Getting vocal behaviors on cue is one of my favorite things to train. Perhaps its because I’m pretty quiet and poised (brooding and intense if you ask those who work with me) and making noise with a parrot gives me an opportunity to cut loose in private. Training vocal behavior on cue requires teaching the sound or word, encouraging it and then capturing it.
So how do you train a bird to talk? The reality is that you are not going to teach every bird to talk. Even those with the propensity to mimic like Amazon parrots or African grey parrots may never utter a word in their life. My grey talks up a storm. My red-bellied ocassionally chimes in as well. My Senegal parrot, Loki, on the other hand, has never said a word of English. I guess she figures the grey speaks for the whole flock. Or maybe its just that she would never lower herself to communicate in human language. Her body language speaks volumes, but she has never so much as said, “hello” and I doubt she ever will. So with some parrots you can say “I love you” until you’re blue in the face and never hear more than a squawk for your efforts. Find another reason to love ‘em. There’s plenty of them. And they don’t all need to talk to be wonderful.
Already got a bird that talks and want to teach him something in particular? Try these three tips:
1. Repetition. Get a Wordy Birdy or some other contraption that repeats the word over and over every while your at work and don’t have to listen to it. Your bird may pick it up this way.
2. Animation. Parrots seem to adore the sound of language when its emotive. I’m guessing this from how quickly they learn to curse, yell at the dog and scream like a teenager calling you to pick up the phone.
3. Positive Association. Parrots seem to learn sounds more readily if they are associated with something positive or even better something that coincides with activity, noise and laughter. If you want your bird to learn something, say often when you’re playing with him.
Good Luck!! How to get it on cue, next!
You know? what i find funny is that they pick up on what THEY think is funny. Not necessarily what you think is funny. Why does my grey always, and i mean always, say UGHHHHGGHH! when i bend over… ha. or lean over to pick up something on the floor. he grunts. like i guess i must have before. Only once that i can remember. I don’t do it anymore. And HE STILLL does this every time i bend over. He thinks its hysterical. he might even laugh after..
It’s true. If you ask me as a trainer I’ll tell you its all about what is reinforcing and reinforcement is different for every parrot…blah blah blah. If you ask me over a beer I’ll tell you that I’m certain that parrots have a sick sense of humor and someday I’m going to invent a machine that reads their mind to prove it!