How Fast Can Your Parrot REALLY Be Trained?
November 16th, 2009Chet
How fast can you really train your bird?
In many of my training videos I continually show examples of how to train birds to stop biting, or step up in very short periods of time. It is not uncommon for me to be able to get a bird to stop doing bad behavior within 2-3 days.
Many of my clients send me comments about how implementing one of my training concepts or strategies fixed their birds problem in less then 15 minutes.
On stage at our Total Parrot Transformation seminar I trained a parakeet to touch the end of a stick in front of hundreds of people in about 30 seconds.
But can every bird be trained in such a short period of time?
Is your bird’s behavior so bad it might take a year to train him, and you just need to be patient?
It’s possible, but I think that answer is typically a cop out for people who don’t fully understand what it takes to tame parrots.
I don’t mean that to insult you if you currently believe in your heart of hearts, that the only way to fix your bird’s behavior is with more patience, I’m sure you’re a good person and love your parrot.
It’s just that I’ve been there before, with an abused African Grey Parrot who was not responding as well to my training techniques as I would have liked. I was quickly able to teach him several things, but there was so much emotional FEAR inside this bird that I was not able to help him overcome those fears and his progress hit a brick wall before I could consider him tame.
For four months I continued to work my normal techniques on this African Grey with little to no results, which forced me to make a decision…
I either needed to ‘give up’ and take the patience and time approach. Or I needed to drastically rethink the way I was doing thing.
I decided to drastically rethink the way I was doing things.
The determining factor in this decision was actually made while simply watching my African Grey try to get to his water dish.
The way my African Grey’s cage was set up, there was a perch that lay across the main perch in his cage that he would have to step OVER if he wanted to get to his water bowl. For any normal bird this wouldn’t have been a problem… but with my African Grey, the perch was an obstacle to be feared, and he refused to touch it.
Over the course of the first four months I had him in the cage, he never built up the courage to step over this perch.
Instead he’d come up close to it, and then leap over it… literally jumping into his water dish.
This is when I had my big breakthrough and realized, “if a perch that had always been in the cage, and had never moved, and had never fallen down while my bird was standing on it, couldn’t be patient enough to earn my birds trust, then how in the hell was I going to earn his trust with nothing but patience?”
So I decided that patience was mostly BS, and that I needed to rethink my training approach to scared birds completely.
This is how I came to evolve the 3 Phases Of Fear training model that I taught to at our live Total Parrot Transformation seminar, that was eventually responsible for training my African Grey to stop biting and step up on cue within 30 days of me finally figuring out the formula.
The 3 Phases Of Fear training model is a holistic approach towards training your bird that is based off one key principles. They are:
Key Principle #1: Your birds progress is being blocked by EMOTIONAL reasons
Just like almost all of the problems we humans have are based off of unhealthy emotional reasons, like our Daddies not spending enough time with us, being abused, etc., parrots typically are held up from becoming more tame from emotional reasons too.
As the name of my Training Model suggests (The 3 Phases of Fear), there are three MAIN emotional roadblocks that parrots run into that prevent them from being tame. Each of these Mental roadblocks seem to be caused by specific, and very different emotional reason.
This means that in order to help your parrot develop, and overcome a certain type of fear he has, you need to use a training technique specifically designed for overcoming that particular fear; and STOP using those techniques once the fear has been overcome.
But it’s a little more complicated then that…
Not all Emotions are weighted equally!
Have you ever seen Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid?
In his pyramid, Maslow suggested that people can’t work on filling the needs at the top of the pyramid before filling the needs at the bottom of the pyramid, because some needs build a foundation for even having the ability to want other needs.
In birds there are three stages of emotional needs that you will need to work on to ever have a tame bird. I call these these stages:
1) The Getting Closer Phase
2) The Accepting Contact Phase
3) The Initiating Contact Phase
In each of these three phases a parrot has a particular type of fear that is triggering him to bite or be afraid of you, and it takes a particular type of technique, or several techniques to help your bird get over that type of fear.
And like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you’d better not try to work on the 2nd and 3rd phases of fear before first addressing the emotional needs in the first phase.
