We still miss this little bird....He was a good example of what training meant.
When we first got Baby Bird, he was only about a month old and didn’t have his long tail and wing feathers. He was so cute! Bobby was wearing cowboy boots an...d he would hold his foot up to the cage and Baby Bird would try to sing and whistle.
When he learned how to do that, every time Bobby would stick the toe of his boot up there, Baby Bird would start singing and when he learned to ‘talk’, he would say “Give me sugar” and he would “kiss” the toes of his boot. Since then he learned lots of sentences: “Whatcha doing?" "What’s your problem?" "Gonna get a cup of coffee." "Got to go to work, be back in a little while"...and a few others. He was a very intelligent little cockatiel because he observed the circumstances of when we said something and he would fit it in with the right circumstance. For instance, one time I knocked a skillet off the stove and I said, "Oh man!" and he said "What's your problem!"
Well at 12 years old he still loved Bobby's boots. When he had them on… Baby Bird’s eyes would follow them. When he'd be sitting on Bobby’s shoulder, he would almost fall off trying to look down to see those boots. He loved Bobby’s boots so much that when he changed into his walking shoes, it upset him. I don’t think any kind of “peer pressure” could have made Baby Bird like loafers, house shoes, high heels or walking shoes better than he liked those boots…that first item in his infant-hood!
This started me to thinking about our children. If a little 1 month old cockatiel can be so influenced by a pair of boots…what about our children? Those little dear ones, who come to us as a tiny bundle, pure and clean and with no heavy baggage of pre-conceived ideas…and they are like little sponges willing to soak up everything in their environment…and soon they learn to talk and to walk and we have them as long as 18 years or more right under our own roof!
How much more could we train and influence our little children, who can learn to converse with us and bond with us and have a natural affection for us and who can learn from the examples we set? I don’t believe that any person can come into their lives and so influence them to the point that they forsake their values…if those first items in their lives (mother and daddy) do their jobs!
So…where have we failed our little ones in America? At what point in time did we quit trying…and let their teenage peers and the schools and society…take over for us and start blaming them for our failure?
When we first got Baby Bird, he was only about a month old and didn’t have his long tail and wing feathers. He was so cute! Bobby was wearing cowboy boots an...d he would hold his foot up to the cage and Baby Bird would try to sing and whistle.
When he learned how to do that, every time Bobby would stick the toe of his boot up there, Baby Bird would start singing and when he learned to ‘talk’, he would say “Give me sugar” and he would “kiss” the toes of his boot. Since then he learned lots of sentences: “Whatcha doing?" "What’s your problem?" "Gonna get a cup of coffee." "Got to go to work, be back in a little while"...and a few others. He was a very intelligent little cockatiel because he observed the circumstances of when we said something and he would fit it in with the right circumstance. For instance, one time I knocked a skillet off the stove and I said, "Oh man!" and he said "What's your problem!"
Well at 12 years old he still loved Bobby's boots. When he had them on… Baby Bird’s eyes would follow them. When he'd be sitting on Bobby’s shoulder, he would almost fall off trying to look down to see those boots. He loved Bobby’s boots so much that when he changed into his walking shoes, it upset him. I don’t think any kind of “peer pressure” could have made Baby Bird like loafers, house shoes, high heels or walking shoes better than he liked those boots…that first item in his infant-hood!
This started me to thinking about our children. If a little 1 month old cockatiel can be so influenced by a pair of boots…what about our children? Those little dear ones, who come to us as a tiny bundle, pure and clean and with no heavy baggage of pre-conceived ideas…and they are like little sponges willing to soak up everything in their environment…and soon they learn to talk and to walk and we have them as long as 18 years or more right under our own roof!
How much more could we train and influence our little children, who can learn to converse with us and bond with us and have a natural affection for us and who can learn from the examples we set? I don’t believe that any person can come into their lives and so influence them to the point that they forsake their values…if those first items in their lives (mother and daddy) do their jobs!
So…where have we failed our little ones in America? At what point in time did we quit trying…and let their teenage peers and the schools and society…take over for us and start blaming them for our failure?
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