The "One More Time" Rule

Dave and I have a saying, if you ever say, "That was great, let's do ONE MORE..." that you do NOT do one more, that you in fact put your bird away and stop training!!! Why? Because without fail, that next time is a total bust. And makes it nearly impossible to send on a high, and/or good note. I'm telling you, when you are feeling so happy and...
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Teaching BRAVERY To a Parrot

Just like raising a child, you want them to be confident beings, it's the same with your parrot - you NEED to teach bravery to instill confidence. A confident parrot is a much healthier parrot in body and mind.  When we bring these animals into our homes to live, there is so much that is crazy to ask them to be OK with: running, screaming childr...
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Can I Train a Macaw To Like ME in 1 Day?!

Long story short: Dave and I met this macaw, Amur, who immediately loved Dave for being a male and hated me for being a female.  I told myself, this is fine, I don't have to even work with this bird anyway.  ... right, self? Right?!  Um, have an entire day with this bird and not TRY to work with it? Yeah, that's not gonna happen! See bird, mu...
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How a Training Pouch SAVED My Training Sessions

First off, this is not an ad for this training pouch but seriously, it saved our training sessions recently.  MANY people fumble or lack coordination in holding treats, a clicker, a target stick, more treats... and then being able to actually use each of those tools successfully and timely!  I've heard of people attaching a clicker permanently...
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Forcing a Training Session (Why Not To)

The more times you let your bird say "no" with its body language and you respect that decision, the more often your bird will say YES! The more often you give your bird a choice, the more often it will choose you.  This is an incredibly important lesson in parrot ownership. If your bird doesn't want to go on the counter, don't make it. Ask your...
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5 Mistakes That Will MESS UP Your Relationship With Your Bird

The 5 major mistakes made in this video: 1. Encouragement placed at the wrong moment. 2. Using the same language/cue for multiple behaviors. 3. Accidental bridging (bridging is marking the exact moment in time with either a clicker or the words "good girl" that the bird did the behavior you want to see repeated.) 4. Not properly catchi...
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