A perfect example of this is my free video online that teaches a technique that I call the Power Pause technique. In this free video I show how I got two different birds to stop attacking when people came near them. (The Getting Closer Phase Of Fear)
It’s a specific technique for people who’s birds have an emotional problem with their owners getting to close to them, and in a few short minutes helps most birds fix this problem.
Some of my clients think this technique is MAGIC and want to use it to solve everything wrong with their bird… but it doesn’t work that way. It’s a technique that’s awesome at addressing one of the emotional roadblocks parrots still in the first phase of fear have.
If any of my clients who’ve had success using the Power Pause technique during the first phase of fear, were to try to use it to train their parrot to do a behavior in the second or third phase of fear, it wouldn’t work.
This is because the emotional roadblocks that your parrot has to overcome to be comfortable with you coming close to him, are different from those he has to overcome to enjoy being pet, and different again for the emotions he has to overcome to be comfortable stepping up onto your hand.
When you are clear about where your parrot’s emotional weaknesses are, what techniques can help you overcome them and what ones can’t, that’s when you can achieve incredibly fast taming and training results.
If your bird is not getting noticeably better behaved 9 out of every 10 days you train him, then you are most likely not using techniques that are addressing his emotional needs the way they need to be.
If you’d like my most advanced teachings on how to match up the most appropriate training techniques help your parrot overcome his emotional roadblocks, I would encourage you to watch my 3 Phases of Fear & Mistrust DVD presentation. You can get a copy here:
Total Parrot Transformation Seminar DVD Series
We are running low on these sets, so there might be a couple week delay while we wait for a new shipment to come in, so please be patient, and feel free to email us if you can’t wait that long for your copy to show up.
Key Take Away To Ponder:
If your parrot does not have a lot of emotional roadblocks to overcome, his training should be incredibly fast. With these types of parrots, you can drastically increase the quality of your relationship with them by simply doing daily trick training exercises. The parrot owners who talk about how they fix their bird’s behavior in minutes or a few days are typically owning this kind of bird with a low level of emotional baggage.
If simple daily interaction and trick training sessions are not improving the relationship you have with your bird, your bird likely has more Emotional Baggage, and you should consider investing in more training education to fully understand how to work with the issues your bird has developed. Your bird is probably not ready for trick training yet, and needs to have some emotional roadblock removal first.
The more emotional baggage your parrot has, the MORE training techniques you will need to use to tame him, and the more you will need to fully understand his behavior. But this does NOT mean it has to take a long time. You may not be able to fully tame your bird in a few days, but you should be able to drastically transform your bird in 30 days.
I’m not saying anyone can completely eliminate their birds problems in 30 days, but if your doing things right, you should be able to make enough progress that you’re incredibly encouraged to continue working with your bird.
Try to remember that you are probably on track if 9 out of 10 times that you interact with your parrot you are NOT getting bitten, and he is making noticeable progress. If this does NOT describe how the relationship with your parrot is going, and you do not make daily progress with him, consider investing in more advanced training like my Seminar DVD series or from another professional parrot trainer that can help point out why your not getting the results you’re after with your bird.
Here’s hoping this helps some of you get a little better understanding about what you should be able to expect out of your training.
Hello Chet,
I always enjoy reading your blog and have found it very helpful. I have purchased your Transformation DVD series and have to say there is alot of information on all those dvds. At times it a bit overwhelming to take it all in.
I have since added three additional parrots to our home. Another baby ( now 11 months) Senegal and just recently two baby (17wk old) Congo Africian Greys. I have been trying to teach them to “touch” the tip of a stick with the clicker method. Some days are better than others. The female grey ( Peaches) seems to love to do this, but her brother (Greyson) is not interested at all. He only wants to climb my arm and tries to sit at the highest point, usually my head. He’s not that in to treats for reward.
Also, how can I keep them from flying off their station. They will stay for quite a extended time, but for no reason they or just one will fly off. Any sugguestion?
I have to say that before I found your site, I would have probaly only owned one parrot but now with the improvements in my first Senegal ( Kiwi) even my husband has become a fan. Thanks!
