clickers and CAG's

[Girliebird]

Hi I read a book about basic training by a well known British parrot behaviourist and he warned against using clickers with african grey parrots as he explained that clicks are used as part of the birds repertoire in the wild and signify anger and are a warning that aggressive behaviour could follow. Therefore you could well be traumatising your bird by clicker training . any one else heard this?

[Wolf]

To date, I have seen no evidence of this behaviorists claims being valid.
Yes, my Grey uses various clicks, whistles and beeps in her normal communications, but she has never responded aggressively to my beeping at her in response to her beeps, nor have I had this occur due to my use of whistles or clicks with her. I also have a clicker and although she enjoys destroying them, this is due to her playing with it and taking it apart not due to aggression. She loves taking things apart, but she is terrible at putting them back together.
This behaviorist must think that Greys are particularly stupid. I have no other way of thinking about his claim. To think that a being that uses beeps, whistles, clicks and whirrs as part of their normal communication could not tell the difference between an organically produced click as used in communication from a mechanically produced click with no meaning, is a bit ludacris to me.

[Leanna]

I used clicker training with one of my Congo Greys and he took right to it. He liked to be out of his cage right away, but he was very nippy. He loves walnuts, so I used them for his treat with the clicker. He was a rescue bird, but came around fairly fast. I have had him over two years now, and he has made a strong bond with me. My newest rescue Congo Grey is so far indifferent to the clicker, and getting treats from me, but I am hoping to be able to make some progress with him.

[Wolf]

Upon being drawn back to this thread and the question posed, I see where I could have worded my reply better and more gently than I did, sometimes hindsight does help. I still agree with my original reply, but although I was rather blunt, I really intended not offence and I will continue to try to learn to moderate my own replies to make them less offensive in the future.