Just How Smart Are Cockatoos? Check It Out!

This cockatoo’s puzzle solving skills are really impressive.

Doesn’t she look like she’s having fun? Just another example of children’s developmental toys making good (large) bird toys too. (Imagine having to keep a toddler entertained and healthy … that’s at least how much work a cockatoo takes too!)

Cockatiel Playing Connect Four

I love this video! It’s of a cockatiel (which is about the same size as a sun conure) playing Connect Four (that four-in-a-row tic tac toe game that you play vertically). How adorable is this:

This looks like it was taught via clicker training.

I’m going to buy one of these travel size Connect Four games and teach Stewie this trick.

Update: I finally found this game after much searching (It’s the “Connect Four Fun on the Run” version). I haven’t really started working on this trick with Stewie yet, since I haven’t been able to get him to stay on the table lately. But from the initial introduction to the prop, it appears that he likes the red chips a lot better than the black chips.

More Bird Trick Training (with props)

Stewie got tired of the the “put the ball in the cup trick”… not sure why, but he just doesn’t want to do it anymore.

Here’s a picture of him when he was still eager to do it:

We’ve been working on “put the ring on the peg” but this one has been difficult. To tell the truth, I’ve sort of abandoned the clicker. I’m terrible with it… my timing is off, I’m inconsistent, I’m uncoordinated (I need three hands to handle the prop, the clicker and the treat at the same time). So I’ve been trying to do clicker training without the clicker. It’s slow going.

Here’s the prop:

I originally got him the small version of the toy (I can’t help it, I keep thinking of him as a small bird, not a medium-sized bird), but it was too small. This is a picture of him with the medium-sized Ring Toss prop.

He’s still not very good at it, but he’s done it a few times where I was holding the peg and helped him get the ring onto it. Today I spent a bit of time playing with the rings and peg, picking up the rings in my mouth and putting them on the peg like I want him to do (rather than doing it with my hands). And he did it a few times by himself!

He also likes to throw the rings off the side of the cage, which is cute too (but doesn’t earn him a treat).

My Conure Learned How to Fetch

Stewie knows how to retrieve finally! It’s not really on cue yet, though. Right now there are specific props he knows he’s supposed to bring to me that only appear when I want him to “give it to me” (that’s the verbal cue, not random use of quotes for emphasis). Because he’s still a bit nippy, I hold my hand next to the cage, but a little lower. He picks up the prop (usually a blue ring), waddles over to me. leans down and places it in my hand. The funny thing is that he now thinks anything sitting on his cage that can be picked up should automatically be given to me… or dropped off the side of the cage where I usually stand.

The current trick we’re working on is for him to put a ring on a peg. I got him this toy from Chirp N’ Squawk.

The Other End of the Leash: Effective Communication with Your Pet

A friend recently recommended a book called he Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell to anyone who had or was going to get a dog. Although I wasn’t considering getting a dog, I started reading it and got hooked. McConnell has a wonderful, friendly (yet not cheesy or “fluffly”) writing style, but what struck me the most is that much of what she says about human communication with dogs also applies to any other animal you would try to train.

Clicker Training a Caique

Here’s a great video of a caique (pronounced: kai-eek) flying and putting his toys away on cue, courtesy of the Bird Click group on Yahoo.

Teaching my conure to retrieve

After a couple of failed approaches, we’re back on track with learning to retrieve. I was having trouble getting Stewie to hold on to a toy I handed him (he was just beaking it) and then we’d both get frustrated when it didn’t result in treats.

What ended up working for us is for me to put him on his play stand and drop his wiffle ball into the attached food cup. Because the toy was on top of his pellets, he was motivated to grab it and move it out of the way. Every time he took hold of the wiffle ball he got a c/t. Then he got c/t’s for picking it up and lifting it.

And yesterday he picked it up from the bottom of his playstand and carried it all the way to the top and put it in his cup!

The trick for us really is for me to figure out how to make him want to do something independently and then capturing that, instead of making him do things that seem completely arbitrary to him. (Maybe in the future we’ll work on some games where he learns to be more creative, but for now I think being predictable is better for our relationship).

I think we’re well on our way to learning to retrieve!

Tip: make sure the toys you’re using are the appropriate size for your bird. Generally, anything described as “small foot toys” for conures or medium-sized parrots will work. I like the Drs. Foster and Smith website for these types of toys, but obviously each bird will have its own preferences. You’ll want to experiment to see what toys your bird likes.