I so like reading your post`s . It would have been even better if I had the money to buy some of the material that you are offering. But short off money as I am
Right now I having I problem with my red bellie perrot. My son, soon 10 years old is so nice with him, letting him out of the cage when he is comming home from school, sitting down doing his home work, the bird is not nice to him, biting. And I think the bird is sooo stupid, why bite the one who is letting you out????? Yea I know, the bird is over one year old, he is like any dogs/cats trying to be att the top of the rang… But it so hurt me, to se my son crying over getting bitting, he really loving the bird. We all love that bird.
I have recently bought an african grey 6 months old for my daughter, however he seems to have bonded with me and now bites both of my girls whenever they try to touch him, he only responds to my voice and has stopped playing, this is strange, as when he arrived he was so friendly and docile with us all, and loved climbing around the top of his cage,can you advise please.
I would like to train my two budgies how to talk and every time I get an e-mail from you I have to buy stuff to have that happen! I asked my mom if we could get it but she says she cant afford it.So she said we just got to take some time to train them.Do you always need people to buy stuff if they want to train their bird?
Its not how long it takes to train a parrot for me but how long to untrain them. My eclectus says over a 100 words. Sings full songs really unbeleivable. But I cant seem to get him to stop screeming when I leave the room. I have spoiled him. I tried to let him screem and left the room then only went in when he stopped but it wont work. Now I feel lilke screeming. We dont want the neighbors to call the police so finally we give in. I wish I had known about spoiling parrots sooner. I love your emails keep on writing them.
Hey Chet,
I have a problem with my cockatiel that maybe you could help with
He’s still young, only jjust getting his yellow feathers on his face (:
but all he wants to do is wonder around my room and have his head scratched, also he likes biting me :\
I really dont know what his emotional needs are and as much as I’d love to buy your DVD’s to hellp us i really cant afford it
Is there any tips you could help me with?
Thanks in advance
I, also, don’t have the money to purchase your material: although I would love too! All that I know of my Orange Wing Amazon parrot is from what you send for free to me, and I GREATLY appreciate this! I am fortunate that I have never had issues with my bird biting, and once I learned from your free material (and that it was ME with the issue) he steps up now just fine! My bird is my sanity, at times, and even enjoys going out on bike rides with me. I am known around town as the “Bird Lady”! LOL Thank you for all of your free materials to help me in being able to take care of my parrot. You have no idea how valuable it is to me =) I haven’t ever attempted to ‘train’ him anything, and I think he gets bored. He turned 2 this September, and I’ve been told he should be talking by now. I don’t know… maybe he’ll get there someday! Thank you, again. I loved your video about the interupting parrot! Maybe someday mine will talk like that, too!
Chet,
Our parakeet is very tame is many ways (he loves to perch on our finger, fly and land on our shoulder, he flies around the house so he can hang out with us…and he has a very big vocabulary!). The thing I want to ask about is that I’d really like to be able to scratch his head or hold him in my hand and he will not tolerate it at all! He gets angry, bites and/or flies away when we try that. I’m wondering if someone has a better approach to that or should I just accept him the way he is?
Dear Chet,
My husband got your video and EBooks and working on his food change and then will start working with my two birds.
Thank you
Chet, I have one for you, parrot owner for 15 years, follower of yours for many, last week, husband and I decided to integrate his timneh (17 y/o F) with my grey(almost 6y/oM) cages together for 3 years, for the first time. His timneh, on his lap near the cages( she thinks she’s a red tailed hawk), and I let my Congo out. Well, it was fun we think, he landed on my head several times, kinda playing tag, I think, going bqck to his cage top and laughing, several times. I read birdtalk all the time, own your vidoes, watch all the emails you send…….I can’t figure out if this is play or aggresion?? Knowing these birds, I think it’s play, but I certainly don’t want to encourage this if it’s agression! They really think it’s fun and he’s not pecking my head , just tagging me. What do you think?……..Gin
Hi Chet, I have a 2 1/2 yr old, female, Scarlet Macaw. She loves to play, including rolling on her back, and throwing a small toy and I catch it, and we do this over and over again. She is a bit nippy, but nothing I can’t handle. … My main problem with her, is, when someone else comes close, or walks by us, she will stretch out and try to bite them, and if she can’t reach them, she gives me a pretty good bite. I am the only one that can touch her, or feed her, and this is a real problem. Now she likes to cuddle and be pampered by me, and handling her is fine, but only by me. What can I do to like other people too? …. Thanks, …Randy
[...] areas of fear with birds, as well as aggression. We even worked out these strategies LIVE at our Seminar in Florida and talk about the “3 Phases of Fear and Mistrust” and how to find out which phase [...]
