Just like what the title says, it’s her own Tunnel Trick. A relatively simple trick, but interesting and fun trick that able to kill any boredom and motivating her to continue to learn new things.

Kiki mastered this trick within minutes. She had no difficulty in understanding and performing the trick, because she had did something similar before. Remembering the hoop trick that I shared with everyone on my previous posting. Both are actually the same, the only difference is the prop. The hoop trick is with a metal wire hoop whereas the current Tunnel trick is with the empty paper towel roller.

When I was updating Kiki’s trick list, I found something shocking and surprising. With Kiki mastering this trick, I can humbly highlight that she has mastered a total of 17 tricks and commands. Impressive? I guess it can definitely be an alarming figure for a small parrot like Kiki.

Thus a pea-brained is not necessary stupid. The size of the parrot not necessarily denote the intelligence and the ability of the parrot after all.

Related Post:
Kiki’s Through The Hoop Trick

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

It’s fairly simple trick for Kiki. There isn’t much difficulty for her to understand the whole sequence and master the whole trick.

How do I teach?
Before I can really introduce Kiki into this trick, she must be able to master some of the basic trick component like the Retrieval/Fetching Trick.

Kiki had mastered the Fetching Trick and the Coin Depositing Trick, thus it’s definitely no difficulty for her to complete the task. The only differences is the prop. Like I always said, the first thing to do before moving into actual training, is to introduce the props.

Once proper introduction of the props have been conducted, the actual training commenced with teaching Kiki to pick up the cup upon cueing. When she achieve that, I slowly added another cup labeled with a green label identifying it as my master cup. The objective is that Kiki have to stack the cup onto the master cup.

This portion of the training can be the most challenging one, as Kiki had no idea how to stack the cup. Thus I had to conduct a live demo in front her, thereafter when she holding the cup I had to guide the cup slowly push it onto the master cup. Once she achieved it, I praised and rewarded her. I continued to assist her and complete the sequence several times until she truly understand that she had to stack the cup in order to be rewarded.

At the stage when she’s able to stack the cup on her own, I moved on adding 2 other cups to add challenge to the training. Every successful tries of stacking the cups, I praised and rewarded her.

Below I’ve highlight the breakdown sequence on how to train Kiki to accomplish the whole trick.

The Breakdown Process of the Cups Stacking Trick

1. Introduction of New Props (The Cups)
2. Learning How to Hold/Lift the Cup (Restrict to one Cup)
3. Learning How to Stack the Cup (Restrict to 2 Cups)
4. Add-on of 2 others cups into the training (Total of 3 Cups to stack into the master cup)
5. Full Training Sequence

Remember always be patience, be consistent in your training. Some parrots might take quite a while to understand and master the trick. Good luck to all parrot owners!

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The Cup Stacking Props
New tricks for new year

Kiki is also looking forward for the race too, so I got her a new ride! It’s a purple race car, and Kiki loves it so much!

In fact it’s not really only a new “toy” for Kiki, and a prop for Kiki’s new trick. I’m planning to teach Kiki to “drive” a car, or should rephrase it as pulling the car!

Lately I haven’t manage to teach Kiki a new trick, partly because I’m running out of ideas of new tricks and she’s undergoing a molting for the past weeks and months. I wouldn’t want to stress her too much either.

With the new trick being introduced to her, I’m sure it will once again unleash her deep passion and enthusiasm in learning new things. I will say the trick is of not much difficulty to Kiki, as she had learn fetching, the retrieval trick.

The Car Pulling trick is of the similar concept in the retrieval trick, the only difference is the retrieval object is used as a pulley to car. Whenever Kiki is cued to fetch the retrieval object which is the red ring, the car will be pulled along during the fetching process. It’s gonna be fun and entertaining.

I’m looking forward to share the Youtube video with everyone real soon! Stay tune!

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

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

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

As I said earlier on, it’s a chained trick which comprised of two behaviors that Kiki had learned earlier on: The Retrieve Trick (Fetch Command) and The Opening Shell Trick (Open Command). Kiki has totally no problem in executing the retrieval of the red lego brick, as she has performed the fetching trick of his favorite yellow lego brick. With the target stick introduced during Target Training, Kiki was able to accept the red lego brick almost immediately, and this further shorten the time spent in introducing new props. My primary concern in the Open & Fetch Trick was to let Kiki understand the concept of opening the pink shell.

Introducing of the pink shell was fairly straightforward and easy for Kiki with the presence of the target stick. I have to do a few demos in front of Kiki on how I open the pink shell (without the presence of the lego brick). After a couple of times of guiding the motion with Kiki, on the opening of the pink shell, she soon understand the concept and gradually improved in her technique. What I can say about Kiki, she’s really smart and a fast learner. She amazingly surprises me of mastering this trick component within 30 minutes. That’s an achievement! Well done Kiki!

