African Grey Training

by fritzmb

AFRICAN GREY TRAINING: 

The African Grey is an amazing bird and it is a well known fact that it is a curious and intelligent animal. Emotionally they have been compared to small children and toddlers.

If and when you decide to get an African Grey parrot, you must be prepared for a lot of challenges. One of these challenges will be the training. Training your African Grey is not only important but is crucial. You must stick to good training program that works for both you and your parrot.

The African Grey is able to speak and mimic a large number of words. They are able to learn more than 2000 words when trained properly. They can duplicate sounds such as bells, lawnmowers, kettles etc. You must be careful what you say around them as they will copy what you say. To avoid embarrassment stick to words that is relevant to the training process. Mimicking words means they are saying random words that you have taught them, however you can teach them to understand what they say with time and patience.

African Greys' are shy animals especially around strangers. It takes time and patience to teach them social skills that will help them become more confident. Social skills are vital for an emotionally healthy parrot.

New things should be introduced to them gradually so that they can adjust and get use to it. Remember your African Grey is skittish to new things. They are going to be a good addition to the family once they are comfortable within their surroundings. You will find that they are very affectionate and sociable.

I previously spoke about introducing new things to your African Grey gradually this also applies to people as well as their toys.

They love their toys and this provides with good stimulation. Things must be taken slowly and not too many things introduced at once.

If your African Grey is scared and very shy, you should use training methods that emphasis positive reinforcement. This will aid your relationship with your African Grey companion.

One very good training technique is of course the feeding training. Feeding them treats helps for them to adapt and adjust to various situations. To motivate and assist your bird with training find out what foods they like. Look at what they eat first at feeding time and what they eat last. It is like dessert after dinner, they will work harder for the treat they like more.

By making your training session more playful will ensure that the time spent with your African Grey is more fun and interesting. Make sure to put enough time aside to spend time with your African Grey to train him.

Let them get use to your voice by speaking to them on a continuous basis while they are still in their cage. Just like people every bird has its own personality and through enough experimentation you will soon realize what works best for both you and your African Grey.

Another very effective training is called the "Clicker training". What this basically is in a nutshell: Every time you bring in a new toy. Place the toy in the same room as them and every time they look at the toy, you click and reward them. Continue to do this every day and bring the toy closer towards them. Keep at it until they are no longer scared of the toy and begin to play with it.

This method can be used when introducing people to a very shy African Grey. And as always be patient with your parrot. In time your parrot will learn to trust your judgment will feel comfortable with the people you are comfortable with. For more info visit the blog site African Grey Training.

Margaret-Ann is an animal and nature lover. She fell in love with parrots while still in primary school. The African Grey is her favorite parrot. The Congo and the Timneh have grabbed her attention the most. She has done a lot of research on both these parrots and admires their intelligence. 

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Humane Training

by TinyTall

We hear a lot about the concerns surrounding electronic dog collars. These collars do have built in safety features that help make them safe, useful and humane for all normal, healthy dogs.

Collars with Sound Correction
If you review the electronic training collars that are available you'll find that nearly every one of them has an audible option. These can be used with perimeter training, hunting/field training or even for training your pet. These collars issue a sound that while most people can't hear them they are not pleasant for your dog to hear. These beeps can be used to stop inappropriate behavior by sending a transmission from a hand-held transmitter. Most dogs once they realize that certain behavior results in these unpleasant sounds then they will stop the behavior. The training is accomplished because the animal begins to realize that the sound is associated with the behavior and soon he'll realize that if he acts differently, the sound will not be heard. This will help keep your dog safe, behaved and well under control. These corrections are effective and they are humane, safe and temporary.

Collars that Vibrate
We've all had a telephone or perhaps a pager that vibrated so we're familiar with how mild the vibration is. Much like this, an electronic vibrating collar is used for training dogs. While these collars issue a mild vibration that cannot harm your dog, because the vibration starts suddenly, the dog focuses his attention on what's going on. If the vibration is properly administered, the dog learns that it's an indication that he's doing something that is unacceptable. These vibrations can be manually controlled if used in a fence and they can be electronically programmed into collars.

Either way, this vibration is likely to deter inappropriate behavior or barking.

Training Collars
One on nice thing about the collars for training is they soon become self-fulfilling. Your dog is likely to correct any behavior that is unacceptably by your dog merely seeing you approach him with the collar. This means that your dog is conditioned to associating the beeps or vibrations with the collar. This method of training is called associative learning - the dog learning the proper response to direct stimulation.

The Electric or Static Charge
Owners of dogs who are particularly stubborn may find the beeping or vibrating collar isn't enough to control their dogs. The electric or static charge that your dog gets from these collars is quite similar from the shock you'd get if you picked up a static charge from your carpeting and then touched something metal. The shock has no long term effect, but it is a bit of surprise.

Trainer Control
One of the best safety features of most electronic collars is that you as the trainer have complete control over the level of stimulation. You elect the intensity of the beep, vibration or static. Your dog will receive the training he needs, it will be humane and you can achieve results quickly, and with complete control. You'll quickly find the levels that work best with your dog.

You will hear about many trainers that tell you that they check out the collars on themselves. This is because trainers want to be comfortable that the level of stimulation that they are giving to their dogs is safe. Educating yourself about the various types of collars that are available will mean humane, practical training of your dog. You and your dog can have more fun if he's well trained and receptive to your commands. Using the proper training collar can help ensure this.

Geoffrey A. English is the Founder of GundogsOnline.com, the internet's premiere online magazine dedicated to hunting dogs. Their site has a wide variety of dog training collars such as Innotek IUT-1000 and Innotek 300.

