Cocoa has made amazing progress...the first two days, she had the targetting down very well. I had her running all around her cage to touch the target and she goes for it without hesitation (her favorite treat i use is pieces of wheat bread). i have progressed her to using a prop - a wooden ring.

the first day, she was grabbing with her beak and touching it wonderfully. then i think i pushed her a bit too much and she got frustrated...i hoped to have her HOLD onto the ring in her beak, but when she attempted it, she immediately dropped it and i didnt praise or reward her for it. then she just sat there and looked at me like "where's the reward, lady?!". i even put the ring back up infront of her and she didn't move...

i moved to another area of her cage, she followed and i presented her the ring again...she grabbed it and immediately dropped it. i didn't reward her. she probably started getting a little frustrated, wondering why i wasn't giving her, her bread. so i went back to targetting the stick again so that i could reward her, and she did that great.

i started the ring thing again the next day and she held it the first attempt! i praised her HIGHLY and gave her TWO pieces of bread. i stopped for a bit and tried again...she held it a bit longer than immediately dropping it (just a bit, though) and i praised her AS she was holding the ring, so maybe she is slowly getting the picture. my husband attempted having her hold the ring while i was out of the room and doing something else and she HELD IT...i mean HELD IT for a loooonnnnnnggggg time. the only bad thing? my husband praised her the WRONG time. he praised her after she dropped it. i told him this and he realized his mistake so he tried again and she held it again! and this time he praised her the right time. :-) so i think we are making progress on this part. i will continue this for another 2 - 3 days, depending on Cocoa's patience and actions. after this, i will see if i can have her PLACE the ring into something like a bowl or over a peg.

Cocoa has been really great...she doesn't want to be scritched yet, but that's okay. she is a well-behaved bird (of course as long as you can read the body language. :-D) and I have only been bitten once. and that wasn't even that bad.

She continues to talk and when she gets really excited, she will start singing and whistling the "i left my heart in san francisco" tune. she has also started to sound like another foster bird we have. the same "voice" when saying "hello" and "hi, hi". its hard to tell them apart except for the direction in where the "voice" is coming from (two different rooms). she sometimes says "hi bob" or "hi robert"...she knows that saying "hi cocoa" will completely get my attention, so now whenever i am eating something she wants a taste of, she will say "hi cocoa!" and for some reason, that just melts me down. understand that cocoa was not the name she came with when she entered the care of mickaboo...therefore she has only known this name for - at most - 6 months! and she says it VERY well.

well, she'll either say "whatcha doing?" or "hi cocoa" to get my attention...both work equally well...for now. ;-)