Answered by Steve Martin & Staff:

Hello Mary! My name is Chris Jenkins, and I am one of the Senior Avian Trainers at Natural Encounters, Inc. I recently received your question about training your budgie, and I'd be happy to help make some suggestions.

First off, I'd like to commend you for seeking to further your knowledge of training and to continue to grow your relationship with your bird. It sounds like the two of you already have a great relationship, and it's great that you want to try to find a way to make it even better. At Natural Encounters, Inc., we strive to train all of our animals through a system of positive reinforcement -- put simply, whenever an animal does something that we like, we make sure that animal gets a reward (or, as you put it, giving the animal "rewards when he acts as requested"). If the animal does something else or chooses not to do the desired behavior, we simply ignore it and try again later. Too many people attempt to teach their animals to do things using punishment, and, while it can be effective in some situations and can produce results, it can be confusing, frustrating, and (in its worst form) painful for the animal, and produces a wide variety of unwanted side affects. That you understand the importance of positive reinforcement puts you one step ahead of many pet owners, and should provide the backbone of all the training that you do with Pepito.

Here at Natural Encounters, Inc., we like to think of "training" as something that occurs each and every time we interact with an animal. Training, in its most basic form, occurs when an animal learns to direct its behavior in such a way as to receive a desired consequence. Without really realizing it, you've been training your bird since the day it came into your home! All of the things that you've listed above -- approaching you as you move near the cage, stepping on your hand, flying to you -- are all behaviors that your bird has learned to perform. Many of the questions that we receive from companion bird owners are requests about how to get their birds to do the things your bird is already doing -- give yourself a pat on the back, because you've already taught your bird more than many companion birds learn to do in their lifetimes!

What it sounds like you are looking for is where to start with a more formal system of training, where you are setting goals for a behavior you want and then trying to figure out how best to go about the process of teaching those behaviors. I can give you insight into how we do this with our animals, and I think you'll find that the same system can be highly effective for you as well.

When we set out to train a behavior, we first have to define what the final behavior will look like. Behavior, by definition, is anything that can be observed, so we try to be as specific as possible -- for example, "I want the bird to walk over and grab a string and shake it with its beak to make it ring a bell." The better we can define the behavior itself, the easier it will be for us to break the behavior down into smaller approximations, the "baby steps" that the bird will take until it is performing the final behavior from start to finish.

In any training, it's important to be able to tell your bird when it is doing something right. Depending on the behavior that is being performed, it may be difficult for you to give Pepito a treat at the exact moment that he is doing what you want him to be rewarded for. In order to let our birds know when they have done something right, we at Natural Encounters, Inc., use what we call a "bridge," normally a quick verbal "good!" The use of the bridge tells the bird that what they have done at that exact moment was good, and that a treat is on its way. It is called a bridge because it "bridges" the gap in time between when the desired behavior has occurred and when the animal actually gets its reward for doing it. When we say "good!" to our birds, it is the same as when a dog trainer makes a clicking noise with a clicker, or when a marine mammal trainer blows their high-pitched whistle.

As far as what to use as a reward during your training, only your bird can tell you what it likes. Many parakeet owners I have talked to say that their birds like millet above all other treats, while others prefer small seed treats you can find at most pet stores. It should be noted, however, that some birds seem to ignore food treats altogether and instead prefer the presence of their favorite person or toy as a reward. Since your bird eats from your hand it should be no problem getting him to take treats from you during training, although if your bird likes being handled, then a small scratch may be an equally effective reward as well.

As for what to train your bird, the possibilities are only limited by what your bird is physically capable of doing, and by your own imagination! If there is a particular activity that your bird enjoys doing, using that as a starting point may be a great way to get things started. For example, if there's a particular toy or object that your bird likes to play with, you might start out by bridging and reinforcing Pepito every time he touches his beak to that object. This is what is known as target training. When an animal learns that it gets a treat when it touches a particular object with a particular part of its body, you can start to move this object (or "target") around, and the bird will likely move to where the object is in order to be able to touch it and earn a treat. Target training can be the basis of a wide variety of behaviors - going from point A to point B, maneuvering through a maze or obstacle course, or turning around in a circle can all be taught by using target training. The key is to think about what small steps need to be performed in order for the whole behavior to occur, and then training these smaller steps one at a time, only moving ahead when the animal is performing the current step each time without hesitation. One of the nice things about breaking behaviors into steps is that if for some reason during your training you find that Pepito gets lost, confused, or frustrated, all you need to do is go back a step or two until he's back on track again.

Another method of training is what is known as capturing. Instead of teaching an animal to perform a behavior by teaching it in small steps, capturing consists of taking a behavior that the animal is already doing on its own, and then trying to put that behavior on cue so it can be performed when you request it. For example, there may be a particular sound or whistle that you've heard Pepito make in the past. In order to get this behavior on cue, any time you hear him make that sound, immediately bridge the behavior (that is, say "good!"), and then give him a treat. From doing this over and over, the bird will likely figure out the connection between this behavior and the treats that you're giving, and will likely begin to offer it more often. You may notice that every time Pepito makes the desired noise, beforehand he flaps his wings or does some sort of behavior just before the noise is about to occur. This is a good time to present whatever cue you want him to learn, maybe a certain gesture of the hand or you saying the word "sing". When you see this first behavior, you can give your cue, bridge after the noise is presented, and then walk over and provide the reinforcement. It sounds like a lot, but with practice it becomes very second nature -- the basic order is 1) present cue, 2) behavior is performed, 3) present the bridge ("good!"), 4) present the reward. This will, of course, take some practice for both of you, but sticking with it and just doing it over and over again is the best way to cement in your bird's mind exactly what it is that you're looking for.

