Lewy training the dog and tattling macaws

[iggysbirds]

Hi!

How many of your CAGs have trained your dog? We have a little chihuahua/jack russell mix that has been trained and knows how to beg. Well Lewy thought it was neat to watch him I guess. Lewy will whistle for Sparky to come over. When Sparky comes over he gives a different type of whistle and Sparky will sit up to beg. After he begs Lewy drops him a piece of food. Sparky doesn't seem to care what type of food he gives him whether it is a pellet, a piece of fruit or a veggie,he eats it anyway. So now we say Lewy has his own pet dog! Don't worry we still don't let them be together unsupervised. Sparky goes into his "playroom" while Lewy comes out to play. Our other birds don't really seem to mind if Sparky is around or not.

Then in the Sanctuary we have our watch birds. The macaws have decided they are they caretakers of all the other animals. We had an Argentinian b&w Tegu who escaped out of the quarantine cage and Juji who escaped after the sulcata tore a small hole in her cage with his "spurs" on separate occassions. On both occassions the macaws "tattled" on them. They hollered extremely loud and then when I went to check on what was bothering them (they usually don't scream) they were walking around flapping. Then Gajee started shouting "Here, here, here!" Sure enought Juji had managed to climb up on top of an nearby cage and they wanted me to know she was there! When the tegu escaped and I went to check they wouldn't say anything just flap their wings. I discovered that they knew she had escaped but that they hadn't seen where so they couldn't tell me! When the macaws are out or other animals are in their cages or even out with our supervision the macaws won't scream or act like it bothers them in any way but if the others escape they tattle!

Sorry to ramble on I just thought it was interesting.

Stephanie
IIRBS

[Franciscus]

Great stories Stephanie,

It just goes to show how intelligent these birds are. I heard a story of someones quaker who didn't like being covered up at night, he would call the dog over, the dog would pull off the cover and the bird would give him a peanut.

Frank