I'm thinking here of the kind of training that went into Alex, where a concerted effort was made to give him language skills, not just isolated labels or phrases.
I think Scotty may have the tools to be quite a talented talker. This morning he floored me, and it isn't the first time. There are only a few things he says with regularity, but he occasionally comes out with real communication. He often asks "Step Up" and sometimes "Step Up NOW" when you open the door if he wants to come out. And for some time now he's repeated "Step UP, Step UP" when you tell him "Step Down" if he doesn't want to go back yet. Today I was trying to put him away and he was saying "Step UP" and I was saying, "No, Step DOWN!" He came out with "No! Step Up MORE". I had never heard either "No" or "More" from him before.
I have noticed that what he's picked up so far is more actions and communications and environmental sounds rather than labels for things. I wonder what I can do with this? This kind of training I could get way more excited about than trick training. Is there any kind of blueprint to follow other than what can be gleaned from "The Alex Studies"? I have Dr. Pepperberg's email address, it turns out, but somehow I don't think she'd be amused.