Harry's language skills! :)

Harry loves to talk, she's a quaker, so that's normal. She solicits conversation from everyone. She demands responses from humans, her flock mates, even the dogs. If they aren't barking and Harry's bored, she calls them to her and barks until they join her.

Harry's station trained and isn't allowed in the kitchen. Yesterday she was talking to me from her room. The conversation went like this.
Harry: Cameron?
Me: Howyadoin Harry Bear?
Harry: Cries like a baby, realistically.
Me: Awww poor baby, what's wrong?
Harry: Louder cries
Me: Don't you cry!
Harry: Hoots like a monkey
Me: There's your monkey, where's your duck?
Harry: Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack.
Me: Where's your kitty?
Harry: Reeeeorw, meerowr, meerowr. Lots of drama, the cat's in pain.
Me: Where's your chicken?
Harry: Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.
Me: Where's your puppy?
Harry: She barks like our Yorkie
Me: You have lots of pets, Harry, you should build a cage.
Harry: Perfect imitation of an electric drill.
Me: Silence
Harry: Pretty, pretty, burrrd!
Me: Very pretty bird! Smart bird too! I love you, Harry!
Harry: I'LL BITE YOU!!!
Me: You will not bite me! You don't bite anymore.
Harry: Uh-oh! Wolf whistles!
Me: Be a good girl, Harry!
Harry: Be a good boy?
Me: Sure, either one, just be good!
Harry: _____ ____!!!!!
Use your imagination, I'd lose my mod status and be banned if I repeated what she said. She repeated it several times for me, flew into the no fly zone in the kitchen and hit me in the head with her feet. She was then banished to her room.
Me: Okay, you're done! Go Back! (go inside your cage, right now)
Harry: Uh-oh! No, no! Oww! Cammmrunnnn! All said while she was climbing into her cage and slamming the door.

LOL!! Allee that's too funny! What a little handful you have . Man that conversation goes to show HOW smart they are!

That is so funny . Wish you had recorded it LOL

That's hysterical! I love the little script you two have put together about her 'pets'. You should definitely try and get it on video someday, Harry could become a YouTube star!

LOLOL!!! She cracks me up!!! She's a pretty smart girl!

Hilarious, Allee! I always enjoy your stories.

Did you teach Harry all of those pet/sound associations? If so, how did you go about it?

One of the first things I loved about Harry was her spirit. And there's no denying she's smart. The girl has a temper though.

Harry actually came up with the word association game on her own. It's evolved to the conversation we had yesterday. The monkey noise she picked up from a song, I was delighted. We would make the noise back and forth, and I would say the word monkey. She picked it up fast. She's added noises and I've added cue words, she gets it right every time. The same with the drill, she heard it once and loved making the noise. I used the word, cage, for the drill and worked it into the script. She'll play the game with my husband too, but if he doesn't play it her way, she goes off script. Way off script.

Harry's training was completely unorthodox. She was plucking, and chewing until she bled, and laying eggs so her training was delayed. I found out she enjoyed training sessions so I taught her to fly to me, she loves that. When she was still afraid of everything, she would start fidgeting and I would ask, Wanna Go Back, she was always happy to get back to her cage. Now I use the words, Go Back, as a command and she does it every single time, usually complaining all the way. She always slams her door. I don't use that command often. The other big one is , Step Away, I use that one when she's misbehaving, I call her to me, she lands on my shoulder, and I take her to her cage or play stand and make her step off my shoulder. I tell her to, Stay, and most of the time, she will with a lot of fussing. She says, Step Up, she doesn't do it. She is still horrified of hands, but if I say, Tickle Harry, she'll let me tickle her tummy. Occasionally, she lets me kiss the top of her head. When she's in a really sunshiny mood, she rubs her cheek against mine.

My dogs and my other birds pose for the camera, Harry sees the camera and runs like her tail feathers are on fire. We're working on that.

Haha Gary! No, she has a few choice words and phrases from her former life. She calls me Cameron all the time now. That's our fault. She obviously missed Cameron, so when she yelled for him, we would tell her Cameron would stop by later. It calmed her down when we said his name. We think she may have killed the original Cameron or drove him insane. She hasn't said, I'll bite you for months, until yesterday. She doesn't cuss nearly as often, but occasionally...

Harry does the same thing with the photos. I can snap fifteen photos and every single one will be blurred. I'm not giving up, I hope she will learn to at least stand still for a second or two. I have very few pics of Harry. Ralph's photos always look like a professional photographer took them. Maybe there's hope for Harry.

Harry sounds awesome Allee!! My sister wants to get a quaker and I hope she does! I would love to spend time with one, but my flock is full here so if she gets one then I can still spend time with it. Hmmmm...wonder if I can talk her into a macaw... and a galah..maybe a grey...and any other parrot I would like to spend time with...lol:54:

Oh Leanna, your poor sister! I think you may be projecting, or is the word transference? I feel your pain, macaw, galah, and goffins are on my most wanted list, but I have a pretty full house. All of us are enablers, you know. The more Scott tells me about his flock of Toos, the more I want to add a goffins to my flock.

Quakers are so much fun, your sister should get at least one.

Allee, Harry never ceases to amaze me! She tickles me so much to hear her croaky little voice on the phone, and I so want to hear a whole conversation like this! She is so smart, I am sure she has a higher IQ than I do

Hehehe, I know her IQ is higher than mine, that's why I can't get a video. The little brat will take over a telephone conversation, but start taping and she's gone.

I just searched "quack" in this forum to see if anybody else has a parrot that quacks:09: came across this thread. Too funny! I don't know where my senegal learned to quack, his previous owner of 15 years never heard him quack, I guess he saw a duck on TV or something LOL