Author Archives: Hillary

Use your words: Conditioning Sam to a new environment

Moluccan cockatoo Sam has a lot to teach about preventing and replacing problem behaviors! Continue reading

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Anatomy of a happy afternoon

A warm winter afternoon brings about a rare lazy, goof-around freeflight session. Continue reading

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Cockatoo training…. with a little help

In my busy household, I squeeze in training sessions whenever I can. Sometimes, it means working with my birds in less than ideal situations with many distractions. Not something that makes for effective teaching. This is a clip of me … Continue reading

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What TO do

When looking at behavior challenges, looking at what we want the bird to do to be successful will help train our brain to look for behaviors we want to see continue and increase, and thus, reinforce. Continue reading

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Part II: R+ needs a strong supporting cast

My formal introduction to positive reinforcement was not exactly early on in my bird-owning career, but the concept was so effectively delivered that in one fell swoop, my quest for knowledge took a sharp turn in a new direction, leaving … Continue reading

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Back from the IAATE conference!

IAATE 2011 Conference hosted by the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Continue reading

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Part I: On positive reinforcement

First in a series about positive reinforcement: Why don’t we use it more? Continue reading

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Meet the feathers

Introducing the four feathered individuals who have been my most influential teachers. Continue reading

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Welcome bird nerds and behavior addicts!

Learning Parrots first blog post. Continue reading

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