You know when people ask “does you bird talk” and the answer is “yeah, but not around other people?” Well, I kind of stumbled onto something that I think will help with this problem.
It started by accident. I wasn’t paying attention and apparently I had been pointing at Hermes, my African Congo Grey parrot and saying “hello.” I didn’t even realize I was doing it. Maybe I was pointing to get her attention, I don’t know. But I started noticing that every time I pointed at something she’d say “hello.” Well…hmmm. Okay, let’s try hand signals.
I wanted to work on something more. I decided on the song “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.” It had animal sounds and I didn’t want to do Old McDonald. There is a fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, goat, and cow in the song. Seven sounds all together plus the ending.
First problem with the song was a spider sound. My daughter has a laugh when she gets going that had tickled Hermes funny bone. So I’m thinking, I will use that for wiggle and jiggle and tickle inside her. It worked. Now I needed to get Hermes to associate a hand sign with the laugh.
My first mistake was being so thrilled that she got it I let her do a very small, quiet type “ha ha” on the tee-stand. I needed it louder and more defined so others would recognize it as a laugh. I sat there and cackled over and over again. When in her cage she was perfectly loud so I’d give her a treat. On the stand it was still too soft. I just kept laughing loud and when she did her soft sound I didn’t treat her. Finally she got what I wanted her to do. I have to admit though from time to time like on the youtube video, I still get a soft laugh. I learned, you should get the sound or word just right before you treat or be willing to accept less than what you want.
Another mistake I made was saying things while we practiced. I’d say “you can do it,” or “good girl” and she would do a sound and say “you can do it, good girl” A Congo learns sounds or words that interest them pretty easy.
I have dogs, so barking was real quick. But again I’d goof and say “dog” and hand signal. She would repeat “dog” and then bark. I really had to watch and use the hand signal for only the sound I wanted. I think I was trying to teach her like you would a child who’s beginning to learn to read. She only needed the sound and signal not an explanation. “Meow” was very quick. We don’t have a cat now, I guess she just liked the sound.
The hardest sound I worked with of all was the fly “buzz.” She just didn’t care for the sound which was pretty important to the song. I swear I wore a blister on the front on my tongue.
At first I was just working with Hermes for the heck of it. But as time went on I started working with her every day. It took a year. I believe had I been more serious in the beginning, it wouldn’t have taken that long.
I’d like to mention too that there was a time she just wasn’t into it. The song is a bit of a bore. Being the more intelligent of the two, in desperation I decided to take her food bowl out. I was thinking that if she was some hungry it would make her more enthusiastic. It didn’t. She just yawned, puffed up and sat there. I learned it isn’t the food so much as the treat. So much for me being the smarter.
I didn’t remove sunflower seed and peanut pieces from her regular food until we were months into the song. I’m sure if I had taken these out of her regular food sooner she would have learned faster. How you train your bird is up to you but I will say without a doubt our sessions are much, much better now she is getting these foods only as a “treat.”
I love to make my birds (breeders and pets) happy, always. Not letting her have her sunflower seed and peanut pieces except for rewards was a little nerve- wracking at first. I found myself giving her extra apple pieces after practice in the cage to compensate. Of course she just hated that! But as we progressed I begin to think she enjoyed the treats better than if she had access to them all the time. In others words, I convinced “me” that this was a good thing. Besides, maybe she was eating too many sunflowers seed anyway.
I like to switch up treats from time to time. She likes crackers and yes, I watched the intake of salt. I also learned to use very small pieces. If I gave too big of a treat it took too long to eat and like me if Hermes gets full she wants to take a nap. I don’t treat every time she does a sound. You don’t really have to.
I like to practice hand signals out of sequence just to keep us both fresh. Sometimes I sign at random while she’s in the cage.
We do have a routine though. All I have to do is say “let’s go to work” and she jumps to the cage door and is ready. We snuggle after we work to make sure we don’t get too tense on what we are doing. It’s not always the same every day for either of us. The whole idea is to enjoy the interaction between us.
I might mention too that the hand signals I use I just made up. It is two finger whiskers for a “meow”, index/little finger horns for a “moo”, etc. I use the left hand for the sign and the right hand for treats normally. She keeps one eye on that right hand! The nicest thing of all is anyone can signal these signs to Hermes and she will give the right response. It was so much fun watching my daughter’s boyfriend signing Hermes, then getting the right words and sounds.
To see video, go to http://youtu.be/3d1KiR1zJo8
