My baby is a Genius!

[BMustee]

Ok, so the other day he turned 6 months so I decided that he was old enough to trick train. I started a couple days ago with teaching him to wave hi, and he learned it in like, 10 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised because this trick took about 2 days for my Sun Conure to learn. Sense he got it down so quick and didn’t need a treat in my hand to get him to do it, last night I figured I would go ahead and see if he was ready for another trick. I went ahead and started teaching him to shake his head no. I could not believe it when he picked it up in only 5 minutes!!!!! I also was shocked that after 15-20 minutes of training and figuring he was done for the night he got upset and wanted to keep going…he got all puffed up and head butting me…this is his “I wanna” dance as I call it. I gave in and kept training him for about 10 more minutes. I can’t believe how excited I am that he enjoys learning so much and his attention span is long enough to want to keep going well after I’m done…that’s more of a large breed Cockatoo thing. Has anyone else had one of these moments…where you think your grey is the smartest bird in the world for something they did/learned? I laugh at myself because I’m like one of those moms that think their kid is the next Einstein even though he’s eating glue or something in the corner…LOL
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[danmcq]

Wow Bmustee, that is fast learning!!

Now, I'm on a mission :woohoo:

Youve just started a "Training" frenzy!!!

<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2007/10/04 14:15

[siobha9]

How did you teach him to shake his head? My grey does lots of tricks, but don't know how to do that one.

That is really really fast learning. I think you are right, you DO have a genius!

Siobhan

[judygram]

We all probably have a little Alex inside our greys, just some of us are good at bringing it out and teaching them tricks. Congrats BMustee for a quick learner.:P

[BMustee]

Thanks you guys! I'm one proud mommy, and I'll have a smile on my face for the rest of the day from your comments. I'll be handing out Karmas!


Siobhan, it is a really simple trick as long as your bird doesn't like getting it's face blown on. :P

All you do is put the favorite bite sized treat in-between your middle finger and thumb and stick your index finger up, like your making a d with your fingers. Get the bird to look at your hand with the treat and start shaking your finger side-to-side as the queue and at the same time blow into the birds face. Most birds don't like this and will shake their heads. Once the bird shakes his head you bridge with praise and the treat. Keep doing this step and slowly quit blowing in the face...it should realize it is being rewarded for shaking its head and not need the blow to get him to do it. Then just keep drilling and only give treats one out of two or three times and only give praise the others to get the bird to do it without the treat. It’s very simple as long as they don’t like the blowing. I’m not sure if bad breath will made a difference if they like it or not…LOL.

[siobha9]

Thank you!
That is SOO clever. I have to try that. Knowing my luck she wont mind having her face blown on!! But it sounds simple.

I will let you know how I get on!

Siobhan

[BMustee]

Keep me posted, and I hope I did start a training frenzy as Dan put it. I have found that trick training helps reinforce bonds and curb behavior problems, as well as give birds a higher self-esteem.

The Sun that I had could care less if his face was blown on, so I figured out a new trick for him. He loved to tap his beak on perches, stands, tables, anything he could put his beak on. Every time I started tapping my hand he could not resist tapping his beak, so I went through with treats and praise till he got to the point that if I tapped my finger in the air he would bob his head like he was tapping air.<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2007/10/04 16:43

[loviechick]

I've tried to do the wave thing with mine, but I think Red is just so stuck in her ways LOL and to be honest it doesn't matter to me one way or the otehr if she waves. I bet the shaking the head no thing is super cute though!

[briansmum]

BMustee, get some footage or photos and enter the contest in the training room!! dooo itt!!!

so cool that your little guy is such a fast learner. brian was doing pretty well but he's going through a bit of a "you can't tell me what to do" phase, so training is short and fruitless at the moment LOL

keep us updated

[BMustee]

Yeah...I'll have to get a video of him doing it on my phone and upload it.

The head shaking no is the most Adorable thing I have seen!!! I got to get it on here for you all to see.