Another behavior that a lot of people like to train is to teach the bird to wave. While the behavior itself seems fairly simple, training it can be a fairly detailed process. There are many ways to do this, and I'll share with you how we do it with our birds. You mentioned that your bird steps on your finger. This is the where we start with our birds. When we present a hand for a bird to step on, the first thing they will do is lift a foot up. As soon as we see this, we gently pull our hand away, say "good!" and then give them a treat. This behavior of picking up the foot is the start of a very crude wave, and a great beginning. We then repeat this process again and again (present hand, watch foot go up, pull away hand, bridge and reinforce; present hand, watch foot go up and then maybe down a little, bridge and reinforce; etc, etc) until we are getting what looks to us like a wave. Budgies are very small and very quick, so you'll have to be equally quick and accurate in the timing of your bridging while you do this, otherwise your bird may think that it's simply supposed to jump to your finger. At the same time, we want to make sure that in training this new behavior we do not end up simply punishing the behavior of actually stepping up, as this is something we still want the bird to do when we ask for it. Because of this, as soon as you are confident that the bird understands the concept of putting the foot up to gain reinforcement, you'll then want to start changing the cue to something other than just bringing your hand in (we often do this by introducing a small "wiggle" of the finger on the hand we are presenting, and then with each repetition making the wiggle bigger while at the same time fading out the original cue by not bringing the hand itself in as close anymore). By presenting this new cue from a slightly farther distance, we help clarify our communication to the bird about what it is that we are asking for (i.e. -- a stable finger close up means "step up", while a wiggling finger further away means "wave").

Once the bird learns that your new cue means "foot up", you might be able to get a bigger wave by only bridging and reinforcing Pepito for waves that are at least as big as a larger criteria than what you were accepting before. This process takes advantage of what is known as an "extinction burst." The extinction burst happens when an animal, in seeing that it's no longer getting reinforcement for performing a behavior at a level at which it used to get reinforced for, will make a larger, more robust attempt at the behavior before giving up. An example of this phenomenon in the human world might be raising your voice to get someone's attention: you first say "Hey..." and get no response, so then you offer a slightly louder "HEY..." and still get no response, so you then holler "HEEEYYY!!!" If you don't get a response after that, you might simply give up. In Pepito's case, he might make a small wave once and not get a response, then another small wave and not get a response, and then try a slightly bigger wave to see if that works. If he then gets bridged and reinforced for this larger wave, it's likely that he'll stick to bigger waves from then on. The trick here, though, is to keep your criteria reasonable -- if you try to wait too long for a bigger wave, Pepito will likely just stop waving altogether. Rest assured, this process will take time. We've found in our experience that it's better to work with our birds in frequent, short training sessions than in longer ones that occur with larger gaps of time between them. One of our mantras at Natural Encounters, Inc., is "Repetition builds confidence", not only for the bird doing the behavior but also for the person presenting the cues, so practice and clear communication will be your greatest assets as you attempt to train this (or any other) behavior.

The final thing that I can offer you in your training adventure is a simple piece of advice: remember to be patient. Even the smallest, simplest behaviors may not be so small and simple in the mind of your bird, but what we have found time and time again is that repetition is the best way for you and your bird to build confidence in one and other. Just as the old saying goes, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again! Another saying that we have at Natural Encounters, Inc., is that "The animal is never wrong." If our birds are falling short of our expectations in their behaviors, we take responsibility for it and say that it is probably a breakdown in our own communication to them that is causing the problem. Two-way communication -- that is, communication where we are being clear in our cues, criteria, bridges, and reinforcements, and where we are always paying attention to the body language and behavior of the animal in front of us as this is how they communicate back to us their understanding of what we are asking -- is the single most important tool we have as animal trainers. If an animal is not interested in participating with us in training at a certain time, we simply walk away and try again later. Giving our animals the power to tell us when they are and aren't interested in playing "the training game" is a way to give them power over their environment, and an animal that is empowered is one that will be happier, healthier, and more confident, three goals that we should strive to achieve each and every day with our birds.

I hope that what I've written above gives you some idea of the many possibilities that lie ahead for you and Pepito where training is concerned, and gives you an idea of where you might get started to begin to make some of these ideas become a reality. If you would like to learn more, I suggest you begin by checking out our website, http://www.naturalencounters.com, where you can find a variety of articles on bird training, enrichment, and behavior that may be helpful in your efforts to continue to learn about Pepito and how to continue to build and improve your relationship with him.

Thank you again for writing to us, Mary. Best of luck in your training endeavors, and we look forward to hearing about your future successes!

Sincerely,

Chris Jenkins
Senior Avian Trainer
Natural Encounters, Inc.

Answered by Jim McKendry:

Hi Petra, Your questions certainly highlight just how misleading so much of what is written and discussed about parrots can be. Whenever you read or hear something that doesn’t quite fit with your better logic then question it and challenge the person making those statements, such as the one you described, to qualify their thinking. For all of us it’s still a work in progress, but some obviously have more work to do than others! It’s really frustrating reading some of the generalisations people make about parrots when they obviously haven’t ever spent a minute of their time observing them in the wild. It’s a great leveller out there. Hopefully you can find a little more logic here at the WPT site. Take a holiday from the message boards and make sure you download all of those cool articles in the reference library, as there’s some real gold in there!

First up, housing Rangi and Kea in the same enclosure is most certainly feasible – provided that your two African Greys are compatible and that the enclosure adequately caters for two parrots in terms of enrichment and access to shared resources and perches. Compatibility can be determined through your observations of the interactions that they are obviously already having away from the cages. You need to reflect on the frequency of antagonistic behaviour between them, how they react towards each other in the presence of a shared food bowl or enrichment item, tolerance levels towards each other on the same perch and observable body language indicators that suggest a degree of comfort in close proximity to each other. You mentioned that there is already regurgitation of food from one to another so I’m inclined to think there’s a pretty good situation developing there. Food regurgitation is classic pair solicitation behaviour between Greys so it’s a good guide to compatibility. Do you observe any other good compatibility indicators, such as mutual preening?

