Off-Contact Trick Training

Ringo my orange wing amazon “WOOOOOO” (big wings, tail fanned, and he cheers “WOOO!”)

The “WOOOO” cue I taught Ringo was a way for us to work with each other but off contact. Ringo is heavily pair bonded to JoJo, my yellow nape amazon. He becomes very possessive and aggressive. It takes a different approach to work with him, pair bonds in general.

When him and Jo first paired up, I wanted to work with him, but I have to be more off contact for his comfortability and then my safety. Training would allow me to figure out where there were gaps in trust and skills that we needed to work on so he would be successful.

He would occasionally put his wings up, and he knew how to say WOOO! I knew this was the perfect opportunity to pair these behaviors together to teach him on a cue while being off contact.

This WOO has become an amazing tool for me in managing pair bonding behaviors. It’s been paired with only positive experiences, and it’s something he enjoys doing. Doing these WOOS helps redirect behavior and mindset.

In these photos, he was lunging at me because I was cleaning around the stand him and Jo were on. Instead of allowing him to continue to rehearse the aggressive behaviors, I redirected him to the WOO! We did a few, I got some adorable photos, and he instantly stopped his aggression while I cleaned.

Management plan would tell me I should have set them up for success better by moving the stands away from the cleaning area, but in the moment, I was focused on cleaning, and forgot the management plan. I always have other options ready to implement to help keep things managed in case I wasn’t using my brain in that moment to still keep the progress I made strong and not damage it.