A Clever Exercise To Try

Was not able to down load video

This video is so choppy… I dont know if it is my computer butI tried watching it on youtube and it was the same, I watched other videos on youtube and they are fine. Anyway I will try this on my kids to see if I can get your point.

There is not enough volumn in the videos, I am deaf and even with my hearing aids I can’t hear them, as a result I scrap many.
regards Ian

how do i do this to someone, like what is the message being sent across? And how will it teach me and my bird? and it is a bit soft, (the sound!)

This is excelllent! All my ringnecks are clicer trained. I now understand how hard it must’ve been for them to understand what I was trying to teach them. Interestingly, Babi, first trained – just kept on until she gt it right. Chippy the second trained, jsut gave up and went off to find something more exciting to do; Smufi, the latest trainee, just throws things around until she works it out and then suddenly the throwing stops and she’s got the trick, that is for tricks like ‘put it in the bowl’ etc. It’s incredible how intelligent these little beings are really!!! Thanks for sharing your video with us Chet

no sound…..

Great experiment! It really helped me get my head around the concept of how the clicker can reinforce behavior!

I totally understand how confusing it is for my first little cockatiel, Mitu, to figure out what I’m trying to get him to do!

You’ve demonstrated your point perfectly!

My Amazon so get the clicker. In tramatic brain injury test they have these test they make you do, and the tester says shes not telling you what the patter on the cards is just keep trying to figure it out and you will get it. The girl you were click rewarding reminded me of the brain injury test. Because she had no idea what was expected, except for the same click for various responses, and she hand to work to get to the end result or correct results.

That was so fun to watch. I intently watched. It is a learning experience for both the trainer and the trainee. You don’t always get the smartest bird in the tree, so you have to sometime modify what worked for one to slightly something different for another.
My Amazon learned the no trick in hours. He Said you gotta be kidding when it came to the yes trick, so short of standing on my head and doing the hoki poki he got it.

I had no problems viewing the video. Great example and I can’t wait to try it. Very Clever.

What a great Training tool and funny too..

Excellent for giving insight into how difficult it is for your bird to understand what you want. It seems so easy for us and now I really understand how smart they really are. Bravo

I think that it was not very helpfull you didnt show anything with birds and it was very limited. I want to see real teaching of a bird… Taking someone’s bird that’s out of control (screamer, biter, nipper, ect.) and show how to control that… I know it’s only a 10min showing so you cant give us all the info that’s on your traing video’s but if I seen a trick I could really do with one of my bird’s and it worked I would be more incline to buy the training things…All the video’s either show nothing or skip’s buy getting from point A to B in reality… Sorry but on limited income I want more proof it work’s like with one of my bird’s

I do not have a bird yet, but I am on my 8th book of parrot behavior/training. This was a good illustration of how a bird feels when training. I am a physical therapist who trains behavior and developmentally challenged children physical tasks. Many cannot speak or sign and must feel the same way yet with a shorter attention span than this adult woman. In teaching a physically and mentally challenged child a new gross motor task the trick really is to get the child to like you and have fun first. This appears to be true of birds also. I really like your techniques. You are a great teacher with a lot of patience. Thank you for sharing. My future bird thanks you too!

I’m appparently not as smart as your bird. I need some ‘word’ explanation of what you’re trying to do. This is the first of your training videos I’ve watched. I do not know what response you were looking for.

I tried the clicker training on my husband and had a riot. My husband speaks loudly so when we were talking I would click whenever he spoke softer then usual. Pretty quickly he was speaking in softer tones not knowing why he was doing it. I also tried clicking everytime he hugged me.. believe it or not I received quite a few hugs.

I discussed what I had been doing to him and we both had a great laugh. He told me that he knew I was expecting him to do something but did not quite understand what it was I wanted but whenever I clicked he tried to mimic what he had done previously. This exercise was a riot, I loved it.
We tried it on all three of our birds and was suprised at how quickly they picked up on the cues. Thanks for the video!

I dont understand please write short story .

Great example! We have to think more like the parrot. They don’t speak our language and they try so hard to please. But they’re just guessing. We have to make it easier for them. Keep up the great information!

How about, also, clicking if she took a step closer to you, prior to touching your hands?