Fast Progress with Clicker Training

I can’t believe how quickly Stewie has caught on in our training sessions. Clicker Training for Birds is based on operant conditioning principles - basically: teach the bird that a particular action will result in a treat. Even before I started with the formal clicker training, Stewie already grasped the concept of doing something for a reward. Very early on I rewarded him for making quiet noises instead of screaming. But that’s hard to perfect since there will always be times he wants to scream, and often he makes his cute little conure noises as a way to “beg” for attention, which isn’t something I want to reinforce.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I started to give him a seed when he gave me a kiss. No clicker, just a “good boy” and a treat. Getting the animal to understand what it is you want the first couple of times can be challenging, but in the case of “gimme kiss”, I just stuck my face in front of him and it was his instinct to beak me. I had him giving me kisses that very same day! We’re still working on him only doing it on command though. He has a tendency to reach for my face whenever I’m close.

Then I joined the Bird Click group on Yahoo Groups. There I learned that you should teach prop tricks first in order to avoid begging behavior. And the very first trick that almost everything else is based on is called “targeting.” With targeting, you get the bird to beak a target (usually a small stick). Then you click and treat.

I asked a dog trainer acquaintance if she had any extra clickers around, which she did, so I was ready to start.

At first Stewie didn’t think too much of the chopstick I was sticking in his face. After a couple of mornings with him walking away from the chopstick I came up with the unoriginal idea of putting food at the end of it. So I stuck a piece of banana on the chopstick, and when he reached for it, I clicked and then let him have the piece of banana and a seed. Within that same session he began to understand that touching the end of the chopstick would result in a treat. I’m not entirely sure that he gets what the clicking is for, but it’ll come in handy later with the more complicated tricks.

After only 3 sessions I already have him climbing all over his cage in order to reach the chopstick, so there’s no doubt in my mind that he understands what’s going on. And we both have fun doing it!

I really feel like the training is helping to improve our relationship. He seems a lot more interested now in being where I am and interacting with me. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but I don’t think so. And even though I can’t get him to do it on command, he’ll step up on my arm now, which he never liked doing before.  So now this bird who just a couple of weeks ago didn’t even seem to like me much, is hanging out on my shoulder, giving me kisses and walking across his cage to touch a chopstick for me. Amazing!

Since he picked up targeting so quickly, I’m going to have to figure out what to work on next so he doesn’t get bored. According to the Bird Click group, “retrieve” is the next logical step, but since I’m supposed to use his favorite toy and he doesn’t have one (not one that he can easily pick up anyway), I need to go toy shopping first.

Stewie’s First Real “Step Up”

A major breakthrough! Earlier over the weekend, Stewie was leaning towards me as I sat in front of my computer, super interested in what I was doing. So I scooted closer, offered him my arm and said “step up?” And the answer was “yes”! Okay, so he didn’t actually say anything, he just stepped onto my arm. But I was floored! That’s really great progress.

I put him on the back of my computer chair and let him check things out from there. Then he spotted some birds outside and proceeded to scream straight into my ear!

The rest of the weekend, he only stepped up one more time - the other times preferring to bite me when offered my arm, but he did enjoy sitting on the back of the chair quite a bit … I would just roll the chair over to his cage and he’d climb on. I’ll have to take some pictures of that soon.

I also signed up for the Bird Clicker Training list on Yahoo Groups. Based on all the really cool info I learned there, I’ve decided to start Stewie on clicker training soon. It’s not just all about cool tricks - a training program can help build trust and a stronger relationship. Plus it exercises the bird’s mind, keeps him engaged, so he (hopefully) won’t get bored. I think we’re starting to reach that point in our time together that he’s comfortable enough and trusts me sufficiently to allow for some basic target training.

Bed Time for Birdie

Now I’m wondering if I should be concerned about how early Stewie likes to go to bed. Last night I went to dinner after work and come home a little after 8:00pm. Surely he’s going to be mad as hell that I’m late, I thought as I went in. Nary a peep from the direction of the cage. Nope, because he was already settled into his Happy Hut, ready for lights out.

After debating whether I should coax him out of bed, I decided that we needed to get more training/play time in. (And it wouldn’t be so bad if he was still too sleepy in the morning to welcome the day at an ungodly early hour.)

We played for under an hour and then he crawled back into bed. It was a funny sight, since I had moved the Happy Hut a little farther away from the side of the cage — when he slept, he didn’t crawl all the way in and his tail feathers were sticking through the cage. So when he went to go back into it, he apparently didn’t notice it was a little farther than before and he nearly missed the edge. Fortunately he managed to hang on and then crawl in.

But bright and early this morning, he was ready to go again. And boy does he like his morning noise-making sessions.