How Parrot Trick Training Cures Agression

Yesterday I promised to share with you another example of how training a parrot to perform a task, can help calm down his aggressive behavior... ... so here I am to deliver that promise! If you've followed what we do at BirdTricks.com and you've read the story there about how I got my start in parrot training, you already know of my beloved Macaw, Tiko! I won't go into the whole story here, but basically I was raised by parents who purchased Tiko as a pretty pet for themselves... I think my cute little 5 year old begging may have also had something to do with it... but never the less, my parents did not know what it took to take care of a bird once it turned from a cute cuddly baby into an adult parrot. So when the bird was 15 years old is when I first started taking interest in figuring out what it took to tame and train a parrot. That's enough of Tiko's background... let's skip forward to when I when I got married... ... I hadn't been spending as much time with my Macaw for obvious reasons, and was about to introduce my finance' to Tiko for the first time... and when he saw her he through a fit, went into a rage and was VERY pissed! So pissed that as long as my wife was not in site he would be super loving and cuddly, but bite the living hell out of me the second she came into the room, and Tiko saw her. So as a quick fix, I decided to offer him a cue to a trick he knows... by the way he knows over 20 tricks... and see if he would respond. And wow what a difference. One second he's screaming and lunging at me to stay away, probably upset that I brought another lover into our little relationship, and then as soon as he saw the cue for 'the wave'... ... all the bad behavior instantly vanished, he picked up his foot, and gave the cutest little wave you've ever seen. And it had such an impact that after I rewarded him with a banana chip, he even let me pet him on the head, when 5 seconds ago he didn't want anything to do with me. I'm telling you! Trick training your parrot is WAY more important that people realize, and it has way more benefits than just being a cute source of entertainment for you and your friends. I'm not sure how it works, but training any animal a behavior, and then giving that animal the cue for that behavior while the animal is under stress, does something to the animals brain. My guess is that an animal under stress welcomes the comfort and structure that a training environment offers. The parrot is in a new situation, he's scared or angry, because he doesn't know what's going to happen. But then you help bring structure back into his situation by asking him to perform a behavior he's already done with you hundreds of times... and my guess is parrots, along with other animals welcome the structure that performing learned behaviors on cue provides.