THE VERY FIRST STEP
So let’s begin! The first important thing to
understand is the thinking process your bird will
be going through during the training and how to
take advantage of that process. So I will do my
best to put you in your bird’s shoes, so to speak.
But getting a parrot to go from letting you touch
him, to letting you pet him, or stepping up for you
is a WHOLE other ballgame.
Remember, your parrot is still fearful of you…
the second you try to reach for his feet to pick
him up, or start scratching behind his head is
probably going to get you nipped or bitten very
quickly… and the trust you’ve just built up
by following the “Power Pause” technique will be
destroyed.
So we need to figure out a way to bridge this gap.
I’ve shown you how to get your parrot comfortable
with letting you come close to him, but now we need
to convince your parrot to cover the next 10% on
his own — that means you can’t force ANYTHING!
This means we need to give your parrot a reward
that is MORE important and enticing than his fear
of being touched by you.
And we need to offer that treat as a reward for
your parrot when he starts to come closer to you.
But here’s the cardinal SIN I used to make when I
first started trying to offer rewards to my parrot
for stepping up or letting me pet him…
I didn’t put him on a training diet… oops