My Earl is a great student!! Please keep us updated on his progress!
Yay! I've been working on having Earl retrieve objects and drop them in my hand, and we really had a break through today, as he has in the past only been willing to pick things up if they were right next to him, and would only drop them in my hand if my hand was also nearby. However today he walked across the table to pick-up a pen cap, carried it back and dropped it in my hand. He did the same for several other objects, some of which he hadn't seen before today. I'm pretty excited with his progress at 16wks old. (he can also turn around, shake hands, wave goodbye, and fly to his cage)
Now I'm going to start working with dropping 2 different objects and getting him to bring the one I name.
My Earl is a great student!! Please keep us updated on his progress!
~~~~~~~~~~ Ana Grey ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Louie ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sterling Gris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lily ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That is GreYt progess at such a young age. YOu need to get this on video and share it. :-)
Within all of us is a varying amount of space lint and star dust, the residue from our creation. Most are too busy to notice it, and it is stronger in some than others. It is strongest in those of us who fly and is responsible for an unconscious, subtle desire to slip into some wings and try for the elusive boundaries of our origin. ~K.O. Eckland, "Footprints On Clouds"
Dayo in flight....
Wow, you have a working boy. Great ideas to interact with him and train him to bring things to you instead of hoarding them in his cage. He really is showing you his abilities and so young too. Glad you are having fun and success with him.
It's brilliant isn't it having them fetch. I trained Kea to also fetch, she would run across the table grab a ring and race back and place it in my hand. She absolutely loved training....hhmm then again it was probably the treats she loved and would do anything for.
How did you begin teaching Earl to fetch? I'd like to teach Yoshi but I think she will just look at me like I'm stupid if I tell her to 'fetch' something :P
Well, I'm actually using 2 commands:
Pick up the <x>
Give me the <x>
I started with pick up the <x> by just placing what I thought he might pick up on his own right next to him, saying the command, and then giving him a cube of dried papaya(his absolute favorite) when he picked it up.
Once we had that working, I started sliding my hand under the object as soon as he picked it up, and saying give me the <x>. If it landed in my hand he got his treat, if not we tried again. eventually I started placing my hand so that if he just dropped it the item might fall out of my hand, so he got the idea it needed to stay in my hand to get the treat. then we got to the point were he would reach his neck around to place the item, and finally to the point were he would walk to retrieve the object and walk some more to place it in my hand.
I got most of this from reading "Parrot Tricks" by Tani Robar and Diane Grindol.
Its good to have several easier tricks like turn around, shake hands, and step up/down, to intermix when training, cause otherwise he will get bored. he will also get bored if I let him fail too many times in a row, so its important to manipulate the environment to make a particular trick easier at first if he's having trouble.
Charlie has me fetching things. He chucks things and I get them.
I too would love to see Earl doing these great tricks. Video please!!!!!<br><br>Post edited by: luvparrots, at: 2009/10/31 21:44
~~~~~~~~~~ Ana Grey ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Louie ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sterling Gris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lily ~~~~~~~~~~~~~