You mention that there is some occasional aggression from Rangi towards Kea. This doesn’t immediately mean they are not suitable for cohabitation in the same enclosure, as all of my pairs will at times be aggressive towards each other for a variety of reasons. With a bonded and compatible pair this rarely escalates beyond posturing but it is important to monitor such interactions to ensure that the frequency is not inappropriate or that physical encounters are quickly resolved. It comes down to good observational skills on your part.

Personally, I love the idea of working towards Rangi and Kea sharing an enclosure. It’s achievable but you must make sure that you cater for the transition with sensitivity to their observable level of comfort with each other and ensure that the shared enclosure is adequate in size to properly cater for two African Greys. That’s critical as there are pressures on each bird achieving spatial comfort within small indoor cages that are relieved in larger aviary type enclosures, thus potentially making it more of a challenge. Start with short durations of shared cage time when you are at home to observe the birds. As they become more familiar with the routine, and if it’s `happy families’, then the time can be extended. It’s also another tip to have a complete perch change and furnishing rearrangement if you are using an existing cage as the new, shared environment. This way you can introduce them both into a `new’ environment and give them time to explore it and establish their perching preferences without the variable of pre-existing favourites ☺.

Your next question was about your response to biting or beaking behaviour. Reflect on the function you think that Kea letting out a yelp serves when Rangi bites her. This is a clear and distinct communication between two parrots. We’re humans, not parrots. I’m not keen on setting up consequential responses to the behaviour of our parrots that mimics how we observe two parrots interacting with each other because, for a variety of reasons, it’s unlikely to be effective or appropriate over time as a learning/teaching tool. For starters, the fact that Rangi stops biting you immediately and redirects his focus may indicate that he finds your yelping an aversive stimulus. Effectively you are reverting back to using negative reinforcement in your behaviour management. My advice is to re-evaluate your interactions with Rangi and become more sensitive to indicators that you have by now associated with an impending bite or aggressive encounter and start rearranging your environment or handling criteria with him to avoid the encounters occurring. Time to replace your current response with new strategies based on differential reinforcement. Check out Susan Friedman and Lee McGuire’s ripper of a case study on biting at the WPT reference library in the article `The Success Files’. It’s a beauty. One contributing problem you are dealing with is the use of the beak to lead when stepping onto your hand. In my experience, true use of the beak to lead is done very gently, some large parrots even do so with the front of their upper mandible, not with an open beak grasp. If your `stepping up’ interaction is resulting in an uncomfortable level of beak use then you can start working on training your Greys to step up without leading with the beak. A great visual aid in achieving this can be accessed via Barbara Heidenreich’s DVD `Parrot Training & Behaviour’. It’s also time to have a read of Susan Friedman’s cracker of a `step by step guide’ (no pun intended) to improving step up behaviour titled `Empowering Parrots’, also available at the WPT one stop `free’ shop of good oil advice – the Reference Library ☺

Good luck with Rangi and Kea. I would love to hear how you go with them over the next few months.

Kind Regards from `Down Under’
Jim McKendry
Parrot Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day and thankyou sincerely for sending your question in to WPT!

Sounds like your Galah has found a very caring and dedicated new home - awesome! Your question raises some really important issues and prompts some great food for thought about how we manage our companion parrots. I’ve pulled out a few key sections of your question and I’ll do my best to offer some insights and advice on each for you ☺

`Garden Liberties & Getting Out and About’
I’m frequently asked about managing `outside’ time for companion parrots – particularly here in Australia, where the weather is enticing and the natural environment is filled with stimulation and opportunities for visual and aural enrichment. It really does tend to encourage a lot of parrot owners to consider affording their companion bird some of the same experiences that the wild parrots flying through the neighbourhood enjoy. The sentiment and thinking behind offering some `backyard adventure time’ is very understandable. However, what we must always consider first is our responsibility in ensuring that whatever experiences we expose our parrots to, their safety is prioritised.

Personally, I would prefer to see thinking shift from pushing the boundaries of certain liberties via the use of harnesses, tethers or restraints, to the creation of a safe and secure outdoor enclosure. The purchase or design and construction of an outdoor enclosure can achieve all of the goals that a companion parrot owner has for extending the enrichment schedule for their pet bird – without the lack of control over all of the potential variables that compromise safety when taking parrots outside. Outdoor enclosures that are thoughtfully designed, even in an area as small as a courtyard, can offer a fantastic richness of experiences and I would certainly encourage all companion parrot owners to consider taking the next step in achieving an additional environment option for their otherwise house bound parrot.

Moving your parrot from indoors to the outdoor enclosure then offers an excellent opportunity to develop some basic training skills with your parrot that will be useful in other facets of companion parrot keeping. Safe transport of our parrots from indoors to an outside enclosure requires `pet pack’ or `crate’ training. To access the best visual learning aid for achieving the training approximations involved in pet pack training I highly recommend checking out Barbara Heidenreich’s DVD, `Training your Parrot for the Veterinary Exam’. This great resource clearly demonstrates what is involved and the steps are achievable for parrot owners of all experience levels. I will add that in my experience it is much easier to train a parrot to enter an open wire `carry cage’ as opposed to a dark pet pack or crate. That’s a bit of a `hot tip’ I guess for potentially achieving the behaviour faster for parrots who normally display an aversive response to attempts to encourage them into a traditional crate. If you’ve ever seen how long it takes a wild pair of parrots to take the plunge and go into a dark nest hole then you’ll understand that there is a significant natural behavioural aversion to overcome in entering a dark enclosure. Once you have trained your parrot to enter your carry cage, crate, pet pack or whatever is achievable, you now have the additional benefit of making trips to the vet, boarding service or friend’s places less stressful and much safer.

