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My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

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My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

Postby Guy.G. » Sun Aug 05, 2012 6:20 pm

So, unfortunately no-one gave me any answer on how to teach the "play dead" trick so I took a break for 2 days to think of one( Chief already knew to flip and stay still)...this is the method I came up with and it totally worked!!!
Thing's a parrot needs to know before trying to teach him this trick: total trust in you, lay on his back with no support, doesn't have a problem with you touching all over him........

Turn your parrot on his back (best place to teach this trick is on a bed/ thick mattress) and let him get used to it, start keeping him still and when his comfortable we can start step 1
Step 1: teaching the parrot to stay perfectly still:
Parrot's right leg is hanging on to our left hand(index finger) and we help him to lay on his back while our right hand(index finger) is doing a circle motions , vocal cue is the word "circle".
When u see that the parrot is doing it perfectly a few times in a row- do it a few more times with a clicker(about 5 times)to ensure that the parrot can continue to stage 2.

Step 2A: hand switching and being less hands-on (without a clicker):
Start with 3-4 drills from step 1(without clicker), if all is OK continue to step 2
Now your right hand will be in "gun" shape and replacing left hand.
We're still saying "circle" but we no longer doing the "circle" motion- now the gun shaped right hand will lead the parrot to lay on his back like so:
With his right leg the parrot will grab our right index finger and we will do a "rainbow" motion that will flip the parrot clockwise, it's ok if he'll keep on grabbing your hand when he's laying.

Step 2B: getting less involved:
When the parrot is doing step 2A perfectly we'll just start getting less involved by doing half a "rainbow" and then a quarter...basically we let him lead the "flip". at the end you'll start seeing an effort from the parrot (for example: while hanging on your hand he'll start pushing himself to flip and moving his left leg trying to flip)-start using clicker and reword him vocally+ giving a treat even if the flip is only halfway… for now It doesn't matter if he's perfectly still or even if he doesn't complete the flip. When he's doing this try to release your hand from his grip- that would speed things up.


Step 3:
When Chief started to really try and do the flip by himself I added the vocal (my version to "bang") cue and continued with our "gun" cue and clicker.
When you'll show the parrot the "gun" cue he would lift his right leg and wait for you to assist him, then u encourage him to flip on his own like so: with your left index finger give him a little push on his wing/upper leg...quickly he would understand that you're not going to help him anymore and he would start flipping on his own, for now it doesn't matter if the flip is only halfway/for a millisecond...our goal is only letting him know that he should flip without your help and getting to know the vocal sound.
Note:
In this step we stopped all hand motions so if the parrot is confused it's ok to help him to understand what we want by handing our left index finger towards his right leg...he would get it after a few times(happened to me with chief).

Step 4 and final: going back to the starting point
When the parrot starts flipping every time and you are sure that he got the point u start intervening. When he flips- with your right hand you keep him in that position and when his calm (not perfectly still but calm) u click and reward…do it until you see that he's starting to lay longer, then you start working on keeping him "perfectly still".
Note:
During the process it's more important that the parrot will get to know the visual cue then the vocal…he would pick it up later on don't worry…
Time it took me to teach Chief each step (to perfection):
Step 1: 25 minutes session (day 1).
Step 2A: 10 minutes session (day 1).
Step 2B: 40 minutes session (day 2).
Step 3: 25-30 minute session (day 3).
Step 4: 25 minutes session (day 4) and all I have to do now is 2-3 more 15 minutes sessions and he would master the "Play Dead" trick.

Please, if you are too young/new in trick training- don't try to teach your parrot this trick!!! this is 100% hands-on trick and if you don't know exactly what you are doing you can hurt your parrot and yourself!!!!
Guy.G.
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Re: My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

Postby Guy.G. » Sun Aug 05, 2012 6:25 pm

Guy's making this tutorial was really hard for me and your comments (good or bad) are more than welcome!!!

BTW if someone wants to proof the tutorial (Hebrew is my native tongue)…feel free to do so :)
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Re: My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

Postby cml » Mon Aug 06, 2012 1:27 pm

I havnt started teaching play dead to either of my parrots yet, but I will definately read your guide when I do, there isnt much on the web on this trick! If you can add a video that would probably also be a good thing.

Good job, I think the reason there arent many replies is that this is a hard trick, and one that most people havnt taught their parrot ;)!
Stitch (WFA) and Leroy (BWP)
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Re: My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

Postby Guy.G. » Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:56 pm

That's exactly why I told to myself "If all of those who know how we can teach our parrots remain SILENTTTT...I'll think of a way myself"…it took me 5 days to teach Chief this trick (from the starting point to master it)…so teaching it is not that hard(not in the way I thought him) but all the road that we R going thru up to the point that we can say "I can teach my parrot that trick" is hard because there R a lot of prier conditions like trust, lay with no support etc.
I'll make a video and I'll try to show the steps one by one :)
Chief is my first pat- I got him when he was 2 months old and now he's 5 months old so I had no idea that no advanced trick training guides..buttt, after teaching Chief the trick that I thought to be so hard I can say- thank god that none of those trainers answered me :lol:
Guy.G.
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Re: My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

Postby marie83 » Thu Sep 13, 2012 3:10 pm

Well Ollie has initiated some training sessions lately so I decided to start work on this one. We have just completed session two and he is already rolling over on his own accord. I've mainly been working with him on the sofa so far so I wanted to test if he was getting it by moving onto the floor. Not a problem for him at all. Just need to introduce a cue word now and phase out the hand signal.
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Re: My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

Postby Guy.G. » Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:23 am

I'm so happy to hear that! ppl from all around the world r sending me messages to my YouTube channel saying that their parrots r performing this trick like champs thanks to my guide :)
I gotta say- it's awesome to b the first guy who made a "play dead guide" that really works like a charm :)
Hope that more ppl here found this guide to b helpful :)

SHANA TOVA from Israel!!!
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Re: My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

Postby JacobBird » Sun Sep 16, 2012 7:15 am

Very good tutorial! I will surely read it again when I am gonna teach Jacob to play dead. Good Job (:
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Re: My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

Postby barkha alisha » Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:20 am

this is awsom but it can be more great if my bird perform it well my bird really dont want to stay on table or floor and if they did then they dont eat any treats and dont show any intrest
birdie pie !3 @r1<!-!@
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Re: My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

Postby A L S U L X I T I » Thu Jul 31, 2014 2:49 am

It's Good Trick Thanks .
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Re: My tutorial for "Play Dead" trick!!!

Postby Hookturn » Thu Nov 13, 2014 1:46 pm

Thanks for the tutorial and the video! I'm using it now and it's working great. Thanks again!
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