Encouraging Talking outside of the closet...

Lucy with mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving.

Today I am focusing on Lucy, the Congo African Grey.  She is a big "closet talker," meaning she talks when no one is in the room  While she can turn-around, wave, kiss, target, flap her wings, and tolerate "mama touch" on command, talking upon request hasn't happened... so far!

The past two weeks we have been practicing "hello."  I leave the room and say "hello," to her and basically she says "hello" a lot, but only gets a nut when she actually "answers" me AFTER I've said hello.  Her "answers" have always been random and it takes a lot of work to say hello, listen, holler "good girl," and then run like a chicken into her with a treat.

Today it is beginning to pay off... a little.  While she is busy saying "hello" about every three seconds, she has been successfully "answering my hello" within 10 seconds... every time!  If I reinforce this behavior regularly, I'm pretty sure I can have her "answering" when I am in the room with her in short order.  (:  Can't wait!

BTW, my neck and shoulders are really stiff and sore and I couldn't figure out why.  <%  Lucy got a new HUGE cage which I had to struggle to un-box and put together myself 36 hours ago.  Now the pain is tolerable because Lucy is soooooooo happy in her enormous cage!  She is a big girl and very actively travels around her whole cage several times a day.  Sometimes "pain" is the sign of a positive.