`Harness Use with Parrots’
You’re probably still wondering about the harness option right? I’ll have to admit to not being the biggest fan of the use of harnesses on parrots. Although I do not use harnesses with any of my birds, initially I really did have faith in the concept that if people engage in harness training it might lead to less wing clipping – something I am a major vocal advocate for changing in our approach to keeping parrots as pets. Over time though, my experiences have reduced my willingness to embrace the harness option. Different people have different opinions, but as someone who works regularly with the companion parrot community, I’ve now seen more than enough misuse and poor training and application of harness wearing than I’m comfortable with. I’m also aware of some excellent parrot owners who have trained their parrot to wear a harness with a great degree of skill and consideration of the necessary steps in the desensitisation and familiarisation process that is critical in avoiding problem behaviours and undesirable responses to wearing a restraint. I simply don’t have the confidence in the skills of most companion parrot owners I work with in advocating the use of a restraint on their parrot unless they have been guided by an experienced animal trainer.

Aside from the concern that the use of a harness can very easily lead to a false sense of security about the safety of the parrot when then provided with subsequent outdoor liberties, the greater concern for me is the potential for damage to the parrot-carer trust account if the training of accepting a harness is not properly achieved. In the case of our Galah here, this is absolutely critical and a necessary cautionary note for people keen to generalise about applying harnesses to any pet parrot without considering the differences we tend to see between individual birds in their response to potentially intrusive handling. The development of intense over-generalised fear responses or, on the flip-side, aggression, can easily occur as a result of improper training of harness wearing. Such behavioural problems can quickly manifest in parrots who we have observed displaying fear responses towards certain stimuli if we have failed to be considerate of this. Your Galah has already displayed an aversion to the harness and there is a risk of this aversion then extending towards your hands and you yourself in association with the harness if you attempt to place it on your Galah without being extremely careful in your training approximations. Some self-reflection and evaluation of whether you feel confident in achieving your goal without eroding the trust your Galah has in you is required but I’m doubtful whether your Galah is a great candidate for this training goal at this stage. If I haven’t talked you out of it then my best advice is to follow a similar set of training approximations as those that Barbara Heidenreich uses for some of the behaviours shown in her `Training for the Veterinary Exam’ DVD, such as towelling. Barbara also has the only online article on harness training that I am comfortable referring interested people to and this can be located at http://www.parrotchronicles.com/2005/features/harness/harness.htm If you access these resources first and succeed in developing a strong enough association with the harness and delivery of positively reinforcing consequences then hopefully you can avoid the potential pitfalls of failing to make the experience a rewarding one.

My advice – acquire a well designed and safe outdoor enclosure, train your Galah to enter a carry cage so you can safely transport him from inside to outside and keep your trust account full!

Just finally...

`Only bites with excitement or fear’
Those few words set off some alarm bells for me as an experienced keeper of cockatoos because they really do suggest a level of acceptance of being bitten as part of parrot ownership. I would like to challenge you to reflect on the times when you or anyone in your Galah’s environment has experienced a bite. We need to make sure that we accept responsibility for these encounters and arrange the environment and stimuli that may have previously led to such encounters in a different way to avoid a bite occurring in the future. What can start off early in the relationship as minor incidents can quickly develop into behaviours that intensify over time, and when it comes to biting – prevention is most definitely better than cure ☺.

Kind Regards from `Down Under’
Jim McKendry
Parrot Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Steve Martin & Staff:

Hello Crystal, My name is Miranda DeVries and I am an avian trainer with Steve Martin's Natural Encounters, Inc. First, I would like to commend you for seeking help so quickly for Joey and your husband, Evan. It says a lot about your compassion for Joey that you want him to have a positive and reinforcing relationship with everyone in your household.

My first thoughts when reading your question was that any man who enters Joey's life after the abuse and mistreatment he may have suffered by his previous male owner may have to start his relationship with Joey basically from scratch. The past does not equal the present, however, and despite what may have occurred in the past you and your husband have the power to shape and modify the behavior you're seeing now. This may sound a little daunting at first but with lots of positive reinforcements and interactions I believe Joey and Evan can have a relationship that they both are happy with.

You are well on your way to helping Evan and Joey build a positive relationship by not forcing Evan on Joey. Forcing a bird to be around someone or do something that makes the bird fearful can lead to more aggressive behaviors, even biting. Any interactions Evan and Joey have right now should be when Joey is in his cage because from your question you say that is the only place Joey will take treats from Evan. I do not recommend that Evan read to Joey because from your question it would seem that the simple presence of Evan is a negative experience for Joey right now since he may not trust Evan. I love your idea of having Evan feed Joey his favorite treats. The treat Evan gives Joey is something positive that he will begin to associate with your husband. You want to make sure, though, that when Evan does this the body language that Joey is presenting is positive and calm, and that he is not displaying possible signs of fear or aggression such as quick, jerking body movements, feathers slicked tightly against his body, or alarm calling. If Joey does present Evan with negative body language Evan should simply walk away from his cage. Walking away from the cage allows Joey to have power over his environment. Evan can simply return later and give Joey a treat when he is presenting positive body language. By giving Joey the power to make Evan leave if he is feeling uncomfortable, and limiting their time together to those instances when Joey's behavior suggests that he is feeling comfortable about Evan's presence, this will only help both Evan and your bird decrease the amount of negative interactions they have, therefore making their overall history together a more positive one in total. After the positive interactions of Evan giving Joey his treat have occurred for awhile you and your husband might notice that Joey looks at Evan when he enters the room or moves toward his food bowl before he even gets the treat.