Where is Karen pryor when you need her!! My african grey now makes the best clicker sound ,the dogs wonder what they should do next. Begging under the cage is best. Treat click. treat click not the click treat they get from me when training

thx man i love ur video its really great how u explained it.
but it didnt work on my cockateil because when ever i went to it it just flew away

I was a little disappointed, when I realized that you weren’t going to demonstrate on real birds. The lady was a real sport, though!

My Grey has just started clicker workouts and she is really quick. The reward I got from this video was to go slower with my training. My Grey, however, learned to click the clicker herself.
Thanks for a good demonstration of how hard it is to learn when you can’t speak a language or physically convert your human actions into bird movements.

Point taken but I think 9 min of a training exercise using only a person instead of a bird was a bit much.

What would have been more helpful was having a bird onstage for clicker training that had never heard a clicker before and doing so after a far briefer exercise with a person. Birds will do what we reinforce we want them to do- eventually. An exercise that demonstrates getting an untrained bird to the point he can figure out what is desired would have more of an impact.

In these tougher economic times, cut to the chase and demonstrate using a live bird.

It works…Pure & simple…

I thought this video was exceptionally enlightening on many levels. Not only how to train the bird, but how to train the trainer!! Thanks so much for sharing.

I have two cockatiels. They are about two years old. Both handfed but only one is friendly. She imitates our poodle when he parks. How are cockatiels with this type of training? Will this video work for Cockatiels? Please advise…thank you.

Tina,

Cockatiels are great with this type of training. So are parakeets

Well Guess What Lee, later on that’s exactly what we did. But this particular exercise is MUCH more powerful, because in order to be a good trainer you HAVE to understand what it’s like to be the bird. Open up your mind man, it’s a free video for goodness sakes

From the comments below, it appears some people just don’t get it. I thought it was an excellent demonstration and using it on humans provides additional insight as to what your bird must be going through during the learning phase. The human volunteer was a great sport and I’m glad she didn’t get it too quickly. I loved the comments about learning behaviour and the woman who tried it on her husband! haha how fantastic and thanks for sharing.

For the record the video is perfect and sound no problem. If you are having sound issues, you may need to adjust the sound on your computer.

this is very easy with somone but with birds its much harder.

Dear Chet,
I’m about to get a young Blue n gold macaw chick as a house pet by a week and appreciate all your videos u sent over for us to watch and learn. i’m so thankful to u to help us open our vision to the birds mind set and am going to apply all this pretty soon. Thanx again for this beautiful presentation.

That woman was wonderful! Kim well done! You brightened up my Monday morning.

This is a really great video. Makes perfect sense! Now i have to try clicker training on my eccy!!!

Clearly understood! If a PERSON has a difficult time figuring out the clicker game, think of the challenge in teaching a bird! Great exercise, giving me a better understanding of what my Senegal is experiencing during our teaching sessions.

i dont understand what this video is all about
u have to show in this video that how a un tamed parrot will do all that stuff that u have shown

Thanks chet, i have problems with the clicker because the parrot started to mimic the clicking sound, which confused me. May be the parot wanted me to do something when he clicked?
I do not use the clicking any more and now he does not click at me. I just say peanut now, cos he can not say peanut, well not yet.

soory mistaken i have seen other video and comment on this page soory

I have a parakeet that comes to greet me when I LET HIM OUT OF THE BIRDCAGE..
He’s very smart. I give him kisses and when I stop he comes closer for more.
I keep saying ‘I LOVE YOU hoping one day he will say it. He hasn’t talked since I got him in December. If you know more tricks I could teach him to do, I would try them with Charley.

Hi Darcy, I cannot always get these videos to download either, but I have found that if I try to upload my birds pic into the ‘better picture’ at the side, then it takes me to a list of videos etc (I think it might just be the home page though lol). I usually am able to get the video off there.
Hope that helps.

Chet this is brilliant – I am really going to have to try it, as we have just purchased a clicker for my sulphur crested cockatoo!!

Thanks Chet and Kim, At first I didn’t understand. Played it back again and listened better, got it.
Now I can work with my Grey (Bert) Very Clever for sure. Love the video!!!

Very good!!! And makes one understand better how hard learning is from the bird’s perspective.
Thanks Chet

Hi Chet, This is a good instruction as it shows how dificult teaching a simple thing (trick) can be when we do not speak the same language. It shows the “I haven’t got the faintest idea what you want” stage, followed by the “OK I think I get a treat if I move like this” stage and finally the ” I got it!” stage. Well done.

how do i get my bird to stand still when i put him somewhere. plus how do i make him not bite my ear when he is on my shoulder.

