The Complete Cockatiel Training Album doesn’t tell you how to train your cockatiel. It’s a record that does the training for you.
On one side are whistled snippets of Pop Goes the Weasel, Oh Susannah and other such songs repeated twelve times in a row. On the flip side, a woman’s voice repeats the same short phrases over and over and over. Her voice is looped, so the phrases are said — sung, you could say — with exactly the same lilt each time, exactly the same lilt each time. It’s easier for the bird to learn that way. You just put the record on and the training happens automatically.
I don’t have a pet cockatiel, but I have to say, I’ve been enjoying the record immensely. And now I can speak like a bird! I still have a long way to go before I’m fully fluent in cockatiel, but I’ve got Hello Baby, I Love You, Hello Baby I Love You, Hey Good Looking, Want To Play With Me? and Hey Good Looking I Love You Want To Play With Me? pretty much down pat.