- Hey guys, I want to show you
this awesome and adorable new trick
that I taught Widget on accident.
(upbeat music)
Flip.
(clicker)
Oh my god!
You're so good!
How smart you are!
Flip.
(clicker)
Good girl!
So here's the deal.
Here's what happened.
I was filming a confessional part of
one of my previous videos about Widget
and she just sort of offered this behavior
where she saw that I had some treats down low.
And so she completely flipped herself upside down
and then crawled back up the other way around
making this cute little somersault slash flip thingy
on my finger.
And I was like, whoa, that was cool.
Could you do that again?
Can you do it again?
That was awesome.
Do a flip around.
Good.
Lo and behold, she did do it again.
And so I had this impromptu training session
and every so often I would have these training sessions
just because that's what would happen.
I tend to keep treats around
just in case I need her to do something special,
like come here.
And so these impromptu training sessions were happening
and then they became really formal.
And I started really working on this as an actual trick.
And I think it's adorable.
I will say it's very caique esque to do this
right from your finger.
I taught Blueberry, my budgie, a kind of, I don't
I don't know what I want to call it.
It's like a
a variation of this
where she just goes upside down on my finger.
But it's a little bit different
because I do hold her feet
as part of the cue that she's going upside down.
And I actually flipped her upside down
instead of her doing it.
So there's a lot of variations you can do
with this sort of training.
A lot of my birds
like my blue-throated macaw
and my Congo African grey.
They flip themselves upside down on my finger
while my galah, Bondi,
she's one of the first birds I taught the bat to
and I actually flipped her upside down.
So I just think it's really cool when an animal does it.
And so that's what this trick looks like with Widget.
I think it's really cute.
So I'm going to walk you through all my training sessions
of what it looked like to train her this trick.
So she's naturally been going on her back for day.
He's just like a bolder interactor person than I am.
Okay. You ready?
Upside down.
Good job!
And caiques are just easier at this upside down business
cause they're just naturally playful.
Do it again.
Upside down.
Ready?
Oh, it's okay.
Upside down.
Got you.
Yeah! Good job!
So right now she's just reaching for it.
But eventually,
eventually we hope to train it.
She's outta here.
Come over here.
Want you on this finger.
Ready?
No, no, no. You messing it up.
I know.
It's so frustrating.
Frustrating. Okay.
Ready?
We messed that up.
We totally messed that up.
Oh, she's not even in the frame.
Cause you moved.
Okay. You turn around.
Good job.
Okay. So do you remember this one?
Back up.
Good job!
Good girl!
Did so good.
Can I have a kiss?
Kiss?
Nope. Okay.
We're going to work on flip.
Good. Good job.
You're doing it.
Do it again.
Good!
(clicker)
Good job!
You're doing it.
Yeah. Go for it.
Oh, that's cheating.
That is so...
There you go.
Good. I'm gonna need a clicker
but a poop on my pants from you.
Good!
Okay. Can you switch hands real quick?
I gotta wipe this poop you did off.
She's getting into a rhythm though.
No, we got to stay turned around.
Turn around.
There we go.
Good job!
Yep.
Good girl!
You're doing so good Widget.
Can you do it on your own?
Nope. You're in the wrong spot.
You're ridiculous.
Which,
which messed it up.
You messed it up.
You totally messed it up.
That's your own fault.
Yep. Go around.
Good girl!
Good job!
Do it again.
Yeah. Go, go, go, go.
Good girl!
Yeah. Go for it.
Good!
Can you do it?
Darn.
Good girl!
It's like an ab workout.
Yep, go for it.
Good!
You go, do it on your own.
Oh come on, do it on your own.
Do it on your own.
Go back up.
Up, up, up.
Good girl.
Good job, Widget!
You did it!
No, you mess up your footing.
That's cheating.
Does not it.
It has to be on this finger.
Yep. You do it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Good girl!
Flip, flip.
Come on.
Up, up, up.
Good girl.
She'd probably be calling us pretty soon.
Oh, come on.
Up, up.
Good!
Last one.
Last treat.
Make it a good one.
Good girl!
Let's give you a few of these.
So part of the thing
that you need to be consistent about
is asking the same behavior with the same setup.
So the setup for me is just having one finger out.
Normally, I hold birds with like kind of my whole hand out.
So it's really important that for this
if I'm going to be communicating to her
that I want to work on this,
then I just take those other fingers in
so that she has a clear pathway to really flip under.
Okay. So I'm going to see
if I can get her to do it without seeing food.
And she's showing absolutely no interest
in understanding what I want.
So I'm going to show her food.
Keep coming.
Good.
Okay.
So that was a pretty big reward
but it's just getting her started.
So I think it's okay in this instance
but I'm going to try to keep them a little bit smaller.
Okay.
This time I'm going to show her the treat
and then I'm going to subtly put it down
so that she can't see it the whole time.
I'm going to show it to her.
I'm pretending I have it in my hand.
Come on.
Nope.
She's not ready for that.
All right.
No, you're moving.
Don't do it that way.
Make sure you only work in one direction.
