Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsd!bamford
From: bamford@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (harold.e.bamford)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Steve Martin Bird Videos?
Message-ID: <12787@cbnewsd.ATT.COM>
Date: 19 Jan 90 19:18:16 GMT
References: <12752@cbnewsd.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: bamford@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (harold.e.bamford,ihp,)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 28

In article <12752@cbnewsd.ATT.COM> heneghan@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (joseph.t.heneghan) writes:
>In a recent Bird Talk magazine, there was an advertisement for 2 
>Steve Martin Bird Videos: 1 was taming and training, the other was
>more for entertainment and included flights of raptors. Has anyone seen
>these videos?

I saw *A* tape by Steve Martin on taming and training of parrots.  It
was interesting and informative.  He trained several parrots to do
some simple tricks (e.g., kissing the trainer to get a seed).  He
trained them in real time, from the bird clearly not knowing the
trick to successfully performing the trick in 15 minutes.  Pretty
amazing.

Oddly enough, Mr. Martin does *NOT* approve of parrots as pets!

I tried to train our macaw (hand fed) to "wave 'bye 'bye" but
either I was not doing something correctly, or these techniques do
not work on hand-fed birds.  Pandora (the macaw) started to learn
the behavior but then abruptly stopped before training was
completed.  Probably thought I was teasing her.  Well, that's
OK.  She's a friend even if she doesn't perform tricks like a
trained dog!

I would suggest renting the tape (from a pet store) rather than
purchasing it.  We borrowed the tape from a pet store with no
charge.  Of course, we buy a lot of bird toys and such from them...

-- Harold