Parrot Tricks: Teaching Parrots with Positive Reinforcement
Keep your parrot stimulated and active, and he will keep you entertained!
By nature, parrots are inquisitive, intelligent, and social animals. You can capitalize on these characteristics and obedience train your bird, teaching him behaviors that will make your life and his more enjoyable––behaviors such as stepping on your hand or wrist on command, and going to a designated perch. Then you can progress to teach him all kinds of tricks. He'll love the attention, communication, and socialization. From the essential basics of obedience training to awesome tricks that will amuse and amaze your friends, Parrot Tricks covers:
- Techniques to use during the "get acquainted" period
- Setting up a training area and using food as a training tool
- Training basics such as targeting, luring, and using cues
- Necessary obedience skills such as step up, come, perch, and stay
- The basic retrieve command, the foundation of many tricks
- Simple tricks such as shake hands, high five, kiss, and take a bow
- Tricks based on the retrieve command, including basketball, ring on the peg, and stacking cups
- Advanced tricks such as pulling a wagon, pushing a grocery cart, raising a flag, and riding a skateboard
- Innovative tricks that showcase your bird's natural abilities
- Chaining tricks, such as recycling and going to the mailbox
- Verbalizations and talking using the Rival/Model Method or the Positive Reward Method
- Directions for making simple props
With this book, patience, and practice, you'll build your understanding of and relationship with your bird as you build a repertoire of tricks. You can get your parrot to jump through hoops for you––literally!
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Book details
- Author
- Tani Robar
- Imprint
- Howell Book House, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Paperback
- Subjects
- Pets › Birds
- Topics
- bird training · companion birds · obedience training · pet bird care
- ISBN-13
- 9781620458075 (Paperback)9780764584619 (Hardcover)
About the authors
TANI ROBAR is a professional animal trainer who has produced four internationally sold videos and DVDs on parrot training. She is the co-author of Parrot Tricks: Teaching Parrots with Positive Reinforcement.
Robar has appeared three times on Animal Planet’s Pet Star television show, winning top place on one segment with her Black-headed Caique, Cassie.
When she’s not writing, Robar trains performing animals, gives lectures, and teaches others to train their companion parrots to perform tricks.
DIANE GRINDOL is a writer with companion birds since 1982 and the author of Cockatiels for Dummies, The Complete Book of Cockatiels, and co-author of Parrot Tricks: Teaching Parrots with Positive Reinforcement.
Grindol wrote Bird Talk magazine’s Small Birds column from 1988 until the magazine ceased publication in 2012 and briefly published Bird World Magazine in the 1990s.
When she’s not writing, Grindol has worked as a full-time pet sitter since 2002 and has coordinated companion bird seminars in California, Seattle, and Chicago since 1996.
Diane lives on the Monterey Peninsula in California.