After Evan can give Joey a treat in his bowl (that is both positive and reinforcing to both) he can start to give him treats from his hand while Joey sits nicely on his perch. At first Evan can bait Joey away from his bowl by showing him a treat in his hand over by Joey's perch. Evan can eventually fade out the bait and just use a hand motion to send Joey to his perch and feed him through the cage. Just remember if Joey shows Evan any negative body language (behavior) Evan should simply walk away and return when Joey's behavior is more positive – the basic rule that we follow in all our training is to reward behaviors that we like and to ignore the ones that we don't. We always strive to give our birds the power to choose whether or not to participate in our training sessions. If our birds choose not to participate, by displaying body language such as the examples mentioned above, we simply leave with the treats and try again later when they offer body language that is calm and inviting, such as still body posture with loose feathering, or walking towards the side of the cage where we are standing.

Once Joey is comfortable with Evan coming up to his cage and feeding him, Evan may even try getting some of Joey's behaviors on cue while still in his cage. The behavior could be simply a pleasing sound that Joey makes or targeting a toy with his beak. When training these behaviors, if Evan finds he cannot give Joey his treat quickly after the correct behavior is performed, he can use a bridge. A bridge is a signal to the animal that what it has just done at that exact moment was good, and that reinforcement is on its way – it gets its name because it "bridges" the gap in time between when the animal has performed the desired behavior and when the rewards is presented to the animal for performing the behavior. We at Natural Encounters, Inc., normally use a quick verbal ‘good' as a bridge. As was suggested in your question, you can also give a click with a clicker. Evan should keep a handful of treats on him and whenever he hears Joey make the noise or do whatever behavior he decides, he can bridge Joey and give him the treat. When Joey is making the noise (or performing the behavior) consistently Evan can start to cue him for it. A cue can be anything at all (verbal or hand signal) that lets the bird know that you want him to make that noise or perform that behavior. Birds are extremely visual and tend to pick up on hand cues easier than verbal cues. Evan may notice that every time Joey performs the desired noise/behavior, he first flaps his wings or does some sort of behavior just before the noise/behavior is about to occur. When Evan sees that, he can cue Joey for the desired behavior, bridge after it is presented, and then walk over and provide the reinforcement. The behavior itself can be something very simple at first, such as training Joey to touch or hold a toy that is in his cage, and if both Joey and Evan enjoy the interactions it entails then you can move on to more complicated behaviors from there.

Once Evan and Joey have a comfortable relationship within the cage they can start working on their relationship outside of the cage. Depending on their comfort level with one another and Evan's criteria of what he wants his relationship with Joey to be, he may even choose to work on stepping Joey up out of his cage using either his hand or a more stable tool like a stick or T-perch. While this may seem like a simple behavior at first glance, the process of teaching a bird to do this using positive training methods can actually be quite a detailed and lengthy process that should never be rushed. If you are interested in learning more about the steps involved in training a bird to step up using positive reinforcement, please let us know and we'd be happy to provide you with further details. The key to all this is that Evan should continue to reinforce the behavior that he likes, allow Joey's body language to shape his own, and in doing so diligently I think you will be amazed at the progress both your bird and your husband will be able to make. In your email you say that Joey is currently fleeing from Evan when he approaches. If Evan can learn to read Joey's subtle signs of discomfort, Evan can take steps now to make sure it doesn't get to that point with the two of them again. If Evan slowly approaches Joey with a treat and Joey's feathers become tight or his posture changes suggesting that he wants to move away, Evan should freeze and take a small step back. If Joey's feathers soften and his weight shifts to a comfortable low position, Evan can then slowly proceed forward, repeating this process and truly allowing Joey to tell Evan how quickly or slowly (or even whether or not) he can approach. This process gives Joey power by allowing him to make Evan retreat with just the slightest change in body language, and will make Joey much more comfortable with Evan's presence overall.

Crystal, I hope the above helps Evan and Joey and even yourself build a more positive relationship. If you have any further questions I recommend our website http://www.naturalencounters.com, which features our responses to companion parrot questions such as yours that we have received over the years, articles on bird behavior, training, and enrichment, and information on the companion parrot owner workshops that we offer several times a year at our training facility in Winter Haven, FL. Best of luck to you all!


Sincerely,


Miranda DeVries
Avian Trainer
Natural Encounters, Inc.

Answered by Phoebe Green Linden:

Hi Kathleen, I’m so sorry for your little guy. He’s been through a lot for being young. Please tell us exactly how old he is and his name, OK?

Even though you have both been through a certain amount of trauma, the good point is that you probably have a solid relationship with an avian vet who can continue to help your parrot maintain good health. Perhaps a person at the vet hospital took a particular interest in him and can now become his babysitter and part of your local support network. All in all, robust health is the key to good relationship and increased activity and will contribute to his desire to explore more territory. Recovery from aspiration depends upon how much air sac tissue was affected so be sure to have him re-checked by your avian vet. The moment he seems down and inactive is the time to have him checked, not later.

Whether or not you confront the breeder with the past events depends on the relationship you have with that person. If you are confident that the result will yield desired results then sure, give a call. However, if you think there will be acrimony and that nothing will come of it, my advice is to concentrate on the here and now with your eclectus and stay in the moment.

Also, aspiration can happen at any time. It could have happened when he was a teeny baby, or in the carrier during transport to your home, or while he was at your house.

Parrots form bonds throughout their lives so its not like you’ve missed one critical bonding period that will never happen again. You did the right thing by getting him healthy when he was sick. When he’s confirmed healthy and active once again, put food bowls at the front of the cage, put some half perches on the cage door and keep the door open as much as possible. Fix it so that he can eat both at the front of the cage or while perching on the open cage door. My eclectus love mega millet and will go for it wherever it hangs—try it to see if it entices him, too.

