How to TRAIN Your Bird to Let You Pet Him

Can you actually TRAIN a bird to let you pet him on the head? Yep. You can. Is it really so hard to believe when people train goldfish to swim through hoops and dolphins to do double back flips (on cue)?  It's important to look at this training in a certain way: You are simply communicating to your bird through the language of training, what yo...
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How & When to Use "Jackpot" Rewards

Because jackpot rewards lead to things like properly shaping a behavior, and random rewarding (a broader version of the concept), I want to leave links to those related resources to expand on the idea. So here are more helpful resources: Shaping a behavior Random rewarding introduction  In the following video Patty improperly uses the ja...
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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 t...
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Training Sessions That Lead to BREAKTHROUGHS!

Does everyone else feel the new energy about Patty?! Patty still struggles with: Pulling the treat away when it's in sight and in reach of the bird Using luring over training/teaching  Backing up for flights at the wrong time (do this when the bird is about to take off, before the bird takes off or when the bird just takes off but NEVER when t...
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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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