I would like to introduce a new member to our flock. PORTIA! Portia is a Ducorps Cockatoo (Cacatua Ducorpsii). I adopted her from a good friend of mine who is also a FANTASTIC trainer. She had Portia for about three years after she got her from a …..well lets just say “a less then perfect household” if you know what I mean. She was plucked then and has continued to pluck and shred her feathers. Luckly she has left her flight and tail feathers alone. She hasn’t been clipped for the last 3 years but was before then. My friend has done some training with her off and on and was successful in getting her to fly on her own accord ( a HUGE step with a bird previously clipped) shortly before Portia came to live with me. When she did come live with me for the first few days she was very  class=”hiddenSpellError” pre=”very “>hesitent about being on me but elicited plenty of  ”>scritches from us. She now allows me to handle her a lot but still gets quite a few scritches. She has from day one done ALOT of flying much on her own accord. She isn’t a good flyer but is improving everyday. I have been training her multiple times everyday. and her recall is getting very GOOD! Though she already had the concept down when she came I have been working on difficulty. For instance: flying up as high as I can reach, flying down from high cupboards, flying longer distances, from every room in the house, we’ve been working on corners and she has been improving on her out of sight recalls aswell. She has already shown quite a bit of improvement.  Over the past few days I taught spin in 3 sessions and targeting in one. I will be working on the retrieve soon.