Here is how to hold target stick, clicker, and treat in one hand

Be sure to practice this grip before working with your bird. Last thing you want to do is frustrate your bird because you can’t figure out how to hold everything at the same time and click. This could confuse the bird and hurt your training efforts. It is not difficult to do but it may take a couple minutes to get used to holding things this way.

Try to hold the stick in such a way that the treat is hidden or farther out of the way. You are not using the treat to lure the bird but targeting with the stick. You should practice this a few times on a training perch or table before moving onto the next steps.

Now you should be ready to target using just one hand. This frees your second hand to hold the bird or prop. To target a new, shy, or scared bird onto your hand (that has been target trained away from hands already), place your hand on the perch so that they connect together. Hold the target stick to point over your hand in a way that it is only accessible from your hand and not the training perch. The bird should walk across the perch, onto your hand and to the stick. If it is not doing this, you are should try holding the target stick closer or go back and practice targeting some more.

For targeting an aggressive bird out of its cage, you can basically use the same technique. In the following video, you can see Kathleen targeting Kili my Senegal Parrot (who can get territorial and bite strangers approaching the cage) out of the cage without getting bit.

You can also use this technique for targeting your bird onto a stranger’s hand from your hand. Hold the target stick over the stranger’s hand and bring your hand, on which the bird is sitting, up to the stranger’s hand. The bird will be so focused on the target stick, that it will overcome the fear or aggression it has toward the stranger. One time I had a stranger (to the bird that is) over and he wanted to try to pick my Senegal Parrot off of her climbing tree. The moment he put his hand on her tree she came running right over. However, this was not to step up peacefully but to bite in retaliation for violating her territory. I told him to try again but this time I held my target stick right over his hand. This time the bird came right over and went on his hand without the slightest hint of aggression. To him, it looked as though I waved a magic wand over the bird and magically it obeyed. What I was really doing was cuing my bird to do her “target trick” which made her forget her aggressive motives.

The wave was the first trick I taught my Senegal Parrot and so it had become her best and most practiced trick over time. That is why I was surprised that she forgot the cue for it when I started to train her to lift her wings. I use the word “wave” as the cue to wave her foot or I can use a hand cue by waving my fingers. To lift her wings I say “wings” or I point two fingers at her. She started to do wings not only when I would say wings but also when I would say wave. I realized that the “w” sound in both words was what confused her.

Senegal Parrot

I felt bad that she forgot her best trick and wanted to correct this before the problem got any more serious. So instead of continuing training for the new wings trick, I went back to practicing wave for a while. I dropped variable frequency of reinfocrement techniques and went back to rewarding every trick. I started to practice the wave for maybe 80% of the tricks in the session rather than the usual maybe 10% (because she used to do it so well, would get less practice). But I did not practice the wave exclusively. I would stick some other tricks in on occasion so that she wouldn’t get so used to waving every time that she wouldn’t listen for the cue.

The way I got her to learn the verbal cue back for wave was fairly simple. She still clearly remembered the hand cue so I would say wave but she would do wings. I would ignore her. I would try this a few times. If she waved, she would get rewarded. If she did not, I would ignore her and then on the next try say wave and wave my hand for the hand cue. What I was doing was retraining the verbal cue for my bird for a trick she had already known. I would also practice the wings verbal cue in between as well so that she can learn the difference in the sound. Parrots are really good at discerning sounds so I think anyone who tells you that the bird cannot remember verbal cues is misleading. It just takes more practice to maintain the verbal cues but they can learn them and be consistent. My bird knows 6 tricks on verbal cue and growing. Teaching a verbal cue is easy but time consuming. If your bird already knows a trick with a hand cue or is learning a new trick, just be sure to say the verbal cue every time you are cuing it for the trick. Eventually it will associate both the word and the hand cue and will perform for either.

So in that same 10 minute training session that I realized that my Senegal Parrot forgot how to wave, I practiced it extensively with her until she could do wings or wave consistently on verbal cue. I was sure she learned the difference because on the following training session that day she was doing significantly better. Seems like she just needed a reminder of which word goes to which trick.

Although I had heard of bowling parrots before, I was not really trying to teach this to my bird. I was at a store called Big Lots just picking up some miscellaneous junk when near the cash register I walked by a desktop bowling game. I stopped and went back to look at it and said “this is just the right size for my bird.” I bought it for 10 bucks, one of the coolest and yet cheapest props I bought for training my bird. I always keep my eyes out for toys and props that I can use for my bird and you find these things when most unexpected.

The way the trick works is the bird walks up to the bowling game, pushes the ball, the ball rolls toward the pins and knocks them down.

Luckily this is one of the easiest tricks I have ever taught my bird and yet visually perhaps the most impressive. Fact is, the setup does all the work; the bird only provides the momentum to get the balling rolling. Gravity and the setup do the rest of the work. No one is going to care about how many pins get knocked down because just the site of a bird bowling is so amazing by itself. If you want, you can teach your bird to knock down the remaining pins with its beak or fetch the pins one by one to you to clean up.

The way I taught my bird to nudge the ball to get it rolling was quite easy. With clicker and treats at hand, I put her down near the bowling game and the red launcher and shiny ball got her attention immediately. She started beaking these and messing around on her own. I would click and reward the bird whenever she made contact with the ball. Unfortunately she was never using enough power to get the ball to roll over the notch that keeps it in place, so I needed to teach her that she needs to push the ball harder. What I did here was pick up the bird in my hand and held her in such a way that her beak was against the ball. I then nudged my bird toward the ball so that the beak pushed the ball over the retaining notch and rolled it down the ramp toward the pins. Of course I immediately clicked and gave her a jackpot reward. I didn’t have to do this more than 5 times if I can remember correctly for her to understand that she gets a reward for putting the ball in motion. So next time, I let her try it on her own and it took her a minute of fighting the ball and pushing on it from different angles till she set it off. Once she figured out how to beak the ball to get it rolling, she had mastered the trick. Basically I taught the complete trick in just one training session. All subsequent training sessions of this trick were only for the purpose of getting her to do it more reliably and willingly.

