When you are bringing home a new parrot, is training your new feathered buddy the first thing on your mind? Or are you in the same camp as one of my clients, Matthew, who emphatically explained to me: “when I think of training, I think...
There is a very well known debate in psychology as to whether nature or nurture informs our behavior. It turns out, this debate is common among animal behavior scientists as well. It turns out, both nature and nurture, or ethology and learning history, inform the...
If you’ve ever wondered why your parrot screams or how to train them to be well-behaved, this guide is for you! Let's start by thinking about screaming. Imagine your bird starts screaming because crows flew over. The crows leave, and your bird stops screaming. Seems simple,...
Selecting the right cage and play gym set up for your parrot is important for proper behavior and training ...
At our recent AvOCET conference, attendees were treated to an enlightening presentation by Sean Will and Maasa Nishimuta, founders of the Constructional Approach to Animal Training. Their talk focused on incorporating function-based training and degrees of freedom into modern animal training practices. What is function-based training...
This year’s Avian Online Conference for Education and Training (AvOCET) was the jolt of behavior science inspiration and collaborative juice I know I really needed. From AvOCET newcomers such as Emily Davenport of the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Alliance, Annette Pedersen of the Copenhagen Zoo, Joe Whitehead...
If you remember what life was like pre-Covid, you might have returned from a vacation to find your companion animal seemingly less than pleased that you were gone. It feels like they have an uncanny way of punishing us, from uncharacteristic messes on the floor,...
What do you get when you cross parrot lovers from California, bird of prey educators from Wyoming, thirty birds, a few hooftstock and chickens, and a hailstorm all in one workshop? A whole lot of mind-expanding fun! The Animal Training and Behavior Workshop at our...
Getting a new baby parrot is a wonderful thing. Some babies, like macaws, are particularly smooshy and lend themselves well to gentle puppy-like play, head and tummy rubs, and even idle snuggles while we watch the tube or work at our desks. Indeed, this seems...
If you share your main living space with a parrot, you know that parrots make noise as a normal way of life. Some parrots amp up a bit around morning and evening, and some (ahem, here’s looking at you, Quaker parakeets) can make a steady...