Training Salty for a new trick - how we do it.

[wrench13]

I wanted to make a video on how I teach Salty to do a totally new trick. The trick is putting magnetic darts onto a desktop dart board. The dart board is really cheap, like $2-3 dollars on Amazon, and you can even get one free if you go to one of the companies that use these as marketing give aways, as a sample. I bought mine. Bird Tricks charges like $25 or so for the same dart board, but you get their video too, so maybe worth it? Dunno.

Anyway, I set the dart board up adjacent to Salty's daytime playchain/boing for a couple of days, so he would not be scared of it. The video below is the first time Salty has seen it up close and he never held the darts before. So the first requst is to just have him hold the dart in his beak, even for a little bit, which he did, and he gets a reward. The next time he holds it a bit longer, and he again got his reward. Then he totally surprised me the third time by doing what I asked him to do, which was to put the dart on the dart board. Rewarded! And he does it again when asked to.

Thats the trouble with trying to show training methods with Salty, because he knows when I am trying to teach him something new and he absorbs it so quickly. I was hoping it might take a few more tries, so I could show some techniques, but no dice - he picked it up in like 3 attempts. He is too smart !

[ame="https://youtu.be/r1Z0dWHDqSk"]https://youtu.be/r1Z0dWHDqSk[/ame]

 

[noodles123]

Lol! Based on your title, I couldn't help myself...
[ame="https://youtu.be/auCeXBZ2ZaI"]Montell Jordan - This Is How We Do It (HQ) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Shine]

Someday I wanna be as smart as Salty!

 

[Scott]

Salty is amazing, your training style is impressive!!

What do you use for treats? ((EDIT, I see you use pine nuts. Ideally sized!!))

 

[Rozalka]

Wow, Salty is so smart!

 

[1oldparroter]

So Cool, but noodles ... OMG! jh

 

[wrench13]

Salty is amazing, your training style is impressive!!

What do you use for treats? ((EDIT, I see you use pine nuts. Ideally sized!!))

Scott, I use only slices of pine nuts, not even whole ones. Like 2 grams max cut into little pieces. As you can see, Salty almost trains himself. He knows now when I present new things to him within the environment of our training area and time, that its time to learn something new. I have a few more tricks coming, a basket ball hoop deal, and I got the whole tiny baby in blanket, baby stroller and cradle coming too ( all for like 2-3 bucks each). I'll introduce each one at a time, like once a week.

 

[chris-md]

Looking solid, my friend. I stand in utter awe of you two and what you’re able to accomplish.

 

[wrench13]

Chris believe me, it's all him. Simple tricks like this, or stacking blocks, he usually gets it after 1 or 2 tries. Some take awhile, like the parrot bicycle is take longer. That one is still a work in progress, it's so un-natural for a parrot to have the "perch" pedals move under them, it's not like perching on a branch. We are making slow progress with that one. And sometimes Salty makes up his own version of a trick, like the hoops. Originally I was just asking him to step through the hoop. Salty is the one who decided first to flip it over his head and later to balance it on its edge and walk through it.

I am the one in awe sometimes.