Text and Photos by Barbara Heidenreich

What's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the word "training"? Parrots riding bicycles, playing basketball, or singing songs? You can train your bird to do all of those things, but training is so much more than cute tricks. Training is really a synonym for teaching. Believe it or not, we are all trainers. Our companion parrots are learning from us all the time. It's just that we usually are not conscious of how much we are influencing their behavior. Training also is a form of communication. It serves as a language we can use to tell an animal what it is we want.

Our companion parrots are learning from us all the time.

Teach your bird what the cue, "Step up!", means by luring him with a favorite treat, such as sunflower seed.

It pays to learn the basics of training. Once you know how it works, you can apply its principles to better control your bird's behavior and create a happier and more harmonious parrot household. You can train him to perform practical behaviors such as stepping up, or fun behaviors such as "waving" or "talking" on cue. You can teach him to interact with other people, go into travel containers, step on a scale, go back into enclosures and give up objects in his beak. You can even use training to solve behavioral problems, such as screaming or biting.