Trick Training

We brought our baby Quaker Ozzie home from the breeder on Aug. 17. His hatch day is may 20. He is doing great and I have been able to teach him 4 tricks already. He knows "wings" where he flexes and shows his wings, "shake", he will grab your finger without stepping up (we do the shaking), "flapem", flapping wings on command, and "turn around" (self explanatory lol). He is learning how to learn it is so awesome to watch him figuring things out! Once he catches on to what I want him to do that's it he's got it, it only takes 1 or 2 more training sessions to reinforce the action and he does it every time. Does anyone have any other, simple trick ideas we are beginners here, or have any references I can check out? Oh he will also let me turn him on his back in my palm staying calm until I turn him back over or give him a finger to grab. He is starting his first molt and is learning that head scratches feel sooo good. When he is feeling affectionate he will push his beak into my face or give some nibbles while making the kissy noises it is so cute I have never been bird educated enough to be able to form a bond like this with a bird. All the other birds I have owned came from a pet store and I had no idea what I was doing with them and just ended up frustrated with a bird who was scared of me. But we did our research and learned a lot before we got Ozzie and it Is awesome to have this little green guy who wants nothing more than to be on me or learn tricks or even just chatter back and forth. I guess I just wanted to get our story out here and am definitely open to training and behavior shaping advice! I have learned so much from this sight already and will have some pics posted soon!

Hello

Well done with your training so far!! I absolutely love trick training, it really helps with the bonding process

It is incredible how clever they are!

This is a video of Fargo's tricks...

We started off with the simple ones, shake, wave, turn around, wings- and then worked our way up to the harder ones!

If you have any questions for a specific trick, just let me know and i will try to help! They are all pretty straight forward

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y7hr3ZQojc&feature=youtu.be]Fargo the blue and gold macaw incredibly smart bird tricks - YouTube[/ame]

Quite the repertoire of tricks for a bird of only 5 months old! Impressive!

Tablet, I don't know if it's just a Tapatalk issue, but I can't view your video. Noooooooooo! [emoji33]

Not a Tapatalk issue. Just tried with my work tablet and no joy.

Haha I am fairly sure it can't be watched on phones/tablets...

Grumble, grumble......

Awesome tricks! I just watched the video by clicking up in the right hand corner of the screen and it asked me if I wanted to open the page on the web, in which I chose to do. I have an iphone. I don't know if this info helps or not.

Also, I am also Blessed to have a little green Quaker man .. He is 3 months old and is trying to talk and say so many things. I'm Really Thankful I've found this site.

An idea for a trick, because mine likes to play with little wiffle balls that have bells in them ( they are really cat toys ), is 'make a basket'? You could cut the bottom out of a cup, and attached it to the side of the cage? I'm not that far yet. Mine just likes taking them in and out of a little basket for right now.

Best trick training series I've found was by Tani Robar. But there's pretty much no limit to what you can teach them, IF they have the temperment for it.

Some absolutely cannot get enough of this stuff. (My conures were like that.)

My macaws are not like Fargo. They like games and roughhousing, not tricks.

The amazons? NOT AT ALL...

Where do you find these trick training series at? I had No idea forums like this existed. An Unbelievable Wealth of information.