What do I do next?

[ConureTrickster]

I have a Green Cheek Conure named Arya who was raised to be hand friendly and knew step up when we adopted her.
While we were paying her off, the store owner had given us some free clicker training tips/lessons.

So far we've been working with the clicker using safflower seeds as the reinforcement. She has learned so much so far and I'm finding it difficult to figure out what to do next. So far she's learned;

• Step up
• Target training with a chopstick
• Turning around: The cue is "Turn" with turn wrist movement.
• Dancing: Cue is "Dance" with wrist up and down movements, she bobs up and down
• Waving: Cue is "Hello" Wave movement, she responds with a wave
• Shake: Cue is "Shake" finger out to her, foot on finger
• Raising her wings: Cue is "Wings!" with raising a the rocker hand symbol ( )
• Fetching: "Fetch" throw a bread tag, she brings it back and drops into palm

She really loves when it's training time and even gets excited when she sees the treat jar come out though it feels like she might be getting bored of the same stuff. ( It could just be me getting bored with the same stuff. Lol! )

I really don't know what to do next with her. I've seen people train their bird to "Skateboard" on those little finger boards, but I'm not to sure about that one. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can teach my birdie?

I'd love your suggestions, links, and tips. If you have a trick that you do with your bird, I'd love to hear it and what kind of steps you took to teach it.

Thanks y'all!

 

[Rachael]

This trick seems really cool and fun to do, since your little birdie already knows "fetch" so this seems like the next step. I watched most of the "howcast" videos on training parrots and there are some really cool ideas.

 

[Rachael]

There are some more challenging tricks in the series. This is another of my favourite.

 

[ConureTrickster]

So I was right in my thinking that I need to get some more props to work with her. So, children's toys? Or perhaps a pet supply store? I haven't really seen anything in the local pet stores. Is there a special place I should be getting them from?

I have so many questions! Lol

 

[ConureTrickster]

Also, thanks Rachael for the videos!

 

[Rachael]

Children's toys are a good place to start. My niece is about 18 months and she has a bunch of little puzzles that would work great for a parrot. I've looked at dollar stores before for little toys and games or at Walmart or another store like that. Picking up coins and putting them into different piggy banks work as well. I have never seen anything at local pet stores that would challenge a parrot, and I definitely have never seen any games. For the ring toss, if I couldn't find one I would make one out of some dowel and wood, dye it and use plastic colourful bracelets for the rings. There are lots of fun ways to "fetch" to change it up and keep it interesting. I would definitely recommend watching more of those videos, I've come up with some great ideas from them.

And you are very welcome, I'm always here to help

 

[Rachael]

Most of the pet stores that aren't very familiar with birds (at least around my area) won't even have foraging toys so if I wanted to enrich my parrots life I definitely would try to find it in a children's section or make my own. The great thing about making your own is that you have complete control over what your parrot will be in contact with but children's toys are also great because they have to be approved to ensure the safety of the child. All the puzzles I have are non-toxic with no super small removable parts.

 

[Ark]

If you're looking for some tricks that don't require props, you can try capturing behaviors you like or think look cool like yawning, sneezing, stretching, etc. with a click and reward. I've found that these tricks can take a bit longer to teach because you have to keep an eye out for the behavior you like, but I think they add fun variety to a trick repertoire! I like the "stretch" trick in particular because it looks so cool when they stand on one leg and fan all of their feathers out.

 

[camelotshadow]

Congrats for being just where you are wish my guy one day could do all that!

 

[ConureTrickster]

If you're looking for some tricks that don't require props, you can try capturing behaviors you like or think look cool like yawning, sneezing, stretching, etc. with a click and reward. I've found that these tricks can take a bit longer to teach because you have to keep an eye out for the behavior you like, but I think they add fun variety to a trick repertoire! I like the "stretch" trick in particular because it looks so cool when they stand on one leg and fan all of their feathers out.

It actually took Arya and I a while to learn the Wings! command. Every time saw her stretch her wings into the shrugging position I made the hand gesture. One day it just clicked for her.
So it'll be fun to look for more behaviors!

 

[Ark]

Rowan and I are still working on the wings trick... He'll lift them up into the angel wings type pose, but getting him to fully extend them and keep them open is proving to be a LOT harder. Oh well, that's what makes training fun! It's really worthwhile when it finally does click for them. And I totally know what you mean about your bird getting excited when it's training time. I think they enjoy it more than we do. Actually I'm a little surprised that the training forum on this site isn't a lot busier than it currently is because birds are SO GOOD with trick training.

 

[InTheAir]

I was hoping the trick section would be more active too! I ran out of tricks to teach Nila for a while, so I've had to get creative with flight games. Flighted fetch and recall are great fun to start out.

The ring toss game is good fun and retrieving objects and putting them into cups. You can expand those games too.

I'm working on teaching my guys to listen to my vocal cues to direct them to which colour cup, but we have been pretty lazy lately and have mostly just been focusing on behaviours for medical exams and treatment.