I decided to conduct a Simple Revision Test on all the Basic T-Stand Tricks that Kiki has learned. I got my brother to capture the revision test and compile it into a tricks collection. The collection includes Kiki performing:

1. Hand-Shaking Trick
2. Waving Hello Trick
3. Wing Flapping Trick
4. Turn-A-Round Trick

Kiki in action…

Overall Kiki absolutely did a great job. The results of the revision test are definitely a successful one as shown in the clip above. I received a few emails and questions posted on YouTube asking me what are the first few tricks to be introduced to their birds. The tricks in the Basic T-Stand Tricks Collection performed by Kiki, are the ones that I really recommend. No other special props required in the training, all you need is a quiet and dimly lit room and your bird’s T-Stand. I believe these are relatively easy tricks that any birds can do, even many training books recommended these as the first few basic tricks to introduce to birds with totally no trick training experience.

As I always say in my posts, PATIENCE!
Patience is definitely the key to success!

Related Posts:
Hellooooo! Kiki’s Waving Hello Trick
Kiki performing the Turn-A-Round Trick
The Wing Flapping Trick
Kiki’s Trick Collection

Lately, I have been moving on introducing real basic tricks to Kiki. Earlier on was the “Through the Hoop” trick and now the Bell trick. I just don’t want to make things hard for Kiki, but still let her constantly learning new things and enjoying the moments with me. The thought of bell trick recently just come across in my mind, when I was packing Kiki’s extra toys and spotted this untouched little bell in a plastic box.

It’s a real simple trick that Kiki learned almost immediately. She has to shake the bell a couple of times and land back to the ground properly and not toppling it. I’ve only demo in front of her once, then later whenever I cued for bell, she’s able to pick that up and shake for a few times before letting go. I really enjoy seeing her doing that. I was wondering getting her to perform to my friends during our Christmas events. Who knows she might end up getting a couples of Xmas “Candies” from my friends? *Haha*

Kiki in action…

How do I teach her?
As I said earlier on, it’s a relatively easy trick all is required is a normal bell with a simple notch (this allow Kiki to use it as the handle of the bell) on top. First the objective is to introduce the new props to Kiki, possible techniques are placing food treat near the prop to encourage her to touch. For Kiki, I used the target stick instead as she had been target trained. I used my target stick to tap on the bell, whenever successful touch or grab the bell, I will praise and reward with her favourite “candy”. Once she’s totally comfortable with the new prop, I started to move on with my actual training.

First I did a demo in front of Kiki to let her understand the purpose of the game. The moment I placed the bell in front of her, she immediately grab hold and shake it. I’m totally amazed she make a successful attempt on the first time. I praised and reward her to let her understand that the behavior I wanted for this trick. Whenever she threw or drop the bell immediately without any shakes, I will ignore and refrain from giving any treat until she achieved the action I wanted. I continued these procedures and still yet to perfection, but overall I’m satisfied with her performance in her first training. Good job, Kiki!

If you met training scenarios that your parrots doesn’t pick up the bell shake, be patient. First encourage them by praising and rewarding them when they touched the bell. Then after a few rounds, try hold off the treat alittle longer until they started picking up the bell. If they achieved that, praise and reward them accordingly. Soon after a few rounds, you will be seeing them shaking the bells before letting go to the ground. Thumb rules: Give them time, have patience!

Related Post:
New Training Coming On

After letting Kiki exposed to so many advance and difficult tricks, I’ve decided to take a step backwards in teaching Kiki something relatively simple and straightforward. I introduced to her a simple trick called Through The Hoop Trick. It’s a really simple trick that Kiki took only a couple of minutes to understand and master it. It’s a simple trick and anyone can try (including you, the fans of Bryan’s Angels and Kiki, of course) training your birds, and all is needed is just a Hoop. A hoop that is just big enough for your bird to go through. As for me, I couldn’t find a decent hoop in the market for Kiki, so I ended up DIY a customized hoop for Kiki using plastic coated metal wires from hardware store.

Kiki in action…

How do I teach her?
It’s a relatively simple trick for Kiki, as I said she mastered it all within minutes. But time spent on the training might varies on any other birds, especially birds that have never undergone any serious training before. As per normal whenever before I start introducing new tricks, I will let Kiki attend some warm-up session (running through some basic commands and tricks like Turn-A-Round, Wing Flapping & etc). This is to ensure that I gain full attention from Kiki, and it does make training session easier and manageable. Usually the training progress seems to be much more better and effective.

Once Kiki is ready for the new lesson, I start off introducing the new prop which is the hoop to her. For this trick, I used my target stick to introduce the hoop to her. She immediately accept the hoop, and started playing and nibbling with the prop. I started my actual lesson immediately after the introduction was completed. First I placed the hoop on one hand and the other hand holding my target stick at the opposite exit of the hoop. This is to lure Kiki to go through the hoop and touch my target stick. Every successful try through the hoop, I will praise her and reward her with her favorite “candy”. There will be situation where instead of going through the hoop, she went over to nibble the hoop. When I see this, I immediately remove the hoop, this is let her understand refraining from biting the hoop for this trick. I repeat the procedures for a couple of time, until Kiki is totally familiarize with the proper behaviour for the trick.

Finally is add in the cues and fade off the presence of the target stick in the trick. For vocal cue, I used “Hoop” and my visual cue is basically done by knocking the hoop to the ground. You can consider other cues for your birds, as long they recognize and are comfortable with. I still get Kiki to perform the trick with the presence to the target stick but with the add-on of my vocal and visual cues. This is to let Kiki understand whenever she sees these cues, she will have to go through the hoop. I repeat the procedures for a couple of time again. Soon after she’s comfortable, I started removing the presence of the target stick, and Wallah! She doing the trick upon my cues.

During your training, if your birds aren’t ready to response just to your vocal or visual cues. Don’t worry, take a step back and repeat the procedures with the presence of the target stick. Then try fading off the target stick again in the trick. Always remember the thumb rule - Patience!

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New Training Coming On