Positive reinforcement

Positive training puts the owner in the position of leader. One's parrot will begin looking to him or her for cues on how to behave. By using positive reinforcement and keeping bird training sessions fun, the parrot will try to please its owner to get positive attention as a reward. According to Irene Pepperberg's avian research, pet birds have the intelligence of a three to five-year-old child. They require mental stimulation to remain emotionally healthy, and bird trick-training exercises a bird's brain. Training a parrot with positive reinforcement techniques uses rewards to strengthen or increase the frequency of a behavior.

An example of positive reinforcement training with a companion parrot is to take a parrot who is afraid of stepping up onto its owner's hand and rewarding it with a desired treat when it shows relaxed behavior next to the owner's hand. The parrot would then be rewarded for allowing the hand to come closer, and would be rewarded for stepping up onto the hand. Another example would be for a trainer to wait until a screaming parrot is quiet for a very short time, and then immediately reward it with praise and attention. The owner would then gradually increase the amount of time the parrot must be quiet to receive the extra attention.

With this type of positive reinforcement approach to training (see shaping), the parrot is only rewarded for behaviors that bring it closer to the final desired outcome. For this technique to work effectively, it is common to have to reward a parrot several times for making very small amounts of progress.

Training a parrot with this type of positive reinforcement is the least abrasive approach to training parrots, and often the most effective parrot training technique to use when a companion parrot owner desires to use a training technique that will develop a stronger emotional bond with their parrot.

Positive reinforcement is also very useful for trick training. A desired trick behavior can be shaped gradually, rewarding a parrot for approximations to the desired behavior. Trick training is generally considered to be positive for parrots.

In Clicker training, a parrot is taught to associate a click with receiving a reward and is a particularly popular form of positive reinforcement training.In clicker training, The click noise can be used to mark the instant a parrot does the desired behavior, making for more efficient training.

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