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What a fabulous picture!!! Love that little foot reaching out to step up! Well well - what progress that he feels he doesn't need to scream anymore!!! Ooooh a stainless steel cage would be the ultimate... hope you manage to find one.

Re your retriever, perhaps you could ask and reward Skippy for stepping up; then turn to your retriever and ask him/her to do something for a reward too... so they both have some attention and a bit of fun.

When Kobe got a little bold and snuck into Ollie's cage stole an almond, Ollie would lunge and/or growl at Kobe whenever he came near him afterwards. I began giving Ollie a piece of cashew when I carried Kobe over towards him and if he didn't growl. Pretty soon Ollie began to look forward to Kobe coming over as it meant he got a treat. Now they are fine together. Just be careful that you don't allow the dog to get too close to Skippy - somebody on another forum posted a horrendous photo of a dead Macaw which had been killed by his dog as a warning to others - the dog had somehow managed to get into the room and the bird had managed to get out of his cage. Remember that ultimately a dog is a preditor (with eyes on the front of the head) and a parrot is a prey animal (with eyes on the side of the head).

What I did/do make sure with Kobe is to give him almost as much attention that he got before Ollie arrived... which was easy at the beginning as Ollie was totally hands off then. But Kobe has got used to Ollie getting progressively bolder and coming out of his cage now.

It's true in the winter months the retriever doesn't have as much play time as in the better weather months. Giving her more time to obsess on the inequity of life and treats between she and Skippy! She's better now that the weather is nicer. She is blocked from accessing Skippy's cage area by an interior remote electric fence. Early on she was patrolling for dropped nut shells and feces and eating everything. Oddly, she never shows much interest in the bird - but what the bird has!

But there is big news for Skippy. He now has a movable stand and we are practicing moving from the cage to the stand. Once he is on the stand (sometimes about 10 minutes of encouragement) we practice stepping up. He is beginning to step up on my arm! This is of course all reward based. SO THRILLING. So wonderful for him to feel the trust for me.

So many feathers have grown back especially on the back of his body where the uv light hits him most. And then they vanish..... Unfortunately the plucking continues.