Now that Jack is more comfortable with his harness, I've been slowly introducing him to going outside and working him up to going on little weekend trips. Today was his biggest milestone and I couldn't be prouder or happier with how it went!
Today I met up with a couple friends of mine who have been wanting to meet Jack(about 7 people in total, including a friend's children). We met at a small park and planned on a picnic type event. First, part of the park was taken over by a children's birthday party, with some of the older kids playing basketball nearby. I wasn't sure how Jack would handle that seeing that was all new stimuli, but Jack remained completely calm while watching the different birthday festivities from about 50 ft away(small park was small. haha) I felt like it all fascinated him, but after 15 min he was more focused on my friends and myself. My friends would approach with treats or a toy and he'd take it from them and do his thing with the treat or toy. I worked with him on stepping up on their arms(the 2 friends who volunteered and felt comfortable since everyone had never been around birds before). Jack never got anxious or showed signs of discomfort. He showed off his wings a bit with some short recall flights.The entire time, while his body language was calm... he was very quiet aside from making his higher-pitched mumbly baby squeaks. Anyways, I was so proud that he took everything in stride and to my surprise was great for the whole 3 hours of fun! I didn't have expectations, just whatever he was comfortable with and in the end, we(human and it seemed parrot!) had a great afternoon! When I got Jack back home, he pretty much dozed off on the couch. Though all that energy came back after his nap and dinner--he was up and playing on his pvc gym the rest of the evening.
I was focused on Jack so I didn't take pictures. However my friends are starting to share some of their photos with me and I'll update this thread as they come in. Looking forward to more weekend adventures with The Captain.
My friend's daughter was really great about working with Jack. Here he is enjoying a treat(great big banana chip) she gave him. When I see my friend on Monday at work, I'm going to pass along one of Jack's molted primary feathers to my friend's daughter as a thank you.
And then the recall practice:
Today I met up with a couple friends of mine who have been wanting to meet Jack(about 7 people in total, including a friend's children). We met at a small park and planned on a picnic type event. First, part of the park was taken over by a children's birthday party, with some of the older kids playing basketball nearby. I wasn't sure how Jack would handle that seeing that was all new stimuli, but Jack remained completely calm while watching the different birthday festivities from about 50 ft away(small park was small. haha) I felt like it all fascinated him, but after 15 min he was more focused on my friends and myself. My friends would approach with treats or a toy and he'd take it from them and do his thing with the treat or toy. I worked with him on stepping up on their arms(the 2 friends who volunteered and felt comfortable since everyone had never been around birds before). Jack never got anxious or showed signs of discomfort. He showed off his wings a bit with some short recall flights.The entire time, while his body language was calm... he was very quiet aside from making his higher-pitched mumbly baby squeaks. Anyways, I was so proud that he took everything in stride and to my surprise was great for the whole 3 hours of fun! I didn't have expectations, just whatever he was comfortable with and in the end, we(human and it seemed parrot!) had a great afternoon! When I got Jack back home, he pretty much dozed off on the couch. Though all that energy came back after his nap and dinner--he was up and playing on his pvc gym the rest of the evening.
I was focused on Jack so I didn't take pictures. However my friends are starting to share some of their photos with me and I'll update this thread as they come in. Looking forward to more weekend adventures with The Captain.
My friend's daughter was really great about working with Jack. Here he is enjoying a treat(great big banana chip) she gave him. When I see my friend on Monday at work, I'm going to pass along one of Jack's molted primary feathers to my friend's daughter as a thank you.
And then the recall practice: