Australian Birdkeeper – June-July 2018

Step-up training with positive reinforcement has been described
in previous articles, such as Living a Bite-free Life with Your
Parrot— Part II (ABK, Vol. 31, No. 2).

BUILD TRUST
Once your parrot sees your hand as the most important place to
be and comes running when you present it, it’s time to start fl ight
training. The reason we start with positive reinforcement is that giving
your parrot the option for fl ight allows it to develop skills safely.
Casting your bird off the hand—even if onto a soft, padded
area or close perch —is not only unsafe for your bird, but also
builds distrust. Your parrot doesn’t have the option of when or if
to leave the hand, and because it is not confi dent or skilled in the
air, both your hand and the act of fl ying will most likely become
a source of stress, and thus have a negative impact on its health
and your relationship.
Even in the case of accomplished, skilled fl ying birds, it is never
recommended to cast them off the trainer’s hand. To do so is a
form of negative reinforcement—you are using your hand as an
aversive to increase the behaviour of taking off and, in effect,
punishing (or decreasing) the behaviour of sitting on the hand.
Tossing a bird off the hand can therefore lead to the bird avoiding
your hand, avoiding engagement overall, and even biting.

SLOWLY ADD DISTANCE
Now that we have done our step-up repetitions and our bird is
sprinting across our training perch to our hand, we can start
pulling our hand slightly a few repetitions at a time until it is just
far enough that our bird has to use its beak to pull itself on. At this
point, I like to vary the distance a little at times, making it easier
and harder so that the bird doesn’t know quite what to expect.
Once the parrot is pulling itself onto the hand, we are ready to
ask it for a little hop. The distance away which your hand has to be
to get that hop will depend on how large or small your parrot is, but
it’s a good idea to have it just out of reach of your bird’s beak. You
don’t want it to be able to outsmart you by pulling your hand closer
and climbing on. This is perhaps the most challenging step, and its
success really depends on the bird. I try everything to not wiggle
my perch hand, but try and tempt the bird with the food hand.
If I can’t get that fi rst hop the fi rst time, I might walk away for a
few seconds before trying again. I might do this a couple of times
to really try to get the parrot to anticipate the cue and come to
my hand. If, after a few minutes, it just won’t overcome that fear
of hopping, I will step it up for the tiniest, most boring morsel of
food that it will possibly step up for and the session will end.
I don’t want my bird expecting that it can still get excellent

treats when it does not perform the requested cue. We might try

again later, or even the next day. Consistency is important when

training new skills in order for the bird to learn from its successes

and failures from the previous session.

THE HOP JACKPOT AND MOVING ON

Once we get that fi rst hop, it’s okay to make it a really big deal!

Throw a party (so to speak, as long as we don’t scare our parrot

with our enthusiasm), to help it understand that what it did was

really good. It can get some extra-special treats to match the

effort it put into the behaviour. We can try for one more repetition

and then give the bird a ‘jackpot’ reward, in an effort that the

lesson will stick with it through the next session.

How fast to move in order to increase the distance once we

get that fi rst hop largely depends on the bird we have in front of

us. It will tell us how much is too much, when it wants to keep

going, and when enough is enough. If we stay on one step too

long, we can get stuck on that step and have trouble progressing.

If we move too quickly, our bird can get frustrated and displace

or redirect its frustrations on objects or body parts around it.

Parrots are like us, they can get sore from using previously

unused muscles, which can make them tired and even grumpy!

CONCLUSION

Opening up an adult parrot’s world to fl ight in the home can have

tremendous rewards but also can introduce

the bird to new hazards. It is not a decision

that should be taken lightly, but with careful

thought that only the family can assess.

Training sessions are also a gift in trust in

a way that only positive reinforcement can

offer, and the journey itself is the reward.

Take your tame companion

bird outside safely.

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