Lecturing a misbehaving parrot?

[Electic]

I find that when Shyla is acting up, a firm 1-2 minute lecture of her unacceptable behavior really seems to make her more polite and more conscious of her actions, almost like telling your 3 year old daughter that what she did was wrong, tends to fix the behavior in the future. I find it to have a pretty good success rate when I do this, anybody else experience this?

[marie83]

Never really tried it, I prefer to ignore bad behaviours but my bf does the jump away then lecture thing. He still gets bitten at least once a day and I can't remember the last time I got bitten now.

Shall be interested to hear if anyone else uses your method though.

[Electic]

I do ignore things such as nipping ever since a baby which is why I think I've never been bitten by Shyla, neither has anyone else in the family, I only lecture when she's just acting up for the sake of acting up, you all know how mischievous these guys can be :p she's an absolute sweetheart, it's the cutest thing when she looks up at me with a sorry look her on face, and gets all cute and starts making baby noises after the little lecture, i make sure to lighten up the mood quickly with playful wrestling or giving her a toy to play with.

[marie83]

Oh like refusing to step up/go back in cage? that kind of thing or am I on the wrong track?

I take the same approach with stuff like that, ignore the bird then try again and reward well for co-operation. Same with the biting I very very rarely encounter the unco-operative side to Ollie these days whereas he will give my partner the run around big time as he doesn't feel the way I do things is necessary. You would think after 2 & 3/4 years he would realise his way isn't working and change tact. My partner really does believe that "having a chat" to Ollie about his behaviour works but its obvious Ollie is the naughty little schoolboy who is sniggering behind his sleeve all the while... lol

The kids do things my way to and don't have too many issues with Ollies mischevious side- apart from when he chases their feet I cant seem to get it into my partners and his 3 kids heads that the reason Ollie doesn't chase my feet is because I don't pay any attention what so ever. I wouldn't care if these lectures were actually working, I'm open to all ideas but they just seem to be encouraging the misbehaviours so then it takes me longer to get him to respect my rules if that makes sense?

What kind of behaviours do you lecture him on?

[Electic]

I would lecture her on things such as excessive rough housing, I explain that it's okay to play fight but to know your limit, just like a 3 year old wrestling with dad, the 3 year old is bound to do some crazy kung fu moves without even knowing and could possibly injure the dad, etc. things like going to places that she well knows she shouldn't go to, generally turns her off from going to that place, things of that sort, when she doesn't want to step up, generally I just leave her alone, she usually had a good reason to not stepping up, like looking outside the window and enjoying herself, I wouldn't want to disturb her. She never really gets cage aggressive or any sort of horrible behaviors mainly because I'm so consistent with changing up her environment, she will get high and mighty on top of her cage and I give her a chance to go on top as well, but she knows if she doesn't step up from the top, I'm leaving for the room for no more than 10 seconds, and that fixes her up quite nicely. I have different techniques for all types of unwanted behavior, the lecture for the listed above, I just love the faces she gives me and how she reverts into a cute baby again.

[GreenWing]

Hah, glad that it works for you, because lecturing doesn't work AT ALL for my Senegal. Believe me, I've tried -- with the opposite results! If lecture her with a wagging finger, it just angers her and she opens her beak up for a bite. Tiki's aggression has chilled big time since she is flying and I've worked with her, but Senegals are instigators and will start a fight. If she's bad, I ignore the behavior and reinforce good behavior with attention and praise. This seems to be the best course of action for my sennie, at least.