and napped.

then i did my set up with placing a chair in a section of the hallway i used yesterday so that i can do my step-up training. i am not doing this to teach Pico to "step up" (he already knows the command), but rather to let Pico know that he is not dominant; that he should follow my command.

we did the step up session for about 10 minutes. i used corn and my praises as rewards. i stopped again at 10 minutes because Pico lunged once for my hand, which i had to correct with a perch rumble and a firm NO. we did a successful 2 more step ups and we called it a day. he was then placed on his play stand, ate the rest of the corn i had and enjoyed the rest of his free time till he had to go to his cage for "nite nite".

great day in all. i would like to extend the training sessions to 15 minutes, but it may take some time. i will definitely extend it next week, if i have no opportunities this week. i dont want to rush things and i definitely want to keep this experience as a positive one to Pico.