What worked, and still works, with Coyote is to just present my fingers to him and then half the time he'll get all mad and make that mad sound and do the machine gun "bite" thing and then he'll get over it and finally lower his head for some scritches. I swear, I thought he'd outgrow this but nope, he still does it to this day.

So for me, going in slow wouldn't work, it would just spook him. I don't put my hand up to his face super fast either, just at a... I don't know how to describe it... medium pace? And then stop short right at his face level so he can do his little I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU GIVE ME SCRITCHES NOW thing. I don't know if this would work with Lucy, of course, but maybe something to try?

The angle doesn't matter with a bird that's experienced with scritches. I'm not sure how much it matters for a trainee either, since the main problem is that either they don't fully understand what you're trying to do so they don't cooperate, or they're not ready to take scritches from you so they don't cooperate. I tend to go for the side of the face under the jaw at first, to avoid holding my hand over their head which can be intimidating. Birds have an instinctive fear of something passing above them since that's the angle of attack for a hawk. Once we have some good vibes going from the cheek scritch I can work my way up to the top of the head. I love ruffling up their crests lol.

A lot of birds do accept a nose better than a hand, which seems odd because a face is so huge compared to the bird that you'd think it would scare them. I think it's partly because the nose is more beaklike, and also because the face doesn't move around as fast as our hands do, so it seems less like a possible predator. I've taught several birds to accept scritches by starting out with a nose rub, then sneaking a finger in when the bird isn't looking. Everything is fine until the bird notices that the finger has replaced the nose, and then the bird gets mad. But after this happens a few times they stop complaining about the finger, and just enjoy the scritches.

Coyote's routine is hilarious! But it brings up the point of getting the bird in the mood for scritches. Quite often Vlad isn't in the mood either and makes threats when my finger starts moving toward his head. So I'll do something else that he likes for a little while to jolly him up, such as singing a goofy song or making kissy sounds at him, and then I can get my scritches.

Birds are quirky little things, and every one is different. Henry DOES NOT want to be scritched - ever - but he loves it if I kiss him on the head a bunch of times and say "Oh Henry". And he gets jealous if I scritch some other bird, even though he doesn't want any of it himself.

Times like this where I had a third hand to hold the camera and record while my two hands are occupied. I think we just made a big breakthrough today.

I was doing the usual for her. Give her lots of time on my shoulder, practice stepping up, let her explore my bed, with various objects for her to check out and mess with. Nothing was different, until later on in our one-on-one session.

I've started practice petting her different ways. She somewhat tolerates being pet overall with my hand (which I find a little unusual, because all the tiels I've had in the past hated that), as well as nose rubs. I noticed that when trying to nose-scritch her, she tolerated it on her beak, rather than the top of her head, or back of her neck. I didn't make much note of it at first, though.

Right now, we're in the middle of monsoon season, where really strong winds blow, bringing clouds with them, resulting in a whole lot of rain (which is a really good thing, when you live in the desert). It got really windy. So windy, that the house itself made some noise. It startled Lucy enough to cause her to stand completely still, while on my finger. She wouldn't step up, wouldn't climb to my shoulder, or anything. Her crest stood straight up.

I decided to try and calm her, but using a different tactic. I gently rubbed her beak with the tip of my finger. Slowly, her crest went back down, indicating that she was starting to calm down. Then she slightly moved her head slightly to the right. I slowly went to her left cheek and started to rub it. She closed her eyes a little, and a few seconds later, she lowered her head, allowing me to give her scritches on the back of the neck. This went on for about 5 seconds, and not only was she tolerating this, but she was enjoying it. She was actually letting me. For that short amount of time, she was actually loving it. I stayed perfectly calm, and somehow kept my heart-beat steady, but in my mind, I was so excited. I just thought: "This bird is actually trusting me!"

Then the wind got stronger, and it startled her again. I thought at that point, it was a good idea to put her back in her cage, to let her rest safe and sound (it was starting to get dark, anyways).

It's amazing how much we have improved just by changing the location of our sessions. I always read that changing the location you work with your bird in can be stressful. In this case, it has ended up being the opposite, We've made so much progress ever since I started to take her in my room. I am so glad I didn't give up on her!

