Gimme four

Rocky is learning "gimme four" (he doesn't have "five", LOL) and it's actually working! My method of "training" a bird is to find something they do anyway and attach a verbal cue to it, so when Rocky was waving his foot around the other day wanting to step up, I touched it with my open palm and said "Gimme four!" and made a HUGE fuss about how smart he is. After he got over wondering how his mama could have gone so completely insane so suddenly, I held out my palm and said it again, and he reached out (still wanting to step up) and I made a huge fuss again. He liked the fuss, and put up his crest and bounced and yelled and we had fun. I've repeated this a few times and now the crest is coming up when I say "gimme four" and he seems to grasp that we're doing this on purpose. Hubby says the birds are training ME, and he's probably right.