But because my birds are fully flighted they find it easier to fly away than risk getting hurt in any way and I can’t seem to convince them that Theo is in fact, bluffing.

Because I socialized Cressi (congo african grey) and Bondi, I thought, why not socialize Bondi and Theo? They are of the same size for the most part, and both females. They have nice personalities, though Bondi is a bit more easy going about things than Theo but Theo is definitely learning.

Theo, by the way, was thought to be a boy from her first owners if you couldn’t tell…

Anyway, the first few days back I decided to just watch the interaction between Theo and my birds. Theo would intimidate Bondi and Bandit to fly away, but Cressi would intimidate Theo to fly away. It was an interesting array of flights to watch take place.

While having all 4 smaller birds out and flying around (all of which are fully flighted) I watched more of their interaction. As Theo approached Bondi to intimidate her on the railing, I put my hand up to intervene and save Bondi the trouble of having to fly away.

Theo stopped where my hand was, using it as a border and Bondi felt safe enough with my hand there not to fly away.

Here is the video of how that went:

Obviously I wasn’t socializing in the best of circumstances – I had a lot of distractions from other birds.

A little while later though… both Bondi and Theo ended up on my lap for some cuddles. Theo was more interested in Bondi whereas Bondi had no interest in being close to Theo at the time. But again, I placed my hand up as a barrier and both liked the idea of having it. Theo tried pushing the boundaries and Bondi really wanted the boundaries left intact.

I decided that if Theo’s face was facing away (in other words, beak = away) then I’d let Theo get close to Bondi, that way Bondi didn’t feel threatened in any way as Theo’s position was actually showing trust and vulnerability. Bondi would lightly touch Theo a bit and see what would make her move. I watched and judged by watching their body language not only with each other but with me on how far I’d let each one go.

Here’s how that looked:

They eventually got to the point of sweetly just beginning to preen one another. Then I thought I’d end while things were on a high note for them both and offer space to both of them.

Since then, Theo doesn’t try to intimidate Bondi. Instead of going towards her all puffed up on the railing, Theo actually walked in the opposite direction to do her own thing.

Socializing the two of them has made Theo feel less like she has to show who’s boss and prove that she’s unafraid and it’s doing wonders for their relationships around the house.

Honestly, if they weren’t both fully flighted, this story wouldn’t be as sweet sounding… in the least.

Two years… 730 Days… 17,520 hours… Countless Miles… No matter how you look at it, two years on the road is a long time!  Especially when you travel the country by truck and RV… correction; make that two trucks, and two RV’s, a flock of birds, magic props, motorcycle, and a house cat.  Driving separately from Jamie can be painstaking, but it does give me some time to reflect.  Not only on shows and future plans, but on training, and what I can do to become a better trainer.

Image Copyright Feld Entertainment 2010

I’m one of those people who is constantly in the pursuit of perfection.  Always trying to learn more, and always trying to become a better person and professional.  At many times, it’s to a fault.  These past two years have really given me the chance to realize how important it is to live in the moment.  It has also given me phycological insight on how to get my birds to reach perfection on and off stage.  After all, I’m hired to perform a 1st-class production with professionally trained parrots – and likewise, my birds are expected to be “1st Class Performers” as well. It would be hard to be “the best” if my birds would land in the rafters, or fly out the backdoor and disappear into the Vegas desert, only to be found a week later by strangers.  In my industry, there’s no room for errors.  Sometimes that can translate to a lot of pressure for my birds, after all they didn’t sign the contract, I did.  So I always do my best to reward their every moment.

October 30, 2011 finally arrived, and we performed our last show in Wilkes Barre, PA.  I had performed for five different Ringling Shows over that two year tour, and it was all coming to an end.  Aside from a huge sense of accomplishment, there was a strange calmness that suddenly overwhelmed me backstage shortly after performing Catapoultry with Bondi.  I looked around and realized… 5,000 people in an arena, sold out shows, TV, Radio, Print… it was all coming to an end in 73 minutes from that exact moment.  Surrounded by black curtains and 7-sets of birdie eyes staring at me through the dimly lit backstage, as if they could tell I was finally processing it all; I took each bird out, kissed them on the head, held them for a moment and thanked them out-loud for being there for me for the entire tour. The ups and downs, the tornados and snow storms, 20 degrees to 120 degrees – it didn’t matter, they had achieved perfection in nearly every show, night after night, mile after mile, audience after audience.

Fiji’s Last Show – Photo Mishelle Statford

It was when I picked up Bondi, who had been looking at me concerned the whole time, that a single tear made it’s way past my right eye, and was now slowly passing my lips.   I kissed her on the head, thanked her for giving her all, even on days that she wasn’t feeling well.  It was as if she and I connected more than ever.  She mirrored my mood through every phase of the tour, from being a rock star on stage, to the tender moments offstage that an audience and cameras never see.  When we lost Fiji, she completely shut down with me, as if she was mourning her loss through me.  And on October 30, 2011 she once again  understood my feelings and that this was her last show, and we could both go home and relax until our next journey begins.

Bondi Performing Catapoultry

I learned many things on this tour about life & training.  From the highest highs to the lowest lows, and yet one lesson stands out miles ahead of anything else I could ever possibly write.  A lesson that we should all live by, a lesson that keeps you moving when your down and constantly elevates you while you’re up.

“Always love your birds like it’s the last day you’ll see them, for they provide more to us than could ever be transcribed into any human language.”

I’m so grateful for everything they’ve given me.  Those of you who can truly relate know the exact feeling I’m conjuring when I say these words.  And those of you who are just now paving that path with your birds will soon understand the feelings that are impossible to put onto paper.

Whether I’m traveling by land or by sea, I always try to “add value” for my clients by offering to do a free animal training seminar.  To my clients, I’m going above and beyond by doing more than they hired me for, and secretly I’m doing wonders for my flock!  They get to meet people of all ages and races.  The more you can expose your parrots to these new experiences everyday, the more confident they’ll be throughout their lives.  Additionally, it adds invaluable training time for them.

Inevitably, birds seem to think that a trick is completely different when you add a dozen (or 5,000) people into the equation.  It’s as if they do the trick perfectly on stage with full lights, sound, and pyro… but when you add applause into the equation it’s no longer the “pick-up-your-foot-and-wiggle-it-back-and-forth” command.  Similar… but now it’s the ”pick-up-your-foot-and-wiggle-it-back-and-forth-with-applause” command… totally different!  ;o)

If you can find yourself in a position to be able to get your birds in front of more than a couple people, do it!  It doesn’t have to be fancy, and it doesn’t have to be perfect.  That’s the beauty about doing an animal seminar.  You can educate people about your parrots, talk to them about training, and the audience can see them during the learning process.

I wanted to get Rocko in front of an audience, to test how he would respond.  The following video showcases that beautifully.  The angle isn’t the best, but due to laws we couldn’t include kids in the video without written consent from each parent.  Clearly that wasn’t an option, so we shot it from the side.  In this video you’ll get to see what it looks like when we’re training our birds a new behavior.  Sometimes it requires a lot of patience… I use these opportunities to get my birds ready for the big stage, socialize them, build confidence, and entertain/educate my audiences.

Enjoy Rocko’s first animal training seminar, and a sneak peak behind the scenes of my training.