In other news, I'm trying to work on going to and from my room with her on my shoulder, rather than holding her on my chest. On the way to, she flew off twice, and I had to put my hand over her body to keep her from flying a third time. On the way back, she stayed, and stepped up onto my finger, so I could put her back in her cage. I'm hoping allowing her to travel while on my shoulder will convince her to step up while in the cage, in the first place.

I'm glad things are working out so far!

Sometimes changing the location actually makes it easier to train. With a cagebound bird it can be very useful to take him/her completely out of sight of the cage, so that desperately trying to get back to it isn't an option. If the change removes something stressful from the environment (like a dog in your case) that can be a positive change too.

Going to a different room can mean that you suddenly become the most familiar thing in the room, and as a result a bird that normally tries to get away from you might suddenly want to be with you. You've worked with Lucy in your room often enough now that this might not be the case with her. But whatever the reason is, it's definitely working out for you!

Every bird has its own ways for things to be done... Obi doesn't want to fly much, he likes to play around his cage... he has travelled on my finger tho the bungalow and seemed to take it all in... head scritches...depends on how he feels... he is a very fast learner in talking his speech is fantastic....

Everyone has their bad days, and this goes for birds as well.

Still not willing to step up, though she didn't put up as much of a fight about it. She did seem a little more bitey though.

She was not as accepting to scritches as she was yesterday, but quite a few minutes of just having her on my shoulder, she did enjoy them for a few seconds. The beak-rubbing approach has been proven effective for her. Kind of like I'm gradually easing her into receiving scritches. This went on around the same time as yesterday, though possibly a little more.

I did take her out later today than I've usually been, so that could have something to do with it. I had my first day of college today, and that, on top of being sick (how convenient to wake up at 5 am with a fever of 102, and then rush to get ready to go to the university), I had to take quite a while to rest, when I got home.

Here's hoping tomorrow will be better, for the both of us.

We're doing much better now. I'm recovering, and a Lucy is in a better mood. Today, she didn't let me give her scratches for several seconds... She let me give her scratches for several minutes. I am very happy with the progress that we have made. She's finally warming up to me!

Out of all cockatiels I've had though, I have to say, she is among the strangest (coming from the girl who's last cockatiel constantly switched between finger killer and cuddlebug within seconds). She doesn't completely love the back of neck scritching that cockatiels typically prefer, but actually likes being rubbed on her chin, just under the red cheek spot. On top of that, when she is receiving scritches, she likes to press her beak against one of my other fingers. Not to nibble. Not to bite. Just to kind of push up against my hand. On top of that, she's more accepting to it if I do it while she's preening herself, rather than when she's more capable of seeing it coming.

She's still not stepping up. I'm starting to wonder if she likes trying to run from my hand while in the cage. She'll run from it, fly from it, do whatever she can to get away from it, and once I do catch her, she puts up little to no fight. Even when she does though, she doesn't really bite. More like a nibble. It's almost as if she sees it as a game of "catch the birdie". Then she'll happily stay on my shoulder when I put her there. If I hold her to my chest, she likes it when I put my hand over her head, like the darkness calms her, or something.

Then after we get to my room, she's not really wanting scritches right away. There's a variety of things we do beforehand. First, she sits on my shoulder as I play on the piano, then she gets to walk on the piano. She'll either fly, or find a spot she likes before I get her to step back up. Then we practice stepping up, then she gets to explore my bed, with various objects there for her to check out. Then I take her to look out the window (she's starting to enjoy that). Somewhere in the middle of everything, she might fly around the room once or twice. Not sure why. Either something scares her, or she does it for the sake of exercising. After a while of repeating one of the above, I'll let her walk on the floor (she's getting a little more comfortable). Then we repeat a little bit more stepping up while on the floor (She's not as cooperative in stepping up when on the floor), and THEN, she will start accepting scritches.

Of course she's weird, she's Shodu's daughter. Shodu likes to grasp a finger with her beak while she's being scritched. I guess it must run in the family.

As far as being scritched on the cheek versus the back of the head, she might just be better trained to accept the cheek right now. That's the spot that I usually go for first with chicks, then work up to the back of the head.

As for not wanting scritches right away.... in my dirty-minded way, I like to say that a lot of birds don't want to go straight to "the act" because they like to have a little foreplay first.