Think of training your parrot this way; every interaction you have with your bird is a training session, whether you like it or not. In that time you are either doing something to increase the likelihood your bird is going to repeat that current behavior it's showing or decrease the likelihood through your actions.
For example, if every time your bird comes out with person A and always goes back into the cage with person B, it's likely the bird will be eager to see person A and bond more strongly to that person than person B. It's also likely the bird will begin to resist going to person B by ignoring or running/flying away and later that behavior escalates to lunging and biting.
With a basic understanding in parrot training person B could easily avoid or repair this situation with any of the following training methods:
- Target training the bird back into cage
- Randomly rewarding the bird for going back into the cage
- Applying the 60/40 rule
When people are just getting started in training their bird, there's two important tools we ask them to master first.
You will use these again and again, they're more powerful than I can express. Make sure these are trained to 100% consistency because these will be the foundation of your training.
There's one thing that gives most parrot owners a hang up on training and that's finding the proper reward (remember, it doesn't have to be food and variety is the key to success!) so lets talk about food motivation.
Once you are armed with your 3 fundamental tools of your bird's favorite treat (one he/she is willing to work for), your clicker (and your bird's understanding of its meaning) and your target stick - you are fully capable of "adding and deleting" behaviors your bird displays.
If you want to see that behavior repeated, reward it!
If you don't want to see that behavior again, ignore it.
These are the basics. You can get into things like shaping a behavior - which means to take a behavior like a bird who scratches its head and shape it into a bird who waves on cue. Here's an example of this with an Alexandrian parrot I trained using this very method (and still in the training phase in the video!)
For more parrot training, trouble shooting and advanced parrot training resources:
28 comments
Hi i think i have watched every video on u tube you have ever done. But i will be bringing home a baby hand reared yna soon and wish to ask dos and dont when i bring him/her home. Do i put in cage and leave or try to bond although been arround humans the breader grabbed him out the cage for me to see amd hold but i don’t like how it was brought out the cage i want my bird to step out not be grabbed
Absolutely love your videos and knowledge about birds. Later in life I’ve come into possession of a Sun Conure who was living in a difficult situation. She lives with me now. I search YouTube for information and found bird tricks. Thank you thank you thank you. When I was younger I trained horses and the methods are the same the parent behavior is a little different. I’m learning to read the body language. However my bird just like my horses startled at things New and different or an item they are familiar with that was in a different place and had to be desensitized or just be around the object and learn that it wouldn’t hurt them. This bird, like my horses, just wants to be safe and happy. Once At clinic, we did an exercise and at the end observed which horse is returned to their owner. Tthe horses that returned to their owners went back to the leader of the herd and the person they felt safe with. In my experience, thus far, it may be the same thing with birds. I can tell when my sun conure, Lily, is becoming frightened or apprehensive by her body movements. I could talk all day about training birds and horses but let me just say thank you thank you thank you for all of your videos. I will be buying product in the near future. I have not found a better resource. I think you are a rockstar‘s in the parrot world and your star stars will climb higher and higher because you’ve got the knowledge experience and continue to learn. By the way your daughter is precious I enjoyed just watching her interact with the birds also. Thank you! Lady LADYE@ROCKETMAIL.COM
I love birds
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