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Puppy Obedience Training Explored

Dogs are domestic animals that have the ability of quick learning and can be trained from home quite easily. The early you start training your dog the early you get the result by hand. Any member of your family can take the responsibility of training a puppy. It is not necessary that a dog needs to know all sorts of activities that special trained dogs can do. It is always better to make it understand what you want from it and what type of behavior it should leave to stay at your home.

Puppy obedience training can be started from the very day you bring it home. Make it understand the value of some basic commands like sit, stand, jump, creep and many more. Make sure that when you shout command of sit it sits down properly and you must help it understand how to sit formally. It is not like it can understand all of your commands in a day or two but it is quite evident that in a couple of week it will understand meanings and it may start performing as you want.

Dog obedience training is comprised of several factors-

1. When to start training

It is always better to start as early as possible. You can start training a puppy at the age of 2 months or after. Before that a puppy may not perform as you wish. It is true that if you start training a puppy obedience training it may not adopt all the things you want as soon as it gets some maturity it starts better understanding of things. .

2. How to start?

It is equally important as like the first one. You cannot force a dog or a puppy to perform some extra ordinary activities on the very first day. You need to proceed step by step so that things become easier for it to grasp. There must be some basic activities or worm up exercises before you start daily scheduled work.

While training a puppy always makes sure that you provide it proper environment so that things seem quite natural to it.

You may do all those things that you do with your child as a puppy is nothing but a new member in your family and it will share your home with other members. Once you show your love to your pet dog it conversely shows gratitude to you and this will do a world of good to your training schedule. If things go so smoothly you and puppy both will enjoy the time spend in during 'puppy obedience training'.

Puppy Obedience Training is very important and quite difficult too. But when you follow proper guidelines it is not so difficult and it becomes a complete package of enjoyment for you and your dog.

Puppy Obedience Training Guidelines.

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Toilet Training a Puppy

by Joz3.69

One of the very first things you must do after bringing a puppy into your home is to toilet train it.  Even if you bought a puppy that was already house broken, you still will have to do a small amount of training to get it used to its new home.  If you start while the puppy is young and stick to the routine, your new puppy will be toilet trained in no time!
 
You’ll need to get a few items together to start your training.  First, you’ll need a dog crate.  You’ll also want to get treats, a collar, and a leash.  You may also want to purchase a baby gate or two to restrict your new puppies access to your house.
 
If your puppy comes to you young and has is not house broken at all, you will need to keep him where you can see him at all times during the day.  Even when you’re just relaxing at home, it’s important to not let your puppy out of the room you are in, otherwise it could develop bad potty habits that will take much longer to break later on.  Use baby gates or a leash to make sure your dog stays where you can see it.  Alternatively, you could close as many doors as possible to restrict your dogs access to places where they may want to eliminate inside the house.
 
At night you are going to keep your dog in its crate.  This may seem cruel, but rest assured that it is not!  Providing your puppy with a crate and plenty of soft bedding gives it a “room” of its own that it feels safe and secure in.  Dogs naturally avoid eliminating where they sleep, so confining your dog to a crate at night will keep him in an area he naturally won’t want to go to the bathroom in.  Make sure to select an appropriately sized crate for your dog.  If you choose a crate that is too large, your dog may do his business in one corner and sleep in another.  If you have a large breed dog that will grow significantly over the years, you may need to purchase multiple crates as your puppy grows, or buy an adjustable crate that will grow with your dog.
 
Now for the real fun.  In the morning you should take your dog out to use the bathroom immediately upon waking up.  Use the leash and collar and keep your dog with you, even if you have a fenced yard.  As soon as your dog eliminates, offer plenty of praise.  Play with your puppy for a few minutes if you have the time.  Associate going outside to eliminate with good things.  When you come back inside, offer your dog a small treat and more praise.  This will teach them to come back inside when they are done doing their business.
 
Next, feed your dog their breakfast.  They will need to go out again approximately half an hour after they finish eating.  Repeat the same process as before, taking them out on a leash and lavishing them with praise as soon as they eliminate.
 
Throughout the day your dog will need to be taken out every couple hours and offered the opportunity to eliminate.  If you wish to train your dog to ring a bell when he needs to be let out, now is the time to start the training.  Attach the bell to your door, or wherever you plan on placing it and ring the bell each time you take the dog out to use the bathroom.  Do not ring the bell at any other time.  Soon, your dog will associate the bell with getting to go out to eliminate.
 
Keep your dog within eyesight while at home, and watch for signs that he needs to be taken outside.  Sniffing the ground or digging are both indicators that your puppy needs to relieve himself.  As soon as you see a sign, take the puppy out.
 
At night, open the door to the dog crate about an hour before you go to bed.  Let your dog see the crate and enter and exit as he pleases until it is time to go to bed.  This will help him transition into the crate and will familiarize him with the crate before he is put in it for the night.  Right before you go to sleep, take your dog out again.  When you go to bed, put your puppy in the crate and go to sleep.  Some puppies can’t hold their bladders all night long, so if your dog wakes in the middle of the night and starts barking or making noises, you should let them out of the crate and take them outside.  This should decrease as the puppy gets older and learns to hold his bladder for longer periods of time.
 
When you are not home, the dog should be left in their crate until they are fully house broken.  If possible, you should return at mid-day to let the puppy have a chance to go out, or you should enlist a neighbor to help.  Most puppies cannot hold their bladders for longer than 6 to 8 hours at a time.  Avoid using newspaper or puppy training pads while you are gone, as these products only teach your dog that it is allowed to eliminate in the house.
 
If you follow this routine carefully, your new puppy will be house broken in no time and you will never have to worry about your dog eliminating in the house!
 

Chloe snow is a writer who specialises in animals and animal welfare. You can check out her latest website at weaning puppies where she provides infomation about weaning puppies and other infomation about looking after puppies including puppy injections worming puppies and more.

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