Otherwise, it can be quite confusing.
Good girl!
Good job!
Now I wish I could use the clicker
but because I'm having to lure right now, I can't hold both.
Good girl!
And the big thing with this trick
along with other types of tricks too
that are similar to this
where you're really counting on momentum
and getting them in assignment says
where they understand what you're doing
and they start offering it.
Good job!
So this time I'm going to see
if I can trick her
and have the clicker in my hand instead.
Come on.
She's like, wait a minute.
That's not it.
Come on, come on.
Darn it.
Okay. So still too early to be tricking.
(background noises)
Good girl!
And as you can hear, we have distractions
with kiddos playing outside and coming inside
and all the things, but she's doing awesome.
Good girl!
Good job, Widget!
(background noises)
(laughter)
Alright.
Ready?
Good girl!
That time, she got a sunflower seed
which I was able to successfully hide.
I'm going to see again
if I can do it with the clicker.
Come on.
Widg!
Nope.
I don't have a treat in my hand.
(clicker)
There we go.
Hold on a sec.
Okay. I'm going to try that again,
but be a little bit better and graceful about it.
So I no longer have a treat in my hand.
I just pretend I do.
(clicker)
Good.
And then I grab the treat and present it.
So pretty awesome.
At least I've gotten the treat out of my hand.
Okay.
(clicker)
Good.
And I'm able to get my hand out of the way
to be less of the cue the entire time
to be able to get to the clicker faster.
So that's pretty awesome too.
(clicker)
Good job.
Good job, Widget!
So I'm going to wait this time
and see if she does it on her own.
Do it on your own.
(clicker)
So she wasn't going to quite do it on her own.
So it just gave her a little bit of help.
Not there yet.
Go ahead.
Do it, do it, do it.
Nope. She won't do it without the clicker in my hand.
Turn around, turn around.
What are you doing?
Are you just going to do it with one foot?
That's gonna be so hard.
(background noises)
I know we got so many distractions.
I probably should've ended already.
Are you all done?
Darn it.
I lost ya.
(background noises)
Okay. So that was a great example
of a session that went a little too long
and I should've ended earlier
than she ended it, but she did fantastic.
And keep in mind that I'm training her after breakfast.
She's had her fill.
I'm keeping her on a heavier weight just overall.
And so the treats are just, they're good enough
for training, but they're not probably getting me
as far as I would normally be accustomed
to them getting me.
So realizing that, remembering that
for myself is going to be really really important
because she doesn't have as high
of a motivation because of the food stuff.
So, which is okay.
And also the kids are right out the window.
So now she's watching them play.
So, lots of distractions.
Can we end on, on a good one?
Can we end on one more?
I don't, I feel like she's not doing it.
So unfortunately I had to regress back to
to end on one on my terms,
just as far as regressed back.
I mean, I had to hold the treat in my hand
and show it to her
and completely go back to Lorin, which I prefer not to.
So there's a couple of different options there.
I could've just like left it where she ended it
or ended on that one.
But...
What do you do?
What do you do, Widget?
What are you doing?
We can be done.
Just hang out.
You did so good.
(clicker)
Good girl!
- I already kissed back.
- Keep going.
(clicker)
Ready?
Flip!
(clicker)
Flip!
(clicker)
Good job.
Do you know what to do?
(clicker)
Good job!
She did that one on her own.
Flip.
(clicker)
Dave!
She just did that one all by herself!
No for voguing.
Oh my gosh.
Flip.
(clicker)
Did you see it?
- Yeah!
- So good!
Good job, Widget!
Flip.
(clicker)
Oh my god!
You're so good!
How smart you are!
Flip.
(clicker)
Good girl!
Oh man, this is so good.
You flip?
(clicker)
Good job, Widg!
Oh, you're going again man.
Yeah. You get a bunch of that.
That's so good.
Flip.
(clicker)
Good job!
- Flip.
All right!
Flip.
Good job.
- Gabriel, you wanna try?
- What?
- Do you want to get Widget to get to flip for you?
- Sure.
- She's just going.
- Okay, so
tell her flip.
- Flip.
My finger is smaller.
- Yeah it is.
- That's why.
- Tell her.
- Flip.
Flip.
- Yeah, good job!
- It hurts my finger now.
- Okay I'll get her.
- Now trick training and these cool little tricks
aren't just about human entertainment and hey
my bird does these cute little tricks for me
and for my own entertainment.
They are more about building your bond with your bird.
They're fun games you can play with your bird
that make your relationship better in the longterm
and also make it so that other people outside
of your circle can have a relationship with this bird.
Now remember most birds outlive us.
So it is likely that your bird is going to be passed on
to someone else and it should have the tools
to be adaptable to those people in the future.
So trick training is a great way to go about it.
I highly recommend it.
And if you're interested in just like diving in deep
to trick training and some fun bond building games,
make sure to check out my advanced trick training course.
I'll leave a link below.
Hey you, cute little stinkers.
Just talking about you.
I was just talking about you.
Do you want to work on some training?
I got to go get some treats.