It’s most important for you to discover what he finds reinforcing, what he does that comforts him, what behaviors he conducts to soothe himself and then acknowledge these. Try to set up the physical and emotional environments to encourage more of these behaviors. Watch him and catch him doing something cute like puffing his feathers, scratching his head with his foot, turning around on his perch, or cocking his head and give those behaviors verbal reinforcement. Key in to what he’s doing by giving him your undivided attention and praise when you see him moving to soothe himself and/or moving towards you. Also, establish a contact whistle or call that you use when you enter the house, his room, his area and use this consistently.

Please check out the following articles which will really help you:
http://www.parrots.org/pdfs/all_about_parrots/reference_library/behaviour_and_environmental_enrichment/Shaping%20New%20Behaviors.pdf

http://www.parrots.org/pdfs/all_about_parrots/reference_library/behaviour_and_environmental_enrichment/Success%20Files.pdf

Remember, we are trying to increase his physical skills and we do this by creating environments where it’s easy for him to do physical behaviors. We want him to gain physical acuity and increase the numbers of observable behaviors he conducts. When he walks or climbs from perch to perch, touches toys, destroys a stalk of mega millet, scratches his head with one foot, then with the other, turns around and fans his tail, rings a bell or whistles when you enter the room, you and he will have fully bonded.

Also, seriously consider purchasing Barbara Heidenreich’s books because they will help you establish an excellent and active relationship with your parrot. Therein, you’ll learn about desensitizing him to towels through the creation of non-threatening learning situations.

Keep us posted, Kathleen.

All best,
Phoebe

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day Onette,
Thankyou for sharing. There are certainly some challenging issues that can be discussed from your questions. Your situation really does expose and highlight a lack of preparedness that is unfortunately all too common when people take on the significant role of caring for a companion African Grey Parrot, or any parrot species. You’ve taken an important step in seeking help and assistance, and for that you should be commended. It is important to realise that there now needs to be a major evaluation on your part concerning how you will need to create a safe and suitable captive environment for an African Grey from here on. Hopefully the resources available here at WPT will be of great assistance to you and your African Grey.

Managing the reluctance to return to his cage...
It’s difficult to offer specific advice, as I have no idea what the environment in the room looks like, the degree of aversion your parrot has towards the cage, how you have set your cage up and the history that has been established in association with the cage. All of these considerations would feed into the approach one would need to take to achieve the goal of developing a more positive relationship between the parrot and his cage environment. Regardless of this, some generalised training principles should apply and there are a number of strategies that you can try. Any strategy should incorporate an approximation schedule that provides your African Grey with opportunities to gradually increase his exposure to the cage whilst ensuring that such opportunities are combined with highly motivating rewards. Your main indicator of success in this situation is derived from his body language. Observe him and make note of the visual indicators that convey a sense of comfort and confidence and this will help guide you in knowing when you can increase his exposure and/or proximity to the cage. He is already comfortable on the basket you are using so there’s a great, familiar resource that you can start placing in closer proximity to the cage. Working towards the cage, your goal may be having him perch on the basket in front of the cage with the cage door open. Depending on his level of comfort around the cage, you may be able to also incorporate play and handling interactions using the cage as a stand, or utilising the top of the cage as an area where enrichment items and food can be delivered. Set up opportunities for him to explore the cage whilst the door is open and he is freely able to enter and exit. To achieve this, there needs to be a motivator within or on the cage that he is keen to move towards. The creative delivery of his supplementary hand feeding sessions on, or preferably in, the cage may also help to strengthen his association with the cage as a positively reinforcing and non-threatening part of his environment. Free feed opportunities during the day also need to be offered in gradually closer proximity to the cage until eventually you can feed him within the cage. To fully develop a plan for working on desensitisation towards the cage, and establishing approximations for getting him to use the cage willingly, you will definitely need to have a thorough read through the articles that WPT has provided in the Reference Library. Try starting with...

• The ABC’s of Behaviour: Dr. Susan Friedman
• Shaping New Behaviours: Dr. Susan Friedman
• Step Up – Command or Request?: Barbara Heidenreich

Managing rest and exposure to stimuli late at night...
Opinions differ as to the effect on behavioural health of companion parrots that are exposed to various environmental stimuli, such as televisions, late into the night. The obvious answer to most situations where this is a concern is to simply remove the parrot from the room and establish an environment where the bird can achieve some rest without visual or aural distraction. You have noted that you do not consider this possible due to the other rooms in your house being too cold. This is another situation that is very difficult to give you a definite green light on in terms of a specific approach to take. Essentially – how cold is `too cold’? If you purchased your African Grey in Romania, I assume there are other Grey owners there. It’s time to start networking and finding out how other local parrot enthusiasts are catering for their parrots – something that really should have been done prior to bringing such an animal into your home. Provided that we are not talking about temperatures below freezing, your Grey should adapt to low temperatures if it is allowed time to acclimatise. My own African Grey is kept outdoors year round, and has done in his previous homes for more than 25 years. Whilst our environment does not experience the extreme cold you are exposed to in Romania, overnight winter temperatures here still regularly drop to 0 to 3 degrees Celsius. We have never observed any ill effects of this with any of our birds. Provided he is not exposed to constant cold draughts and he is dry, in an indoor environment, even without heating, he should be fine. Monitor the temperature in the most suitable alternative room and make a judgement from there as to whether it is acceptable to house him there overnight. Also, consider the perching substrate you are using and ensure it is not composed of a material that becomes excessively cold, as this can potentially lead to health problems with his toes and feet in severely cold climates.