In reading your comments and suggestions, I have learned a lot and some have worked very well.
I have a beautiful grey with orange cheeks and yellow faced cockateil. My bird is 7 months old. I love this little bird very much and spend every minute I can with her( I think it’s a “her”). My issue is that I work days and Tikki is left alone all day. I leave the TV on for her and because it gets dark before I get home, I also leave a light on. Is she feeling alone or abused because she can’t see me all day? When I get home, it takes her about an hour to become friendly with me and start talking to me.
Should I do something to make her feel better about me being gone from her all day?
Thank you Chet
hi i think what u do is wonderful and i enjoy the emails. i find there is one problem never mentioned that idk if it can even be fixed but im sure if it can u can do it. see i gave a cockatoo a home about a year ago who was having some problems with not getting enough attention. she is a wonderful bird who never bites is very tame and loves ppl except she whines all the time literally all the time. i did read somewhere that its normal however not much is written about this if it is true. i would really like to know if this can be fixed or if its just what a goffin” s cockatoo naturally does?
Similar to many other comments, I do not have the money to purchase your products however would love to have them. I have implemented the free advice and had a little success with my goffins cockatoo. We rescued this highly abused bird (only had head feathers and didn’t like touch or attention) 2 years ago and right away had everyone get close enough for her discomfort and leave, returning as instructed. This technique has allowed my children and I to pet and get close to her; however, having been highly abused by a male owner she will not let my husband near her. Even upon entering a room she will begin chewing her feet and feathers and would rather commit suicide than let him touch the cage, often diving off of her perches to try to escape. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Chet,
I have a female Corella, a rescued bird, she had a broken wing, and now can’t use that wing. She was with someone but had to be handed back in. Since I have had her, she is very human oriented. She likes cuddles, and scratches, and chatters away to me as she walks around my shoulders. She likes to nibble on me, fingers, ears, etc. It starts out gentle. But as she spends more time with me the bites get really hard. Like she gets too excited. I tell her NO, or make a harsh noise, and she stops most times, but it is still happening. If she gets to bitey I put her on a perch and wave and say bye bye and leave. But she isn’t getting the message about the biting. How do I deal with this?
hey thanks chet ,
very smart at working out a formula though i reckon your a bird psychologist coz u get in the head of a bird instead of being just a trainer
i understood abit of your article its just a little confusing to process.
Chet,
I’m wondering if i should apply this philosophy in reverse. My 24-y/o yellow naped Amazon, Fred, (who I have had since he was 4 mos old) bites/attacks viciously. My middle finger is currently healing from a bite received while I was putting green beans in his food bowl, thru the feed door. He ripped into my finger so deeply that the slice was clear through the fat pad (disgusting, and extremely painful). Fred used to be very tame (I tamed him past his fear of hands in a darkened room, where he couldn’t see my hands approaching). He soon would go with me everywhere, and was so gentle he’d preen my eyelashes (not recommended!). He sings opera in some unknown language that he made up; he laughs uproariously, says I love you, hello, bye bye, and answers “weeweeewee” when asked how the little piggy goes. All told, he says about 10 things.
My first child was born when Fred was 2, and when my son began to toddle, Fred was kept in his cage more frequently (to protect him from my eager toddler). When Fred entered puberty, he became a vicious biter, and subsequently stayed in his cage. He’s stopped learning new words, too. He loves to be petted through the cage bars, and I stay out when his eyes are flashing/tail feathers flared. I’ve been bitten many times, through his feed doors, or when Fred escapes his cage (when I forget to close his water/feed bowl door when I take them to be washed).
I’d love to have the fun, affectionate bird that he was when he was a baby, but perhaps that’s not the nature of Amazon’s. I’m not sure I can be conditioned and retrained to not have a fearful energy that he clearly senses, and then attacks. I wonder if I should use the method I used in my ignorant youth, 22 years ago, and train him in the dark.
Thoughts?
Thanks for all your insights.
