I'm just getting back in town and bringing April to a close with speaking at the Michiana Bird Society in Mishawaka, Indiana and a presentation at ... Read More
Animal Training
Time For You & Independence For Them…
It's easy to do...it's easy to get wrapped up in the daily lives of taking care of our bird(s). Change waters, fresh food, fresh veggies, new toys, ... Read More
Putting Behaviors on Cue…Knowingly or Unknowingly
A cue is a sound or signal that elicits a behavior. Many times we give cues or signals to our birds when we want them to do something. For example, we ... Read More
Taking the ‘Command’ out of the Positive Reinforcement Vocabulary
To the best of my ability I try to implement positive reinforcement techniques, approaches, and training to my every day interactions with the birds ... Read More
Just some daily reflections on behavior
So many things coming to mind that I want to sit and write about. I'm just returning from a trip out of town that I seriously considered canceling. ... Read More
A Foraging Idea
Living with five parrots, training one owl several times a day, and focusing on behavior, training, and enrichment with several other species of ... Read More
It’s A New Day, It’s A New Way
So here I sit, wide awake at 3:48, the morning after Thanksgiving. It's Black Friday and people are out busting down the doors of stores in search of ... Read More
A Bit About Reinforcement
Reinforcers are anything that follows a behavior that causes that behavior to maintain or increase. For example, a bird steps up or flies to you when ... Read More
What is appropriate enrichment?
That's easy. The animal will tell us. If my birds aren't interacting with their toys, they are then call 'obstacles'. I spoke about this topic in ... Read More
The Proof Is In The Pudding
The proof is in the pudding...about positive reinforcement training, that is. Sometimes I don't even like to use the word 'training' when I'm talking ... Read More
Colorado Behavior, Training, & Enrichment Workshop
I so miss coming on here and posting the way I used to. I had a parent fall ill this spring and I devoted most of my attention to him and so glad I ... Read More
Question on training a behavior; training a bird to trust me getting closer in proximity to him.
Question: Dear Lara, About a month ago I adopted what I was told to be a 6-year-old blue-fronted hybrid amazon parrot. When I got him I ... Read More