Hello I'm a new Ringneck owner

Thanks @Roz, I think the step breakdown is working. Picking the right emotion/behaviour to treat on is the difficult part to spot as he is so heightened for the treat and his head/body is constantly moving trying to figure out when the treat is coming. I am waiting desperately for my clicker!

The other thing i have noticed is, because I incorrectly used the treat as lure combined with an action he was not comfortable with, he has now developed a habit of craning his neck as far as he can and opening his beak really wide (looks like he wants to bite) every time he sees my hand coming to reward him with a treat. Any way to reverse this behaviour?
 
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That's ok. I would stand in front of him (if he's comfortable with that - or towards the side of him) and hide the treat hand behind your back. Introduce your step up hand towards him. Stop where he is comfortable, then give him the treat from behind your back. ie. so he doesn't see the treat before the behaviour. The appearance of the treat comes after/is the consquence of the desired behaviour. I would reinforce any behaviour apart from uncomfortable - and if you see uncomfortable, you know you have gone too far too fast. Go back a couple of steps and proceed slower. Luring can be useful to kick start a behaviour but should be faded out asap.

Shaping is all about reinforcing approximations (unpolished behaviour if you like) towards the final desired (polished) behaviour. It doesn't matter how he takes the treat. As he relaxes his way of taking the treat will slowly calm down. It is like when you are teaching targeting - a lot of birds (and other animals) go to bite the stick hard to begin with. And that's absolutely fine. They touched the stick! Gradually they realise that they only need touch the end of the stick very lightly to get the reinforcer.
 
Roz said:
That's ok. I would stand in front of him (if he's comfortable with that - or towards the side of him) and hide the treat hand behind your back. Introduce your step up hand towards him. Stop where he is comfortable, then give him the treat from behind your back. ie. so he doesn't see the treat before the behaviour. The appearance of the treat comes after/is the consquence of the desired behaviour. I would reinforce any behaviour apart from uncomfortable - and if you see uncomfortable, you know you have gone too far too fast. Go back a couple of steps and proceed slower. Luring can be useful to kick start a behaviour but should be faded out asap.

Shaping is all about reinforcing approximations (unpolished behaviour if you like) towards the final desired (polished) behaviour. It doesn't matter how he takes the treat. As he relaxes his way of taking the treat will slowly calm down. It is like when you are teaching targeting - a lot of birds (and other animals) go to bite the stick hard to begin with. And that's absolutely fine. They touched the stick! Gradually they realise that they only need touch the end of the stick very lightly to get the reinforcer.
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Yes, makes absolute sense! Thank you for all your help @Roz it has been incredibly useful and also made me feel more calm and confident. I'm sure that will come across in my interactions and he will pick up on it.
 
Welcome, I am also a newish parrot owner, I have found all this information very interesting
 
I'm excited to report that Stitch is now a lot less bothered with my step up hand being close to his feet, although he won't yet voluntarily step up without a treat in view, as i am trying not to bait him. I have tried capturing his foot briefly tapping my finger with praise but he is still confused - waiting for my clicker to improve this technique :)

However he surprised me by flying on to my hand yesterday and sitting on my open palm as i had a treat in it and was distracted by my phone. He will happily continue to sit on my palm and finish eating his treat even if I transfer my hand back to his perch immediately.

If I don't transfer him to his perch after eating, he will still bite, although less hard than he did before.
 
HannahT said:
I'm excited to report that Stitch is now a lot less bothered with my step up hand being close to his feet, although he won't yet voluntarily step up without a treat in view, as i am trying not to bait him. I have tried capturing his foot briefly tapping my finger with praise but he is still confused - waiting for my clicker to improve this technique :)
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Amazing!! You can bait him for the first few times if necessary - it can help kick start the behaviour. Then gradually start hiding the treat in your hand so that he can see less and less of it. And yes, you can use praise instead of a clicker to mark a behaviour - make it short like a simple "good!" Clicker or no clicker, it is the reinforcer that is the most important part of teaching a behaviour.

HannahT said:
If I don't transfer him to his perch after eating, he will still bite, although less hard than he did before.
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The bite is telling you he is still not comfortable on your hand. Information! :) Try to get him back to his perch before he even thinks of biting. Then gradually you can shape duration - the amount of time he is on your hand before putting him back on his perch. That way he has no need to communicate via biting.
 
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