Re: [Freeflight] Stays and Babylon

[Nate Waddoups <thoughts@n...>]

On Thu, 7 Aug 2003, Douglas Delgado wrote:

> Treats for staying more frequently.....I have tried underwear and
> sometimes that works. It keeps her busy chewing the elastic. It
> depends on her mood. Raisins are a good idea too because she seems to
> like them and she chews and chews and chews on that. The problem is
> when she drops them in the carpet....yuck....

I had a similar problem with Phoebe's banana treats, it was a real relief
to find that she likes safflower seeds just as much. They're far less
messy, and the shells blend into my carpet quite well. :-) 

Is there a treat she likes more than raisins, enough to drop a raisin and
take the new treat? If so, you could try laying some paper down under the
birds' perch, give the "stay" command, give a raisin, wait a moment, and
give the better treat. Stretch the moment from one second to many
seconds (using the "bouncing" idea, 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 5, 3, 5, 6, etc, etc),
until you're outlasting the raisin, or maybe you could do the behavior
without the raisin once in a while for shorter moments, gradually fading
the raisin out of the picture entirely.

Also note that I just got Phoebe to do her longest "stay" yet, and I think
it's because she's sleepy right now. Maybe that's cheating, but I still
think it counts as success. :-)

> Thanks...see ya Sunday. We can work on both stays and recalls!

Yeah, that should be fun. :-) Speaking of which, if anyone on this list
is in the Seattle area and wants to fly a bird or three in a spacious
vacant office building this weekend, please contact me off-list. It's
great fun, and with more space than most houses I'm sure it's good for the
birds too.

Even if you can't make it Sunday, contact me anyhow, and I'll make sure
you're invited to the next fly-day.

-- 

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA
http://www.natew.com