Some need for reflection...
In reading through your set of questions and the description of your situation, I personally feel there is a need for some considered reflection on your part as to the suitability of the environment you have for a pet African Grey parrot and what you may need to challenge yourself to do to improve it. I noticed that Dr. Brian Speer has responded to another question you submitted concerning an appropriate diet for an unweaned African Grey. It is important that we continue to reinforce to the parrot owning community just how completely inappropriate it is to purchase a parrot as young as this. This is perhaps the most critical stage of development in a parrot’s life. A time where it needs to be socialised with other parrots, provided opportunities to forage, explore its environment, develop its flight skills, muscle tone and coordination, and given time to properly develop its independence. Breeders need to be challenged to ensure that each of these absolutely essential experiences have been catered for prior to being sold. We also need to properly educate ourselves on exactly what our responsibilities are when we make the commitment to keep a parrot in captivity, and what we need to have in place to cater for them in terms of adequate housing, areas for additional enrichment, dietary needs and an understanding of training fundamentals. They deserve no less than that.

Kind Regards from `Down Under’
Jim McKendry
Parrot Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day Cindi,

Thankyou for sharing your efforts with your collection and your experiences with Sammy. Your approach towards creating a flock environment and your insight into how this has contributed to the success of your birds is inspiring. As someone whose own flock of parrots has steadily increased over the years with the addition of birds with behavioural challenges, I can empathise with the frustration of not feeling like you are able to achieve your training goals as successfully or as quickly as you would like to. There are some really key considerations that your question brings to light, perhaps not only for yourself, but also for anyone involved with the daily management of a large group of parrots. I’d like to share some of these with you and hopefully you will be able to take some of these thoughts away and set some new and achievable goals.

Positive Reinforcement – Any time, any place...
We tend to only consider, or consciously take notice of, positive reinforcement in the context of specific, pre-planned training sessions. I can remember being in a very similar mind set to you at one stage with some of my aviary birds. How could I engage in positive reinforcement based training with birds that I really only had time to interact with for short periods around feeding and enclosure cleaning on most days? These birds were parent-raised birds with little interest in human interactions so I was challenged to visualise how I could develop a relationship with them. When I reflected on this I realised that we have the opportunity to deliver positively reinforcing consequences with every interaction we have with our birds, regardless of the context and regardless of our perceived lack of relationship with the birds. Managing the day-to-day husbandry of your parrots actually provides a wonderful scope for establishing some important and practical positive reinforcement based training applications. This is something that I learnt well when working with Zoo animals and I apply this awareness when interacting with my own birds. When I worked as a bird keeper and trainer, every time I entered an enclosure to clean it, weigh a bird, place a raptor back on a perch, or change a food bowl, I had the opportunity to make that interaction a positively reinforcing one for the animal – and without breaking from a tight time schedule! Positive reinforcement can occur at any time, in any place, if we choose to arrange the environment for that reinforcement to occur. When you think about the set of interactions that can occur simply by delivering a bowl of food to a cage each day, or cleaning the cage, or offering a shower, or changing perches, or introducing a new enrichment toy, you realise that you do indeed have the power to make each of these experiences positively reinforcing for Sammy. In doing so, you can build the all-important ‘trust account’ with Sammy and establish an ever-developing association between the receipt of positively reinforcing consequences and you as the person who delivers those. Training, teaching, learning – they occur in just about everything we do with our parrots, even if we’re not consciously aware ☺.

Setting Goals – Make them achievable, make them realistic...
Often, the greatest barrier to our success in working with challenging parrots is not setting goals that are either achievable, or realistic, given the current stage of our relationship with them. When faced with an overwhelming sense of not achieving what you really want to with your birds, it is critically important to take a step back, look at the big picture of what you already can do with your birds and work from there, one step at a time. This is where an understanding of `approximations’ and how we use these to shape behaviour is such a valuable tool for every parrot owner. `Approximations’ can be simply defined as the observable and measurable steps that your parrot needs to progressively take to achieve a behavioural goal. When we think of learning we need to see it as occurring along a continuum. Each step along the continuum is an `approximation’ leading towards the final goal. Training using small approximations is the most effective method of establishing solid and consistent performance of behaviours. It is also highly effective when trained behaviours diminish, as we need only to go back to the nearest approximation to the behaviour goal that is still being demonstrated successfully and work from there. Perhaps the first mistake that companion parrot owners make is failing to reinforce small approximations and instead, withhold reinforcement for too long in the hope that their parrot will achieve a behavioural goal from A to Z in one go. Essentially what happens for many pet parrot owners is that they inadvertently make the criteria for success too difficult for the young parrot to achieve. Taking an approach to your training and interactions with Sammy that carefully reinforces small approximations towards your goal behaviour will hopefully help you to avoid the pitfalls of a reinforcement schedule that may be unrealistic or ineffective with your pet parrot.


I would suggest In Sammy’s case, you might simply be starting off with small goals leading towards the development of the use of a `target’ to start shaping some of those all important moving around the cage behaviours that can be beneficial to you in avoiding aggressive encounters with him when you need to clean his cage, change his perches, remove an old toy or simply feed him. Developing some target training will take a small investment of time initially to your existing routine but may end up making daily husbandry tasks quicker, easier and with less opportunity for conflict. Barbara Heidenreich explains the process of target training better than anyone. I checked through the catalogue of her `Good Bird’ magazine to find a specific article that you could apply and you know what, just about every issue has an article of relevance to you in your work with Sammy. I would really suggest delving into this magazine for some very cool, practical and well-explained examples of applying basic positive reinforcement training techniques for pet parrots. You can access all of Barbara’s magazines via her website at www.goodbirdinc.com and the WPT store stocks Barbara’s books and DVDs, so if you haven’t got those, visit http://www.parrots.org/index.php/shoptosave/

Arrange the Environment – Set yourself and your parrot up to succeed...
Once you have worked out a goal that you would like to achieve with Sammy, take the next step and ensure that you set the environment up for both you and Sammy to succeed in achieving that goal. When we talk about the `environment’ we consider all the elements involved that can have a variable influence on the achievement of our behavioural goal. Minimising those variables helps us achieve clear contiguity and consistency in our reinforcement delivery. As an example, simple rearrangement of the cage environment in the form of perch and treat bowl placement can help to set up a huge change in not only your ability to avoid a bite occurring, but also to deliver reinforcing food treats without potentially being an invasive presence in his enclosure. Empower yourself with the knowledge that it is you who can make these changes and you can start making progress today. All parrot owners need to reflect on the fact that they are a critical component of the `environment’ and ultimately is `you’ as the keeper of your birds who has the ability to arrange that environment for success and make the decision to deliver positively reinforcing consequences for desirable behaviour.

