Cleo got put in time out...

Jan 10,2008
Ok, she was just "jumpy" tonite, hard to get along with. And I let her sleep in!!!
She'd just sit on her perch in the living room or my desk and GRUMBLE....
I had put her small playstand beside the kitchen table so she could be with us while we ate dinner. Later, I couldn't get her off of her playstand. She bit a plug outta my hand when I offered it. Even with a treat in my other hand. I didn't want to get the hand perch to retrieve her, cause at this point I feel like it'd be conditioning her to something we've worked to overcome...lack of trust. It would have been SOOOOO much easier to go get the hand perch. But, by my going and getting the hand perch to get her to stepup, I would have let her go back on something she had learned. She's a Zon....stubborn.
Some would argue with this line of thinking and that's ok. Some would say she should have that choice to rather eat my flesh than stepup when I want/need her to. That's ok for them, but not for me.
So...going with the flock thinking, WITH HER ON IT, I moved the playstand to an area of seclusion to where she was by herself. Basically moved her to time out.
I didn't close the door, but just walked out.
Within 30 seconds, she was calling me. I went back, said HI GIRL, like nothing had happened and she was leaning over trying to hitch a ride waving one foot up in the air. She stepped up like she was my bestest friend. Even started that jibberish she does, like "can you believe the election in New Hampshire?", in hopes I would forget her recent digit transgression.
So, there is a lot to be said for conditioning and deconditioning. And flock mentality. I don't know how long this will be necessary to call her bluff, but I will keep it up and see how it goes. I'm cuing her as I get up or move away from wherever we are with "wanna go?" before I offer my hand towards her which is where I cue "stepup". I figure it's setting her up for the stepup. Wen I get up, she turns her head and acknowledges it. But you know sometimes you don't really leave for long, or you just move around. I want her to know that if I say "wanna go?", that she and I are gonna GO somewhere and in a moment I'll need her to stepup to go with me. I'm doing that because it seemed, at least to me, like if I just walked up and said stepup, it surprised her and she wasn't as ready to leave her current seashell throwing episode.

She's tucked in now..dreaming of hitching a ride.
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