I looked for a thread that fits this topic, and their are some that are close, and even some that showed how a bird owner got his bird to say his name on queue. I'd like to teach my Congo African grey to say answers to questions. Some context:
I've been training my Jenday and my grey different tricks, and they are both getting pretty good. I'd like to put on a show for local elementarys (I'm a teacher as well). It would be part biology (a little bird science), part psychology (maybe talk about both classical and operand conditioning), and all entertaining. So far example, I'm goofy, and I taught Rosie to say "Quack, Quack." I think the audience would love it if I said to them,
"this is Rosie, an African Grey Parrot"
"Quack, Quack."
"No, rosie, you are not a Duck."
Rosie raises her wings...the "eagle" trick
"No, Rosie, your not a Eagle"
etc
So here's the question. How to do I get her to respond to the queue line with the right word. I've tried saying "what kind of Bird are you?" and hoping I would eventually get a quack quack that I could reward. Other times, she says it randomly, but I'm hesitant to reward this, because it will reward her to do it randomly, or all the time. I want it to be connected to my queue.
The other thing I'm worried about is that I don't necessarily want Rosie to learn the queues. It makes even less sense if she is asking me what kind of bird I am (although, I could play it off...but I want a script for my show.
So any ideas, instructions or anecdotes?