Teaching "Flip a card"

[Rokisha]

A tree branch? How big? You could try targeting with the target stick to the branch if that might help?

[cml]

If he only knows target, why not try "turn around"? That will teach him a new trick and get into the whole training routine =)!

Btw, the video is in editing now, even though its acting up a little and doesnt want to show on my computer I think I can get it uploaded soon!

[cml]

Here's the video!
Of course I didnt manage to get the sound to work properly, or the video to show at all for starters, but after moving it through different softwares I managed to get it working and added a little voice over so you'll get whats going on ^^. If you cant be bothered with that, turn the volume down !

If you only want to see the FLIP-trick, jump ahead to about 3:15!

In the video you can see these tricks being done in roughly this order:
*Target
*Turn around
*Wave
*Shake
*Wings
*Fetch
*Go through tube (he was a little camera shy here, so I had to warm him up with the targeting stick once, as seen in the video, after that he did it on the proper cue, as you can see )
*FLIP



The vid is a bit long, about 4 minutes, but its Stitch's current whole repertoire. I hope you enjoy it!
2 more and we hit 10 different tricks !

[Rokisha]

Love it! that was cute! Umm are you from england? Hope you don't mind me asking that question lol.

[cml]

No, I am not from England...My spoken english is a bit rusty, but it wasnt all that bad was it ?

[cml]

Thnks cml, but the problem is aside from the target stick everything else freaks him out. Like last night i tried using a tre branch and he just went the opposing direction. Help

I still think you should do fetch, as a coin or coin-sized object is a lot smaller than a branch! When learning fetch, the parrot almost always drops the coin to start with and you reward when it hits a bowl right underneath the bird. When the parrot gets the hang of it, you start moving the bowl away, and voila, the parrot will now hold the coin and try to get it into the bowl. Its a great trick to teach them, because it helps with them holding new stuff!

If you havnt already, read Michael's article on "Fetch", its a great resource!
http://trainedparrot.com/Fetch/

[Michael]

Very good. He's doing very well. I had the same issues with Truman and going through tube. On the other hand Kili and Duke just went for it. It's like the bigger/smarter parrots are more cautious about that. With Duke, I used to just shove him in the tube and make him do it. But with Truman it would make him really upset and we had to start over again with a strictly positive reinforcement based approach.

I really like it how he opens his wings all the way. I could never seem to get my birds to do that (maybe it's a Poicephalus thing). Kili eventually learned over time to stretch further and further till it was all the way. But Truman still only opens them part way and it's kind of boring.

I'd love to see some flight videos! How much of your training time would you say flight takes over trick training? Since Kili was clipped while I taught her most of the tricks, it went very very fast (like 20 tricks in 1 year). With Truman, I put more emphasis on flight. Not only is it necessary and practical, but it's also exercise and more healthy. So what's the big deal if it takes him a few years to get all the tricks... it just leaves us more fun things to work on down the line. Meanwhile the flight is essential for tameness, safety, recovery, and encourages him to be a better/healthier flier.

Just keep practicing the flip the card. Over time they figure out the most efficient method of doing it and it looks nicer. They just have to figure that part out on their own. You may end up going through a deck but eventually it becomes so automatic that they don't even bother destroying it. I can safely use a brand new deck with Kili without fear of her giving it anything more than a pinch as she holds it. We've been working on a new skill with her but I don't know if it's interesting enough to merit sharing in a video.

[Adze]

The branch is roughly 3 inches and wieghs next to nothing. I already taught him how to turn amd bow. But other than a target stick he wont go amy where cloe to.

[Adze]

Trying to make him hold a black drilled out poker chip. Hope this works. Fingers crossed.

[cml]

I'd love to see some flight videos! How much of your training time would you say flight takes over trick training?

Formal flight training varies, but we tend to do some recalls back and forth between me and my wife daily. In addition to that, as you know, I have started with taming again, and in those sessions I vary handling, step up and flight recall. I would say that we "practice" flight about 10min a day, but thats just the training session. Generally I train them for about 30min a day.

During out of cage time, Stitch is free to roam around and he loves flying, even if he prefers to be in the same room as us! Leroy is another matter, he doesnt like flying but seems to consider it just a means of transportation and only does it if necessary. So with him, the training sessions are more focused around recalls, and other basic things. We've just started to introduce him to "turn around".

Trying to make him hold a black drilled out poker chip. Hope this works. Fingers crossed.

I hope you can get him to hold it straight away, but be patient, he will get it soon enough !

As for the card deck, yeah, I have surrendered that deck to training after realizing it would be trashed ^^!

We've been working on a new skill with her but I don't know if it's interesting enough to merit sharing in a video.

I am sure it is!