BirdTricks

Teaching Jinx to stick out his tongue! 👅

Added 2024-09-03 15:00:03 +0000 UTC

In today's training session I decided to teach Jinx to stick his tongue out!

The training technique I am using for this is called "capturing". Capturing just means to wait for a behavior to happen, and then capture it by rewarding it with a treat soon after the behavior happened so the bird begins to offer that behavior more, realizing every time I do "this" I get "that". This = behavior, that = treat.

Often times it's best to use a clicker to capture behaviors to really get your bird's attention. It can take birds different amounts of time to figure out what they're being rewarded for, but as they begin to offer it more you will know they're understanding. In order to use this technique, your bird has to offer a behavior you want naturally.

A bird sticking its tongue out is a natural behavior but doesn't occur that often. So often times with capturing we are seeking ways to elicit these behaviors. For me, it was giving a spray bath and letting Jinx lick the water on his beak or in the air. When I saw he did this, I immediately told him "good" and rewarded, then ran and grabbed the camera to film the rest! Hope this was fun to watch and gives you some ideas on how to train cute things to your bird.