Fun training ideas?

Lauraj

Regular Member
Good evening everybody!

As you know i have an African grey who is now 6 and half months old. He is fantastic and has settled in brilliant with us, to say he has been in our home for 5 weeks i am very proud of his progress.

He steps up and down with ease now and when he is somewhere he will put his foot out to us and stare or whistle (sometimes shouts Laura) until we offer him our hand/arm for him to sit on us or for us to move him from sofa to cage etc (not flighted due to breeder clipping and wings are starting to grow back in, YAY!) He even steps from our arm into his cage when we tell him to go back when he needs to be in his cage and he does this without resisting. He will step on us from the top of his cage and higher point which im so happy with, as all this was a problem at the start and he would not entertain us, as expected!

I feel this smart young boy has conquered the step up/down and will do this with my parents who he sees every other day. He has a number of foraging toys and also has a toy out of his cage where he has to open lids for pieces of fruit and when he doesn't tip it upside down (whilst laughing) figures this out in seconds.
He is talking non stop and so so smart, i feel im not challenging his mind as much as I could be with training.

I don't expect him to do party tricks but he seems to always want to learn and just wondering if any members have any good training ideas or fun ways to train this little guy. He tried to fly to me the other day and this resulted in me very scratched but a very happy bird. I hope he will take to recall when he can fly but know we have a long way to go yet! I never realised how smart their beautiful minds were!

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
 
Take a look at my videos on my thread


So far I can get my Missy to touch a target stick, turn/spin around, lift up wings, place an object into my hand, Step up, place her harness over her head, fly on command, shape sorter

all slow progress, but getting there slowly but surely.

Some other ideas that you can train your bird to do including talk/whistle on command, wave foot, pick out colours (using different colours beads), have a look on youtube for some training ideas and how to train your parrot.

Also try and include some useful training which will allow you to examine your bird or even hold his foot for toe nail clipping etc...
 
there are some great ideas from Roy, word association like getting your bird to recognize colours and shapes and calling them back to you. I found a good way is to use foods Jackie my green wing knows A Banana as yellow, long and curved, a carrot as orange, pointed and Long. she can say all the words and many others sometimes she dose not pronounce them correctly like a grape as she will ask for rape instead, the only problem is she sometimes demands what she wants to eat Ha Ha
 
Ours love to play fetch. We placed toys around the room whilst they watch where they're going, then ask them to fetch. They get a treat if the toy it's placed into our hand, although Bebe tends to throw the toy at me :lol: . This can be a fun way to identify toys, colours and shapes.

Whilst he's so receptive, have you thought of harness training him?
 
Thank you all for your ideas!

Not thought of harness training yet, i will look into getting a good harness and try build his confidence up to wear a harness.
Will also watch them videos, thank you!
 
I would defo teach husbandry behaviours whilst he's young. Makes health checks much easier.

Teach him to be wrapped in a towel, make it a game. I can towel my hahns and he just laughs at me. So going to the vets whilst still scary for him as he is aggressive to strangers, he's a lot calmer if I towel and hold him.

Hold each foot out and let you hold them and rub them. Doing this I can file down or clip any nails that get too long.

Lift wings up or allow me to lift each wing up. Also lifting and flapping wings on command.

Turning around.

Fly to you on command or fly back to their cage. Very important.

Then I've done cokour training with one of my Amazon's and he took to it really well. He does like to steal the sticks though.

Numbers - good until you have 5 parrots that can count and know if someone got more treats then they did! 😂

Shapes, sounds, textures. All sorts of possibilities :)
 
Great idea thank you!

He used to only step up onto my arm where as now he will step onto my hand and when he is there im touching his feet which he doesn't seem to mind. Will build up the trust so he will let me pick his feet up and rub them.

The towel trick is also good, how did you manage to get yours to trust the towel? May start allowing him to touch towels and have them around so he doesn't freak out when he see's one haha!

All brilliant ideas and things i will give a go with him! He seems like he just wants to learn and whilst he is like this I want to try as much as i can! :D
 
Great idea thank you!

He used to only step up onto my arm where as now he will step onto my hand and when he is there im touching his feet which he doesn't seem to mind. Will build up the trust so he will let me pick his feet up and rub them.

The towel trick is also good, how did you manage to get yours to trust the towel? May start allowing him to touch towels and have them around so he doesn't freak out when he see's one haha!

All brilliant ideas and things i will give a go with him! He seems like he just wants to learn and whilst he is like this I want to try as much as i can! :D

Mine likes to attack the towel so I made it into a game. Try leaving the towel within site away from him. Then very slowly bring it forward a bit a day. Until it's by the cage. The let him see you touch the towel and have it on your arm. Offer treats everytime he approaches it. Then when he touches it. Theb slowly get him used to it being over his back. It may take a while or he may take to it quickly.

Patience is the key :)
 
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