Training Your Pet Bird

If the only animal training you have done in the past has been with a dog then you need to stop right now and rethink everything you know about animal training! Dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years. Most birds have never been "domesticated" Dogs are always seeing to the leader of the pack, following his or her lead and trying to please them. Parrots on the other hand see themselves as your equal. Their greatest delight is not to do exactly what you say when you say it in hopes of pleasing their "pack leader". They are constantly trying to frame out ways to operate You, through their behaviours and actions. Unlike dogs they don't work to please you, they work to please themselves. So in order to teach your bird a few desirable behaviours you need to work at being smarted than he is and convincing him that it was his idea in the first place!

Bird trainers use food as a reward, which is one of the things birds care about most. Because of this you should probably schedule training sessions before feeding your feathered friend. That way he will be extra motivated to receive the treat or reward that you give him.

Roller Skates Shops

Assuming you are beginning out with a handfed bird that is already reasonably tame, how can you teach your bird a few tricks? clear reinforcement is the trick. So long as you are specific never to teach the bird something that could jeopardize his health, tricks can only increase your enjoyment of your bird and the number of time you spend together.

The first step in teaching any kind of trick is to consideration a natural behaviour that can be modified admittedly into a trick. You may consideration that your bird loves to push his food nearby in his dish before he eats it. If so then your bird has already started doing a fun slight trick, it is just up to you to teach him to modify it a bit, and make it more elaborate. You can buy a slight wooden parrot wagon (often ready at larger pet stores that carry a good choice of bird toys) or you can use a slight die-cast hot wheels type car, and teach him to change the pushing habit onto the toy by loading it down with a slight bit of food. You can offer him a reward or treat, when he gets the behaviour you want right. And don't forget to name the trick . For example say "Push the wagon (car)" every time he does it. Soon he will learn to do this on command. Remember that treats such as sunflower seeds work great as training rewards but can be very fattening so they should not constitute the basis of your birds diet! After a time your bird will begin to push without the advantage of the wagon or car having any food on it.

In the beginning it might take a while for you and your bird to admittedly learn to communicate. But once your bird learns that acting a clear way both makes brings a reward and gives him extra attentiveness from you, his flock mate, he will get much faster at learning new tricks. learning to preform tricks can also help lasting pluckers. Sometimes birds that pluck are just plain bored! They often come to be the best performers, and the plucking is alleviated as a by-product of having something new to do.

Teaching "Stick 'em up" is also quite easy. When you first take your bird out of its cage they will often stretch their wings level up over their heads. When he does this point your finger at him (like a gun) and say "Stick 'em up" or "Put 'em up". After a week or two of doing this every time you see the bird stretch he will start to do it on command. If you find it helps you can offer a reward, but for a trick this easy to learn it is often not necessary.

Some other tricks that are easy modifications of general parrot behaviour include:

• Offering a foot to shake hands
• Hopping (dancing or pretending to be wind-up toy)
• Bobbing its head(Answering yes)
• Raising its crest
• Flapping its wings (soaring like eagle, escaping the police, etc.)
• Swinging head side to side (saying no)
• Stomping feet (dancing)
• Hanging from feet or beak from its perch or your hands. (acrobatics, or swinging upside down)
• Lying on its back (play dead, or roll over)

This is not a wide list of tricks that your pet parrot could learn, the sky (and your patience) is the limit. Playing with his natural tendencies and coordinating them with your verbal commands, you can find a virtually limitless repertoire within your bird's natural behaviour. We have all seen macaws dunking basketballs, and cockatoos roller-skating. Be sure to be on the look out, the next time you go shopping for parrot toys, for things to use as props in production your parrot's performance "Star Quality" And don't forget to make it fun! Keep your lessons short 10 to 30 minutes. You can have more than one training session per day, if you would like to reinforce the day's chapter and expand faster. Most importantly always end each session on a clear note. End with a behaviour that your parrot can do well and will earn your praise and a reward.

Training Your Pet Bird