Be inspired - Access existing resources...
The World Parrot Trust website provides access to perhaps the most brilliant collection of support resources on the internet in the form of articles written by some of the giants in parrot behaviour and training. For your goal of achieving an improved relationship with Sammy, I would recommend downloading and reading the following...
• `Does your parrot have a trust account?’ – Steve Martin
• `Empowering Parrots’ – Susan Friedman PhD
• `Step-up – Command or Request?’ – Barbara Heidenreich
• `Shaping new behaviours’ – Susan Friedman PhD
• `The Success Files’ – Lee McGuire and Susan Friedman PhD

These articles can inspire you to achieve more than you imagined with your parrot. The first four articles will really establish a wonderful foundation of theory and practical application for you. Then make sure you check out Lee McGuire and Susan Friedman’s brilliant example of bringing this knowledge together to develop a plan for applying this theory to a situation that I am sure you will find relevance in.
These downloadable articles are all available from http://www.parrots.org/index.php/referencelibrary/behaviourandenviroenrich/

Hopefully the above suggestions for `where to go from here’ will help you develop some ideas and strategies for working with Sammy and indeed, engaging in positive reinforcement training, without even knowing it ☺

Kind Regards from `Down Under’
Jim McKendry
Parrot Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Lee McGuire:

Hello there Joanne

It would appear that this response didn’t post last year so we are going to try again.

A vocalization that hurts our ears is surely one of the most annoying situations that we, as parrot caregivers, have to deal with.  Add in the fact that each of is us different when it comes to what we can tolerate before we decide we just can’t take it any more and it can make for an interesting behavioral puzzle for the caregiver to overcome.  Once we’ve decided to take action, we enter into the foggy realm of which advice to take.  Do we, as you did, speak softly? Cover up the bird? Ignore the behavior? Spray the bird with water every time opens it’s beak?  Run to the cage when the birds whistles? Or, re-home it?

We’ve all read each of those suggestions many times espoused as general wisdom for altering parrot behavior. Which way should we turn and what would be the best strategy to use that would reduce the irritating whistle?  That’s what the rest of this response will be about.

Let’s think about this for a moment. With our cars, would we change the battery when we have a flat tire?  Not likely since we deduce that the reason for the car’s “thumping and bumping along” behavior is due to the flat tire not the battery. In other words, the car is still running so we almost immediately rule out battery problems.  In the blink of an eye, we’ve rapidly collected some data based on the way the car is behaving, at that period of time, that tells us the reason for the rough ride is related to the tires not the battery.  If we approach a bird’s behavior in the same systematic way, collecting data, it’s more likely that we can come up with a strategy that will impact the particular bird’s behavior.

None of us vocalize without some reason - parrots included. Finding out the reason for the behavior will provide us with a clue as to the function that behavior serves for the individual bird. Once we understand what function any behavior serves, then we have a better chance of customizing an intervention that will work specifically for that bird.

The first thing to do is look at the surrounding environment with a critical eye. You will soon see that there are times when Bobby whistles loudly and repetitively and times when he doesn’t.  For instance, does he whistle when you’ve been gone for a period of time?  If you have other birds, does he whistle when they are vocalizing? Does he whistle when he hears a specific sound?  Does he whistle if you have ignored him for some period of time?  Does he whistle when he is engaged in other activities?

Answering those types of questions will provide a clue as to the purpose that the whistling behavior serves for Bobby.  It could be a contact whistle to greet you after absence; a reply to another bird; a response to a specific sound or a tactic to get your attention. With that information in hand, we can design a strategy that will reduce the whistling behavior in favor of those vocalizations you find more acceptable while still meeting the same function for Bobby.

As an example, we might say that when Joanne ignores Bobby, IF Bobby whistles, THEN eventually Joanne provides some social interaction time.  From that data we could predict that Bobby will continue to, or increase, the amount he whistles to gain social interaction time with Joanne. In other words, he’s whistling to get your attention.  It doesn’t matter if you only tell him to be quiet, speak softly, yell at him, spray him with water, etc. The function of his behavior served the purpose of getting your attention for however brief a period of time that might be.

Does that mean we have to live with any form of excessive vocalization? NO! There are any number of approaches to reducing excessive vocalizations but the intent of all of them is the make the excessive whistling irrelevant, inefficient and immaterial. Once you have a clear idea of the purpose Bobby’s whistling serves, you can still fulfill the function the whistling behaviour serves, just in a different way, thereby reducing the behavior you find problematic and increasing acceptable behaviors.

More often than not, in the home situation excessive vocalizations serve the purpose of getting the caregivers attention. Should it happen to be that Bobby’s whistling serves that purpose, there are several things you can do.  One of the easiest strategies to implement is training the ear to listen to the acceptable pleasant sounds Bobbie makes and immediately reinforcing those. You could also teach Bobby to ring a bell, bang a certain toy, make a specific noise, go to a given area, or any other creative solution you can come up with any time he wants your attention.  Speaking from experience, a caregiver can reduce annoying vocalizations quite rapidly provided we rapidly reinforce alternative behaviors consistently.

I look forward to hearing about your success.

Best

lee