When you train more then one speicies it improves and enriches both the trainers and the trainees lives. Rhea was my second trainee, after my dog Bear. It was funny how much resistance I had against "Clicker training". I decided it sounded pretty good, and alot more fun then the kholer method. I loved teaching and training my dog, but he wasent haveing any fun, and even though it was effective I wasent haveing fun. So I surfed the internet and found "Clicker training. Studied up heard the good and bad reviews, and decided it litterally wouldnt hurt anything(Unlike my current method).I really hated the idea of being dependent on food. It seemed so limiting. But what REALLY got me is the thought of training other speicies. The thought of training Rhea, my rescued european starling was Delicously appatizeing.MMMMMmmmmm! So I tried it warily, and it took about 3 minutes of target and 101 things to do with a box, and as soon as I saw Bears eyes light up, and he learned to think, I was hooked. Bear loved it, so I loved it! And this wasent just teaching commands, this was teaching Bear to learn, be creative, and figure things out!Awesome! So then I started with Rhea, and he did pretty good at targetting and standing on a ladder. But he seemed slow to learn even though I knew he was smart.I couldnt quite understand. He seemed to lose interest so fast. He was a juvanile at the time and wanting to play and explore. Also I have come to realize that most starlings, rhea definetly not being an exception, have extreame permanent ADD. They are fast energetic and aggressively playful. Then I got my budgies. I had read somwhere that they were very active and energetic, and was thinking, "Great, how can I manage a critter with MORE energy?" but I had faith in myself and got Sky and Mummble. I didnt get Jedi till later. Strange that she is the quickest and easiest to train out of the budgies. I think it is because she had a longer more varied and harder life. It made her more resilient and instead of acting fearful like most budgies, she acts with a cute temper and boldness.Sky and mummble only know the easy life from here. And so I am training them so they can have a more enriching and happy life. But campared to starlings budgies are not so spastic. They seem calm in comparison. After starting to train the budgies and my larger parrots I had a sudden realization. So next time I trained with rhea, I moved as fast as I could especially working on treat delivery. It was really hard but I was able to keep his attention for much longer. And now I know, for strlings it must seem we are moving in slow motion. I mean I know birds eyes react faster and so see things that we cant, but starlings must see the world as if it moved in slow motion. That would explain why they dont crash even though they are VERY fast flyers.So the teacher is the student. Thanks Rhea.
