HoundBlog

Well, I’ve slipped up on writing again! It seems there just are no more hours in the day to squeeze any fun in 😛

Ken took Saturday off and we spent the morning running errands in Anderson. Saturday afternoon was spent messing with the critters. I put all the dogs in crates and took the Cockatoo out in the house for some out-of-cage time. I’ve been working on training him to do different things. He will give you a high-five now with his foot and he’s learning to turn in a circle. He acted like he was stressed out being out of his “room”, so I didn’t keep him out long and he seemed happy to get back in his cage.

The African Gray is a biter, so I’ve been working on building up a trust relationship with him to extinguish the bites. He doesn’t come out of his cage unless I leave the door open and wait for him to come out on his own because he will not step onto a hand-held perch and if I offer my hand or arm, he bites it. I’m not a fan of getting bitten, so we will just let him do his own thing for now. He is learning color discrimination. It seems that parrots have REALLY good vision and can see a lot more colors than humans, so this is a fun thing for him to learn. I’ve started with 3 differently colored beads and he picks up the one I’ve told him I want and drops it into a cup. He’s actually pretty good at it — he gets it right more times than not. He’s started saying really softly “I love you”. I’ve been telling him I love him for weeks now and he hears me tell Ken I love him all the time, so I’m really pleased that he’s picked up this phrase. He does not say any cuss words and I’m careful not to say any around him as I KNOW he would pick up on them quickly.

I think he will be a real show-stopper when he gets trained a little bit more. He’s really smart and seems to enjoy being trained — I’m using a clicker to mark the behavior I want/like and he’s begun clicking me in return when I do something he likes. 😆  He is an amazingly accurate mimick. He tells the dogs by name to “get out” or “go potty” or he’ll call them. They come running, too! It’s really funny because he sounds just like me. He’s picked up my cough — just the sound of it, not the real thing and I have to laugh. When I get on the telephone, he says “uh huh, uh huh” just like me and in my voice. When Ken comes in the room he makes a rude sounding noise (just like Ken often does) 😯

Well, I guess I should close this out for today and get back to work.

Love to all,

Margaret