Me and Frankie No Longer Hate Each Other!
Hey. My name is Mike Lawson and I'm the proud owner of Frankie, an impressive African grey parrot. Before I got Frankie, I imagined myself bringing friends over and amazing them with my talking parrot. Just a few days after having Frankie, I quickly realized that it wasn't going to as easy as I thought.
Forget talking! He would get agitated anytime I went near the cage and I couldn't even pick up him without him biting me. Frankie would also scream, for no apparent reason, scaring the heck out me (and worst any company that I had over). If that wasn't bad enough I was a light sleeper and Frankie would keep me up at night. To be honest, in those early day I really regretted getting a parrot and I honestly considered giving Frankie away (if someone would take him!). I finally decided that I needed help.
After a bunch research I finally found a great parrot training resource that was different than the rest of the "same old" training online. I'm not one to rave about products but after just a couple of days using the ideas and techniques in the video training sessions, I was finally able to get Frankie to step up!
Oh ya and he's no longer biting or screaming. I was so impressed with the guy who put out the training videos I got his train your parrot to talk videos as well... they were amazing! No joke, I got Frankie talking after only a couple training sessions... I couldn't be happier. Now when I have people over, they ARE so impressed with Frankie. He's now a true companion and an endless source of entertainment and fun. Me and Frankie no longer hate each other!
Parrot Training Tips
Most parrots are more than simply birds. They are essentially feathered children, with strong personalities and incredible intelligence. Parrot training is based, at least in part, on the standard idea of reward, ignore and punish, but there are also many specific strategies for training that will help you have more rewarding experiences with your feathered friend. Most of these training strategies are known to work best when your parrot is still very young, because he or she has not had a chance by this point to develop any habits which will be difficult to quash. With a little bit of hard work, however, these training strategies may also be applied to suit older parrots just the same. Why Rewarding Works
Reward! Reward! Reward! -- If you are trying to reinforce positive behavior, such as your parrot doing a trick on command, you should reward him or her. There are many different ways to reward a parrot, including giving a favorite food treat, a brief play session, or a pat on the head and a little verbal reinforcement. The reward you use is completely up to you, as long as you are consistent because your parrot will quickly correlate this reward with whatever action was taken. Your reward should never be exaggerated, and should always be unique from normal habits so that your parrot can differentiate between normal behavior, and reward-earning behavior. Should You Ignore Or Punish Your Parrot?
Ignore, rather than punishing! -- Parrots cannot take punishment in the same way that other animals can, and generally do not react to it in the same way, either. The best way to show your parrot that you are unhappy with its behavior is simply to ignore him or her. If your parrot is screaming, biting or misbehaving, simply stop paying attention to him or her. Good behaviors will follow when they realize which behaviors get your attention and which do not. How Long Should Training Sessions Be?
Training sessions should be short, but frequent! -- With other animals, such as cats or dogs, training sessions generally are meant to take longer. However, parrots tend to have more difficulty staying focused. Parrots are easily distracted, and may become bored quickly if they feel the training session is too long. Instead, keep your training sessions to between ten and twenty minutes, and perform them regularly. Two or three short training sessions a day will be more effective than a single hour-long session. Can You Over Reward Your Parrot?
Finally, never over-reward a parrot in training! -- Parrots are incredibly intelligent creatures, and therefore catch on extremely quickly. When they begin to over-use new tricks in a short amount of time, you will likely be forced to give them lots of praise and treats. Over-rewarding can become a problem in this instance, meaning that sometimes you should simply give praise rather than always delivering a treat. This way, he will not simply trick you into giving him a treat by repeating the same good behavior over and over simply for the sake of snacking.by MarkL
Hey. My name is Mike Lawson and I love my parrot! His name is Frankie and he's an african grey parrot. more »
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