It can be done!

[JadeW]

I'm so proud of my little Cas. We've been working on his first trick 'wave' for a couple of days, and he can do it! It's so adorable and now I can't wait to show everyone I know what he can do It's so cute! When he realizes we're practicing his wave he'll just be constantly bopping around his gym (temporary training perch) and raising his little foot without a cue from me. Next we'll work on 'spin' and 'twist' so he won't always know what I'll be asking.

[BirdbrainJan]

Well done! That would be so exciting

[skeetersunconure]

congrats! theres nothing more exciting then your bird learning a trick youve been working on!

[JadeW]

Thanks guys! I know it's a bit silly to get so giddy and excited over such a simple trick, but I'm still so proud of my little guy for picking it up. Next step is to actually get myself a clicker instead of just using my verbal click 'yes.' Then we can really start shaping some more behaviours

[myakando]

AWESOME!!!! Congrats to the both of you

[k9shrink]

Congratulations!

I'm on the Bird-Click forums, and they recommend immediately following up that first trick with three other tricks that use props. That way, the bird won't offer the behavior until they see the prop. You can teach targeting, fetch, playing a toy piano, rolling a ball, climbing over a hurdle, or many other prop-related behaviors.

As you can see, a bird that knows a non-prop trick tends to offer it all the time, and sometimes it's hard for them to focus on learning a new trick.

Have fun!

Sharon in Istanbul

[JadeW]

I'm reading a book on parrot training, so I'd like to learn a bit more about how to do these tricks before getting into anything too complicated... The best trick to teach I think is going to be putting shapes into the appropriate holes! I can't wait to teach that~ Fetch will have to come first though, and I hope to start working with him on that soon. He has an okay 'target', but I think his training will go so much smoother when I get a clicker to use with him. Oh the things we will do!