Progress

[cdrusso]

Well I have to say Thank You Michael as your videos on youtube have enabled us to train Nelly really quickly. We have only had her for 3 weeks and she is fantastic. And after 4 days of training Wings we are up to this:-



I have a question though is there any paticular order you should train tricks. So far Step Up, Wave and WIngs are pretty much sorted What next?

[Michael]

A) The youtube link you embedded did not work because you did it incorrectly. I fixed it this time, but in the future refer to this guide about posting youtube links.

B) Nice job

C) Now focus on improving the cue and perfecting the trick. Quality over quantity is important with parrot trick training. If you don't practice a new trick enough before going onto another one, the previous one will get lost or confused with the new one. So practicing until the bird has the trick down and performs it with great accuracy/reliability is important before going on. If you've been following my blog you may have noticed that there are fairly long breaks between tricks that I am training to Truman. That's because I take the time to work on them and practice them amidst other tricks to make sure he knows all of them very well before continuing. Also I like to give him a mental break between meticulous sessions on a new trick and just time to be a bird.

D) I suggest following an order similar to the one I am using. You can see a list posted on my blog in the left hand column. It's not strict but generally works. Some tricks are requisites for others. In other cases some tricks require more trust/comfort so doing more tricks beforehand is required before proceeding. Everyone keeps asking me about play dead but I consider that a fairly advanced trick and don't want to teach it to Truman until he is better and more comfortable with preceding ones. It will of course vary with each parrot but it is important not too go faster than it can learn and retain the information.