I’m a big fan of Clicker Training. I believe it keeps the “bridge” consistent, obvious and stable, I wouldn’t train any other way. Now don’t get me wrong when I don’t have the clicker I will still use a verbal command like “Good Boy” or “Good (bird’s name)” or “Good bird” but I try to make sure I use that very rarely. One of the main reason is my voice can change in variation of tone and when/if someone else wants to train one of my parrots they will say it differently then I do which then loses the consistency. However if using a clicker then it doesn’t matter who is training, it remains the same.
Clicker training is something I would start as soon as possible. Once your parrot has settled in from when you first bought it home.
Training is something that is stimulating not only for your parrot but also fun for you so why not start as soon as you can? To start clicker training you only need two things, well 4 if you’re including yourself and the bird…
1) Yourself
2) A parrot
3) A clicker
4) A Treat
I explain about what’s needed to start training in What time is it?? It’s Training Time!!! It explains how to set up your environment and how to find that favorite treat that your parrot loves.
Clicker training will be the easiest training you will ever do.All you have to do is CLICK and give the Treat! You can start off with giving the treat and clicking at the same time for a few repetitions. Then you will click BEFORE giving the treat. I explain all of this on our youtube page, Parenting Parrots.
You will know your parrot understands what a clicker is, once you are able to click and your parrot is looking around for the treat. Once that happens you are ready for the next step in training: Target training.
