We’ve made a breakthrough! Late last year I posted that I knew how to play the target game, but that I was confused about the next trick I was supposed to be learning.
You see, there’s this pink ring that my human would give to me, but that she didn’t want me to play with. She would hand it to me, and then hover with her hand waiting for me to drop it. Then she’d give me a treat when she caught it.
The problem is that she appears to be clumsy or lazy… because she stopped doing such a good job catching it. The sequence started: she’d hold the ring, I’d beak it, she’d give me a treat. Then I started grabbing the ring so I could hold it. That earned me a treat. Then she tried to take it from me in exchange for a treat (huh?). Then I realized that I’d get a treat if I just took the ring and dropped it. She always knew to catch it.
Then at some point she stopped catching it every time. Instead of having her hand under the ring, she’d move her to the side so that the ring didn’t make contact, and that meant no treat for me. At first it was funny when she stopped catching it because then it would fall on the ground and roll around and I could watch her go get it. But then that got boring.
So I lost interest (and I think maybe she gave up too). If I can’t make her catch the ring and give me a treat … then what’s the point of this game?
Suddenly, quite out of the blue, it dawned on me!
Maybe I could make sure she caught it.
Rather than depending on her apparently very poor hand-eye coordination, and simply hoping she’d catch it, maybe I could move the ring and put it directly into her hand. No more dropping the ring.
Now I move my entire body to deposit the ring in her palm, even take a few steps toward her if I have to: she gives me the ring with one hand, I take it and place it in her open palm. She’s so lazy now that she sees what I’m doing … she’s not even making any attempt to put her hand near the ring; in fact, I have to take more and more steps to make sure she catches it. But at least now I know the trick to getting my treat!
I am SO smart!
Update: She’s making it even harder for me now. She’s gotten so lazy that she’s not even handing me the ring anymore… I have to fetch it myself and hand it to her. Good lord, she just keeps making me work harder and harder!
Here’s some video of me figuring things out:
4 Comments
August 12, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Very funny and congrats. It took my parrot weeks to pick up on that trick. Or I guess it took me that long to get it.
August 18, 2009 at 8:32 pm
so cute!!
what are you using for treats?
August 19, 2009 at 8:38 am
We use safflower seeds for training. They are yummy, but small enough that I don’t take too long to eat them. I like sunflower and pumpking seeds better, but I spend too much time on them, which slows down the flow of training and fills me up too fast. I will hard to keep the safflower seeds coming.
September 2, 2009 at 9:45 am
Hiya Mika, have you tried getting your human to use Pine Nuts as an incentive? The nice-lady-who-feeds-me uses those. She is trying to teach me to “step up” and to “come” and uses half a pine nut. She really makes me work for those little tastees. They are such a scrumptious morsel… My toddler likes them too. Some times we share a snack!
-Gidget