Carly Lu’s Flight Blog

learning how to train for improved behavior, flight and enrichment

Before investing time or money in training materials, learn to discriminate what is high quality and what is not. Poor training can be worse than no training. The first two articles are by the past president and president-elect of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators; the last are my own observations on freeflight training advice:

• Beware the Silver Bullet by Sid Price
• Parrot Training Marketing Secrets by Barbara Heidenreich
• Don’t Be Bird-tricked

Good Bird Magazine
Barbara Heidenreich’s magazine with a wealth of information on positive reinforcement training for companion parrots. Barbara has worked extensively with zoos and free-flight programs and is the past president of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators.

Dr. Susan Friedman: Articles on Bird Behavior and Operant Conditioning
Using principles of operant coditioning and positive reinforcement to train and solve behavior problems.

Sid Price’s Training Blog
An interactive blog for questions and answers about bird training by Sid Price of Avian Ambassaors, and the president-elect of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators.

Don’t Shoot the Dog
By Karen Pryor. Essentials of understanding and applying positive reinforcement training, for any species (even human!) Highly recommended.

Clicker Training for Birds
By Melinda Johnson. How to use positive reinforcement methods for training and enrichment. Highly recommended.

Bird-click Training Group
Free interactive Yahoo group run by Melinda Johnson. A great place to start learning about training! Lots of good information from both members and articles on the site.

Natural Encounters Training Library
Excellent articles by bird trainer Steve Martin and others at NEI on a wide variety of avian training topics.

Food Management & Training: The Mouse Went Down the Hole
Detailed article by Cassie Malina from Natural Encounters about use of food and weight management. Includes a good example of a daily weight and training log.

Strong Foundations & Adjustments: Keys to Training Success
Sid Price article on consistency in training, while recall training a Pied Crow.

Parrot Behavior Lessons & Problem Assistance
Susan Friedman’s group of Applied Behavior Analysis students can help one-on-one with strategies to solve problem behavior. Mini-lesson series introduces the concepts of Applied Behavior Analysis with examples from the world of companion parrots.

Karen Pryor’s Clicker Training Library
A large library of articles on using positive reinforcement training, with birds and many other animals.

International Assn. of Avian Trainers & Educators. Many excellent training resources for members.