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OscarTheAmazon

Meeting neighbors
Joined
2/23/17
Messages
56
Oscar will be going to my school in April to help raise money for the schools Zambia Project as the senior pupils go to Zambia every year as part of a project and they help out there.Well all students will bring in 2 euro to hold Oscar and take a picture and if Oscar wants he can say a few words on the mic lol, Well I was also thinking maybe I could teach him a trick or two to show his audience but I dont know what to teach him.
 

Clueless

Joyriding the Neighborhood
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Wave, turn......

See Salty videos for tons of Amazon tricks
 

BirdGuy21

Rollerblading along the road
Avenue Veteran
Joined
11/17/16
Messages
1,112
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Real Name
Jake
Nice to meet you, or shake is a good one.
 

Clueless

Joyriding the Neighborhood
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santacruzjack

Walking the driveway
Joined
7/29/16
Messages
270
Real Name
Jack
I've done lots of trick training with Ollie, in theory it's the same but I don't know how oscar behaves with fingers and hands. If he's generally pretty calm with hands, you can try a few simple starter tricks like Wave, Shake, Spin, or shake your head No. They're all EXTREMELY simple to capture the behavior of, you don't even have to use a clicker if you don't want to. I find that it's difficult to teach Wave AND Shake, so Ollie only knows Shake.

I'm personally not a big fan of parrot wizard but he does have reliable trick training tutorials for the simple stuff if you'd like to check out his website or youtube channel, I really don't know many other resources for trick training, but I can provide some simple instructions for teaching Spin, Shake, and Shake your head No. Shake is fairly easy as the first trick to do, but you could also teach "Shake your head" just as easily, given that it requires an auditory cue and amazons LOVE noise. Spin is a bit trickier, especially in a harness.

For all of these tricks, make sure your bird is perched on a firm perch with no distractions nearby, I have a homemade training perch for this. It's just a toilet paper stand with a perch on it. Use whatever reward food you can for Oscar's size, probably almonds or a sunflower seeds. They're fatty, so only give them as a reward for trick training and it'll be fine

Shake: Put your hand or finger out as if getting oscar to step up, but as you're doing this say "Shake" in a tone of voice. It doesn't matter what tone of voice, the key is that you pick a unique tone of voice for EACH trick and repeat that intonation every time. I ask ollie a question, like "Shake?" At first, Oscar will have that step up instinct, what you have to do then is put him back on the perch and say "No" Politely but firmly. You can also just pull your finger away if you can tell he's trying to shift his weight. Reward him once he puts his foot on your hand without attempting to step up.
From here, the important part is repetition. You always have to say "Shake" to initiate it, to teach him that it's different from stepping up. You always have to say "No" if he TRIES to step up. Eventually, he'll begin to understand that you're asking him just for a foot. At this point, start putting your thumb on top of his index toe whenever he puts his foot up, and lift his foot gently up and down, like you're actually shaking hands! It's a REALLY old video, but I've attached a video below of Ollie when he was first learning shake, after only a day of practice.


Shake head no: This is slightly different, because this is capturing a behaviour and rewarding it, although it's also slightly easier in some ways. It's a straightforward, step by step process. The first step? Pick a phrase. For Ollie, the phrase is "Do you like cats?" and that will trigger him shaking his head when he knows millet is being offered as a reward. Since I used "shake" for the above trick, I had to come up with something a bit smarter. You don't have to do it this way, you could call this "Shake" and the other trick something else.
For the actual trick training, it goes like this: First, say the phrase you've chosen, and then IMMEDIATELY after you're done saying it blow on your parrot's nose to induce an irritated head-shake. You don't have to blow so hard as to actually annoy your bird's nostrils, you just want to get him to shake his head from the sudden surprising wind. Once he does it, IMMEDIATELY praise him and reward him. The goal is to repeat this process over and over again until he shakes his head in anticipation because you said the word. Again, in order: "Do you like cats?" -> Blow on nose -> Bird shakes head -> Reward! Repeat! until the "Blow on nose" step is no longer necessary and he's simply shaking his head. This trick generally isn't hard to learn, although I've heard some species have less of a tendency to shake their head from blowing and some people will actually use feathers... I can't personally attest to if that's a good idea or not.

I'm sorry I don't have more to offer, but if you have any questions I'll help as much as I can. Oscar's smart, I'm sure he'll have no problem learning.
 
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