[...] and see free videos. This is the latest email I watched, it really helps understand the clicker. The Clicker Game This next one is the reason I responded, he shows how not respecting the bird backing away will [...]

i still dont get it

If you don’t get this video, then just imagine how your parrot feels… because the process is identical.

I teach education classes to children about animals and I’ve actually done this exercise with my students in the past. They really caught onto the game and had a lot of fun training each other. We used to exercise relating to training my parrots and other animals like our pet rats.

OMG. Get that African Grey out of the microwave oven!!! That isn’t funny. Don’t give sick people ideas. Hope you understand. Sorry but there are too many sick people out there and I am always signing petitions against animal cruelty. Hope you understand where I am coming from.

I agree with the comment about the African Grey in the microwave. Who knows what sickos are out there and who would try to copy this – but shut the door.

Amazing how much easier it was to teach my macaw “Harley” than it was for you to teach your “human” in the video…….. hehehehe thanks!!

That was a great video. I am about to start clicker training my african greys and I will definately keep that in mind. Thanks for that!

Chet, I have tried training my parakeet, Ivory, this way (using a clicker and some spray millet) and it did work pretty well in training mode, but once I remove the treat, and just click when he comes to me, he is confused and won’t come to me again until he knows I have treats. It’s as if he’s just coming for the treats and ignores me if I don’t have any. I want him to be able to just come to me when I call him without using the clicker and treats every time. What do I do to get him to freely come to me without him expecting a treat every time? Thanks!

I agree about the bird in the microwave. That is just WRONG.

Great example how the clicker training works… I have a cockatoo who is very handsome and lovable but is a screamer that chases everyone away… how can I reverse the training so he learns not to scream…Mel

Would have loved to see it with a bird that’s not been trained with a clicker, to see how it really works.

I could not view this video

great i like it

I get it!!! The first thing I will try with my Nandy Conure (Sunny) is to get on my finger from my shoulder. She steps up from the cage or a perch but NEVER from my shoulder. So whenever she steps up…use the clicker then eventually she will step up whenever she hears the sound. Is that right? And have you found that eventually the clicker is no longer needed? Can’t wait to try this out!!

This was GREAT! It really helped to demonstrate how difficult it is to teach a ‘new language’ to another. I can’t wait to try it on both my cockatiel and my boyfriend.

I have done this same process with my horses, dogs, even my iguana..body language and intent is an amazing thing. My Macaws have learned approx 15 different “tricks” or learned behaviors with this same training.. GREAT TOOL! I learned that talking to them convolute’s the adaptation to new tricks.. I use the clicker in most of my communication when I am asking them to do something so there is no confusion between my voice and my expectations.. I click on the first try and then get pickier as we go along in the new trick. Thanks for posting this video.

I wanted to add to the above comment, clicked on send before I was ready..hehe.. I have taught my Macaws to understand sign language through the clicker training process. I can ask my birds if they want a treat with special sign language without saying a word to them. I have taught one of them to hit the “RED EMERGENCY” button on the alarm system with sign language using clicker training. They both know how to “fly to me” with sign only, pick up their toys and put them in a pile, and the list goes on and on.. we have a great love for one another that can never be replaced! Chit, this is because I have read EVERYTHING I can get my hands on from you!!!!! Thank you!!

The point is that it is incredibly frustrating for our birds to understand what we want them to do. We are speaking human and they speak bird. They first have to learn the click is telling them they did something correct. But what was it they did correct. Kim in the video knew she did something correct, but what was it? Was it she touched his hands or waved her arms or moved closer or raised her arms. Before she could repeat what she was doing correctly, she had to remember all the things she had done. As a trainer we have to identify what action resulted in getting our birds to respond with an action we want them to do. If we, as the trainer are frustrated, think how much more our birds are frustrated or mad at us for asking them to do these crazy human tricks. especially, trying to get them to do something that is outside of their comfort level like my macaw laying on her back. But when our birds get it, then they are so happy with themselves and to be sharing with us. It’s fantastic.

I’VE HAD MY 2 YR. OLD COCATOO FOR 1 1/2 YEARS NOW AND HE DOESN’T SPEAK AT ALL. ALL THAT I CAN GET HIM OR HER TO DO IS MAKE A SMACKING SOUND EVERY TIME HE WANTS TO TELL ME SOMETHING? CAN SOMEONE HELP ME?