There is no formal cue for the trick. Seeing the bowling setup is the cue for walking up to it and launching the ball. I try to say “bowl” every time she is walking up to roll the ball but she will do it without the command just the same. It just makes it look like she is following a command and I think it also gives her extra encouragement to do it.

One final tip. At first I tried to train this trick to my bird on the floor and in the middle/end of her normal trick training routine. She would get too full and too distracted to do the trick and sometimes would ignore the ball. I suggest training the trick on a very small and empty table and at the beginning of the trick training routine rather than at the end. This way the bird is hungry and focused and will try harder to make it happen. If the ball is trying to roll the ball and can’t get it rolling and is not getting treats, it may end up giving up. Don’t let it get so discouraged, try to reward it for the best effort possible and eventually it will bump it hard enough by accident and then will know how to do it. Your bird should know at least a few elementary tricks like target, wave, and shake before teaching this trick.

Anyone who used the birdtricks training system should be able to train this bowling trick and similar tricks with ease. Just remember to apply the skills you learned in the areas of target training, clicker training, training diet, and immediate positive reinforcement.

Yes, I really did train my cockatoo, Bondi, how to wave in 2 minutes! And in a hotel room in Moab, Utah while on the road! It was pretty cute and I thought I’d have a harder time with it than I did because she knows so many things (ie: she shakes with her left foot, targets with her right and rolls over plus much more!)

But she got it immediately.

The more you train your bird, the faster they will catch on to the next thing you train. Eventually, you could train something in less than 2 minutes, too!

To start trick training your bird today, check out our trick training course are www.birdtricks.com/training-course or sign up for our Parrot Magic newsletter for original tricks straight from Dave Womach’s brain!

I found this cute little parrot kit at PetSmart and had to buy it! It’s mainly for small parrots like budgies and the like but I decided to give it a try with my medium sized birds. I can see why it’s for the small ones, though, as my parrots could easily ruin the thing!

Above is a short clip of Bondi lifting the barbell weight it came with. I love the way it is set up because it sets your bird up for success in learning how to do it. The bird has no other choice in what behavior to really do with the barbell so it is a fast trick to teach. Here are the steps I took to get Bondi to learn this in ONE training session!

Conure, Budgies

Photo from www.petsmart.com

I got her to touch the blue ball on the end of the barbell first. I would have preferred if she touched the skinny stick part of it, but she wasn’t interested. Because the toy was new, she was naturally curious and once she touched the barbell, I clicked and rewarded.

Once she understood touching the barbell got her a reward, she began doing it easily so I decided to change things up. I pushed the barbell as far to the right as possible, so some of the connecting stick piece was showing more. I let her explore the blue ball part of the barbell and when she accidentally touched the stick part, I clicked and gave her a jackpot reward. She was willing to touch other parts of the barbell to earn the treat since I was no longer rewarding for just touching the ball. From this point forward, I didn’t reward ever again for touching the ball part of the barbell.

Next, I encouraged her to touch the middle of the stick as I moved it back to the left more and more each time. She got confused a couple times, and went back to touching the ball but quickly remembered it wasn’t earning anything and tried again with the stick part. Once she touched the middle of it (which I had to help her do by lifting it as high as it would go) I began only rewarding for her grabbing the skinny part by the middle and not the sides.

Note: I lifted the barbell up because I realized it was uncomfortable for Bondi to put her head in between two things. It’s important to recognize these things when teaching your bird new things. If I wouldn’t have caught onto that, the training session would have gone a lot slower and wouldn’t have been as fun for Bondi.

Once Bondi was grabbing the middle of the barbell by herself as I held it up, I tried it once where I didn’t hold it up and she immediately went for it and picked it up. I clicked and rewarded and she began offering the behavior over and over again. I realized I could get her to do more than one lift of the barbell if I wanted, and we worked up to 3.

To learn more about prop trick training with your own parrot, check out http://www.birdtricks.com/trick-training!

I am the third person to have Chip-Chip. He has about fifteen words he says. At first he loved me and kissed on my cheek-rode on my shoulder,then one day he was on my knee and I leaned over to talk to him and he flew up and bit my lip. About two days later he bit threw my shirt and made my arm bleed. Now he wants to bite me every chance he gets. He takes food from my fingers but refuses to come to me. Now he has bonded with my husband and even lets him pet him. Also I have never been able teach him any new words. Did teach him to whistle like a Quail. I love him, but the feeling isn’t returned.

- Lois Thomas

I’d highly recommend starting out with trick training with Chip-Chip. You need to do something that is “hands off” right now since he doesn’t have a desire to be with you and only your husband.

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You should also make sure you are doing the training alone. Tricks like the “spin“, “touch training” and the “wave” are easy tricks to train and are very hands-off so you don’t have to get bit or pass that safe zone with your bird.

If you touch train your bird (which is the very first thing we teach in all of our courses) you can easily train him these tricks afterwards using the target stick.

Our parrot Cressi absolutely loves Dave and although she likes me, I can tell it’s not as much. Once I took the time to train her to wave and spin, she wouldn’t stop flying to me over him! I was more fun and stimulating to be around and she was excited to learn more with me. It really strengthened our bond and?I feel this will do the same for you and Chip-Chip.

We show how to train these tricks on our trick training course at http://www.BirdTricks.com/trick-training.

Once you develop this type of bond with Chip-Chip, I am sure you will be able to move on and teach him new words, too. As he will be more interested in learning and listening to you.