Interesting. I didn’t know when I first saw the free training videos that they could teach your bird to sit on your finger and be petted. I realized that now and am using the power pause. I was wondering, If I have three parakeets in a cage and I do the training diet will it be random which bird(s) I get to train depending on which birds ate the most?
Hi Chet, I bought your training seminar DVD’s, and watched the one about fear. My conure cares not how close I get to him, or even if I help groom him. I have tried power pause, and he just either doesnt care(aka grooming) or just goes crazy the entire time. He never settles. He doesnt care about the clicker, and even though he’s novice at target training, he wont dare get on my hand. He just bites the living hell out of it. I was hoping your DVD’s would tackle this. I dont know what to call it? He just doesnt like being touched or being on my hand unless he gets treats(is in the same situation near his cage)or if I’m grooming him. I tried treating him when I groomed him, but he’s just to occupied. Its extremely stressful, and I just dont feel cut out for this.. I want him to be happy, and from what I’ve heard, he’s not exactly “happy”. Anyway, any insight would be helpful.- Lily
Patience can occasionally pay off too. Granted it is going on three years instead of 6 months your way. Luckily, totally on instinct, I was using your methods with my abused African Grey. We are down to the issue of stepping up on command; I think we are getting close. Chet, I did recently implement a dedicated full-spectrum light as your program suggested, and I see almost immediate positive changes in my bird’s mood. Thanks for pointing out that maybe we are not giving our birds enough “natural” lighting. Oh, and her colors may be brighter now too.
Chet:
I have a story to pass on regarding slow and patient training. I find it very helpful to read the various tid bits of information that I have received over the last few months.
This past April we took in a Parrot from a person my wife found out about through a web site that her company hosts. This person had to move into a smaller apartment and no longer could keep her parrot and cage. She did not want any money she just wanted a good home for her bird. She had listed it as being a rescue bird that would need a lot of care. For many years I have wanted an exotic bird but could not really afford a couple thousand dollars to get one. This woman was offering the bird, a very large cage, some books, his food, a travel cage, and a few other goodies so I couldn’t resist. When we went to look at the bird it was obvious that the bird had been seriously mistreated somewhere along its life path. He apparently only lived in a car for quite a while. It had lost a lot of feathers, around its neck, on its breast, in the middle of its back, most of its cheeks and the back of his head. It was a pretty scary looking bird. She also told me that he likes to bite so be careful not to lose a finger. I believe “Oscar” is a Yellow Collared Macaw but he has so few feathers remaining around his neck it is very difficult to be certain. The Bird is 23 years old and she had only had the bird for about 1 1/2 years. I new this was going to be a serious challenge and I was worried if I was up to the challenge but I wanted to try to do what I could for the bird.
The day I took Him home I thought the woman was very mistaken because I released the bird as I was setting up the cage and He walked over and walked right up onto my arm and seemed quite comfortable. From that moment on I knew we had done the right thing. In the first three weeks he had drawn blood 6 times and a couple of them were pretty bad but I was learning with each bite what he did not want and what he would allow. For a while I thought it might be more than We, my wife and I, could handle because Oscar did not appear to like my Wife either. Here we are 6 months later and he has not seriously bitten either of us for a couple of months now and he likes to be handled by us, as long as we don’t move too fast. For the last couple of weeks he has been molting and now he lets me help groom him by removing some of the sheath off of many of his new feathers. He lets me know if it is too sensitive for me to handle by giving a squawk and or giving me a gentle nip. He has grown in many of the bald spots so he is not so scary looking any more I am hoping that with each molt he will regain additional feathers. He does not have very many toys as he seems to be frightened of most new things. In the last couple of months he has allowed me to play tug-of-war with him with various items and he has taught me to fetch a few items that he likes to throw off of his cage for me to get for him. He has learned to imitate the sound of people laughing which I find very funny.
My reason for this rather long winded story is I believe he has just now reached a stage where I might be able to start some serious attempts at trick training. Now I have to try and figure out just how to go about it so that we both have fun doing it. I hope that anyone who is having trouble getting quick results might keep the above story in mind.
Thank you again Chet for the many tips you have sent out as I have found them very helpful and I am sure many other have as well.
Doug, Fran and Oscar