Hi all! I'm so thankful for the help I received from the first question I posted about my weaning QP (who is now refusing all but one feeding a day, and is already saying, "Come here, Coco," and "What ya doin' Coco?") so I'm hoping for some great feedback regarding this as well!

Using the 'search engine,' I searched for forums regarding clickertraining, and found the last forum to be from 2008. I'd love to get an update on those who have used, or are using, clicker training! I plan to begin with Ann Castro's 'Bird School' next week. But one thing I seriously doubt she'll cover is this:

My QP, like many others, screams when I leave and when I enter the room. Usually it's 2-3 screams, so it's not too bad, but it sure gets a little annoying when I'm running around the house and constantly in and out So far I'm working on consistently telling her that I'll be back and then saying, "'I'm back" when I enter. She'll still scream when I enter the room, so I step back out for a second and wait for her to quit screaming and then enter. Sometimes she'll consistently scream when I enter, so I'll have to do this seeeveral times. I'm confident that she'll get the jist of it eventually, but when I receive my clicker, I thought of implementing that, too. Getting her to not consistently scream in these instances is my ultimate goal, then we'll work on tricks from there (she can replace the screaming with a flock call for all I care ... just not that ear-piercing screeeam!) . Here's my idea ... please comment on whether this is a good idea, or perhaps I need to do something totally different.

So when I tell her that I'll be back, then exit, and she doesn't scream, I click. The problem is, as soon as I say, 'Good birdie, Coco!!' or come in to reward her, she will undoubtedly scream. This is my problem. Entering the room will be easier, since if I enter and she doesn't scream, I'll then go over to her and praise her, or give her a treat. Again, it's how I praise her when I exit the room that I'm stuck on.

I'm excited about hearing other's experience with the clicker!

I've been clicker training Kiko, the 5 year old quaker I adopted two weeks ago. I'd recommend it to anyone! She was terrifed of the "click" at first and it took a couple of days before she didn't flinch away from the sound. She came waving on command, she'll target the end of a chopstick (running all over the top of her cage to get to it), she'll turn in a clockwise circle and I'm working on teaching her to turn in a counter-clockwise circle. This has proven to be the most confusing... she gets halfway and then wants to come back around clockwise.

She also came with a lovely screaming habit that sounds a lot like what you're describing. What I've been doing is everytime she screams because she can't see me I whistle the "Inspector Gadget" Theme song over and over and over again. At first she screamed back but in the last couple of days when I whistle I can hear her trying to mimic the song. I get a bunch of whistles going up and down the scale with a very pointed repeat of the last two notes (which are very similar to her wolf whistle and obviously the most familiar in the pattern). When putting my 2 year old daughter to sleep it's been a bit of an issue... the last day or so I sit next to the bed (keeping the baby penned in) with a book in my lap, whistling the song in a roundalay. (over and over and over). Kiko only screeched a few times today and then started trying to whistle back.

Pick a song... any song! Something a few runs long and within your range. It doesn't matter how complicated it is... Quakers in the wild have different "dialects" of calls between different flocks and each call seems to be specific to each individual flock. Someone in the forum group suggested that each person in your family pick a different song and Coco will learn to call who she wants to see by whistling the appropriate song.

The nice thing is, I'm finding that I can stop ANY vocalization I don't like with the song... it gets her started whistling instead of whatever else she's doing.

I have been doing clickertraining with my budgies. I use the book "The bird School" by Ann Castro. I think that book is a great step-by-step guide for beginners like me. I also attended a workshop on clickertraining at last year's parrot conference. With clickertraining my traumatized budgies have come a long way.

Here is a video by Ann Castro. She has a parrot who has to have his beak filed down regularly. Normally, that would involve a stressful procedure at the vet.
http://www.youtube.com/user/annbirdsrfun#p/a


Generally, you are doing it right with your quaker. Ignoring the screaming and rewarding when she is quiet. She will understand that eventually.
Once you start using the steps in the book, you will see how smart your quaker is
Good luck!

Sigrid

Well, I've been consistently whistling the same song, but she has yet to whistle back even a note -- she still just screams. Sometimes once or twice, sometimes for several minutes straight. I must admit that she has done well with not screaming when I enter the room, so there's a step forward. I just find it bizarre that Mattie Sue Athan's book, as well as some other websites, describe QPs as not being that loud, unless they mimick a terribly noisey sound. Infact, Athan states that screaming is a learned behavior ... no one in my house screams, or is even loud at all (a.k.a., we don't yet have children, lol). Guess I should have specifically googled 'screaming quaker parrot.' Not that her scream bothers me when she's in the middle of a symphony, or when she takes flight or lands (not quite sure what that's about, lol) but when I'm walking around the house, the consistent screaming really gets to me. And God forbid I turn on the faucet while she's around ... I'm suprised she hasn't shattered a glass yet, lol! Besides this, she is an absolute joy to be around, but these piercing screams are something I know I couldn't deal with in the long run, but I'm willing to really work at it as long as I know that (with consistency and patience, of course) this can be resolved.

This seems to be a common problem among QP owners. Do many others simply deal with the screaming, or are most owners successful at creating a new flock call between themselves and their QP? I couldn't imagine hiding a treat for her to search for every single time I leave the room ... ...

Maybe I'm just getting REALLY lucky with Kiko... She's at the point where she's trying very hard to whistle the same tune back and she's mastered a couple note combinations that are a part of it. (she tends to whistle the notes she knows over and over again... LOL) She's targeting anywhere I ask unless it's somewhere she can't figure out how to get to - then she just goes back to the last place I asked her to go and demands her sunflower seed. We're working on learning the difference between the hand signal for a clockwise spin and a counter-clockwise spin right now. She gets confused with the direction I'm asking her to go and tends to spin like a top in the one direction while I'm trying to get her to go the other way.

Maybe it's like toddlers who scream - once they hit the point where they're in full swing they really have trouble disengaging because they've gotten themselves worked up to the point where they're no longer able to be reasonable. LOL Did that make sense? I know I have to catch my daughter at the very beginning of a tantrum because once she's full bore I pretty much have to put her nose in the corner and keep her there until she runs out of steam. Until she's exhausted herself to the point where it's hard to keep going, she's kind of stuck in repeat and no amount of talking, snuggling, threatening, interaction, ANYTHING seems to break through. Can you catch it sooner in any way?

Side Note: Karen Pryer just released a new book on her work clicker training called "Reaching the Animal Mind". She's got clips up on the book's website that she ties into the book itself. For example, when she's discussing the "lightbulb moment" when an animal realizes that they were in control of the action that got the click, she has a short video of a ferret figuring it out and going completely squirrely in excitement. Very cool stuff so far. All the science without having to use a translator.

I started clicker training my quaker 2 years ago from joining the Bird Click group on yahoo. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bird-Click/ I'm sure this will help your bird's screaming behavior but the Bird Click group will advise you to first start with "prop" tricks like targeting, retrieving, stepping up onto a hand perch, because your bird may use an early non-prop trick as begging behavior because it is well ingrained and he can do it himself-no prop needed. After you've done some prop tricks, you can then work on rewards for offering a sound that is pleasant to you that you cue as you enter his room. My bird never screams without a reason (he wants his special applesauce cup) and offers lots of nice little whistle sounds I trained him to make. Since we worked on Step Up so often, he now says that regularly and is working on OK and All Right.