Kiki’s back again with her new trick. Although it is not possible for Kiki to drive a car, but I’ve managed to teach her how to pull a car instead.

It’s definitely fun watching her so into doing this. It’s like Kiki cruising around with her own Formula 1 Race car.

How do I teach?
The Pull a Car Trick is rather a simple trick, that any parrot owners can teach their parrots. The trick share the similar principle of a Retrieval or Fetching trick, the only difference is the prop. Kiki easily understand the whole concept mastered the whole trick after 2 sessions in a day.

First Step, like I always do for a new trick training, props introduction for Kiki. Kiki totally had no issue of accepting the red ring, but I met some problems with the purple race car. Kiki was totally fearful and frightened by the Purple Race Car, perhaps due to the irregular dimension of the object.

With the help of the target stick and treats, I managed to get Kiki to overcome her fear factor. She soon willing to touch and play with the 2 new props.

I moved on with teaching Kiki on how to retrieve the red ring only. She had no difficulty in achieving the task, because she had learned the Retrieval/Fetching trick some time ago.

As she had achieved on the retrieval of the red ring, I then tied the string to the red ring and the purple car. I began the training with a short distance right in front of the prop. Upon my “Fetching” cue, Kiki retrieved the red ring and place back on my hand. I praised and rewarded her immediately. I repeated the sequence several time.

I slowly add-on the distance at every session to add challenge to the training. Now, Kiki is able to perform and retrieve the car that is few inches away. It’s definitely exciting enjoying the sessions.

I’ve highlighted the breakdown of the steps below on how I guided Kiki on to accomplishing the Pull a Car Trick:

The Breakdown Process of the Cups Stacking Trick

1. Introduction of New Props (The Red Ring & Purple Race Car)
2. Learning How to Retrieve the Red Ring only
3. Learning How to Retrieve the Red Ring tying with the Purple Race Car
4. Continue training Retrieval of the Red Ring with the Purple Race Car

I probably going to teach Kiki on how to flag raise on her next trick training. Good luck to me and Kiki!

Related Post:
Kiki’s new F1 ride

Here’s the posting about Kiki’s new trick - Coin Depositing Trick. I promised on my earlier post to share about Kiki learning the new trick and also to upload the video clip to YouTube.

I’m indeed surprise that Kiki managed to learn this intermediate trick within a day. I’m really proud of her, she has never disappoint me. She’s attentive and learned everything, the move yesterday - 1st November 2007. The objective of the trick: She has to dump all the 3 coins into the black box. It isn’t difficult for her to master the Coin Depositing Trick, as she learned to perform the Fetching Trick earlier on. Basically I just have to teach her to place the objects into the black box.

How do I teach?
For this trick, I will need some props (a box and 3 coins) to allow Kiki to perform. During my first session with Kiki, I introduced Kiki the items. This is to ensure she’s not afraid and do not hesitate to play with the items. When she’s comfortable, I commenced my formal lessons.

I started off with a coin and box first, this is keep things simple and not to stress her up. My first objective was to get Kiki pick up the coin. It’s not a difficult task, as she has learned to pick up object in her Fetching Trick. She met my first objective. My second objective is to teach her to drop the coin in the box. To let her understand the concept, I do a simple demo in front of her. After the demo, I cued for her to pick up the coin and bring the box near her so to allow her to drop the coin. I gave her the treat which force her to drop the coin into the box. I repeat the similar step a couple of time, until she can automatically drop the coin in the box herself. I then tried bring the coin further away from the box and she completed the task as expected. I treated and praised her accordingly.

Finally I added a few more coins for her to pick and drop off in the box. Whenever she completes the full cycle by picking and dropping the coins into the box, I treated and praised her. Walah! With more practices and encouragement, she’s able to perform confidently without glitches.

You can try teaching to your parrots. It’s real fun teaching them new things.

I’ve managed to upload another video to YouTube today. Thanks Brother for helping me to capture Kiki doing the Fetching Trick. I have to admit this is one of Kiki’s favourite trick. Whenever she sees this Yellow Lego Brick on my desk when doing work, she will go over pick the Brick and bring over to my hand. She never fails to do that.

I must admit that Kiki’s favourite toy is gonna be this Yellow Lego brick, and it’s also my favourite toy during my childhood day. It’s definitely lot of childhood memories ,when seeing Kiki plays with it.