Kiki open the pink shell and retrieve the red lego brick…

Below is the breakdown process on how I step-by-step guided Kiki in achieving the current Open & Fetch Trick. These are very simple steps that I will into various sessions to allow Kiki have enough time to progress, and this reduce any possible chances of stress or frustration during training. Kiki was able to complete the whole breakdown process and understand the Open & Fetch Trick in no more than 30 minutes.

The Breakdown Process of the Open & Fetch Trick

1. Introduction of New Props (The Pink Shell & Red Lego Brick)
2. Learning How to Hold Pink Shell from the handle
3. Learning How to Open the Pink Shell in correct motion (Open Command)
4. Learning How to Retrieve the Red Lego Brick (Fetch Command)
5. Step-By-Step Chaining Process: Open + Fetch
6. Full Training of the Chained Trick

The Progress Checklist for The Shell Game Trick

1. Introduction of Trick Props Done!
2. Learning How to Open the Pink Shell Done!
3. Learning How to Retrieve the Red Brick back to my Hand Done!
4. Chain Process 1: Open the Shell and Retrieve the Red Brick Upon Cue Done!
5. Identifying of the Correct Shell with the Red Brick Hidden (Fixed Positions) Done! But Correct Probability 50%, More practise Required!
6. Identifying of the Correct Shell with the Red Brick Hidden (Random Mixed Up Positions)
7. Full Process Dry Run

Kiki definitely still has a lot of work to do in complete learning the full process of The Shell Game Trick. With her current progress, I’m already very delighted and satisfied. She has done a great job again. I’m looking for her to graduate from this Shell Game Trick “course”.

Related Posts:
New Training Coming On
Introducing Target Training
Kiki doing the Fetching Trick

She still attending the frequent Basketball training, hopefully by the next progress report she’s able to meet the perfect scoreline. Ganbatte Kiki! Don’t disappoint your readers and supporters!

Related BasketBall Trick Posting:
Making of the Basketball Prop

How do I teach?
This trick is rather simple all you need is one simple T-stand and a stick (I use a empty pen case, but a RED one because I used a BLUE one on my previous somersault trick for the trick, I’ve wash it thoroughly before use, so it’s perfectly safe). Later I will explain why a stick is required for this trick. First I bring Kiki over to her familiar training ground and placing her on the T-stand. Usually before starting any teaching I will give her some warm-up exercise (like Step-Up/Down Commands and Turn-A-Round Command), so to ensure she has full concentration and attention on me. First I introduced the stick to Kiki (for me which is the empty pen case). It’s important to have the stick for this trick, initially I used my fingers to train, but the attempts are less effective and confusing. Why? Kiki mistook my cue as Step-up, she tends to hop on to my fingers instead of lifting her legs. That’s why with the use of the stick prevent the confusion.

As soon as Kiki is comfortable with the stick, seeing her playing and mingle with the stick. I kick of with my first phase of the training session. First objective is to get Kiki to lift her left high (because I holding the stick using my right hand - later on transforming my right hand as cue. If you intend to cue using your left hand, then train her left leg), to do this I hold the stick near her. Make sure don’t the stick too near, the stick has to be out of reach. Kiki will try every means to touch or grab hold to the stick. She tends to use her beak trying to nip on the object, every moment she did that, I remove my stick immediately. Whenever Kiki lift her foot slightly trying to grip onto the stick, I immediately treat and praise her. To let her understand that she’s doing it correctly. I continued to repeat this until she’s totally comfortable, lifting her legs without hesitation.

Then after, I started to introduce a verbal cue to her to do the trick. I use “helllloooooo”. I usually get Kiki to perform tricks with verbal and hand cues together. I noticed it’s far more effective this way. So whenever I bring the stick near her and cue “helllooooo”, she will lift and wave her leg. Once she’s totally comfortable and doing the trick without hesistation, I moved on with the finally phase of the trick.

Finally phase, Objective is to fade off the presence of the stick and introduce a new hand-cue to the trick. I used my right hand, index finger in waving motion to cue Kiki to do the waving trick. I try training with the verbal cue and the new hand-cue, whenever she successfully perform the trick, I treat and praise her accordingly. Wah-lah, that’s how I got Kiki to do the wave.

Helllooooooooo! Kiki!

Oh yah, if any of you have problem getting your parrot to perform the wave with your new hand-cue, try moving a step back and use back the stick again to cue for the wave trick. Once your parrot is comfortable, try slowly fade off again.