If you have done much reading about pet parrots and behavior, you have probably encountered the phrase, nurturing dominance or guidance -- a concept developed by Sally Blanchard, author of the Parrot Psychology column in BIRD TALK MAGAZINE and editor of THE PET BIRD REPORT. From my experience as a parrot behavior consultant, the establishment of a relationship of nurturing guidance is the single most important component to enjoying years and years of cohabitation with a parrot. Without it, a parrot is often unclear as to his position within his human flock...or worse yet, through other mistakes made by his well-meaning owner, the parrot receives the non-verbal information that it is the head of the flock.

The result of this linguistic misunderstanding is not pleasant -- a parrot in control of its human flock is an animal that is out of control. A parrot is genetically a wild animal (whether it is domestic-bred or not) who has some basic instinctual information about survival in the rain forests, but it has not a clue regarding adaptation to a person's living room. A parrot also may have some basic information regarding the responsibilities of a flock leader, but not the foggiest idea how to supervise the behaviors of all the different life forms (humans, cats, dogs, hamsters, goldfish, gerbils....) it may encounter in captivity The analogy I like to use is that of a person who has been hired for a management position. The job isn't fully explained except for one thing: there are several people to supervise. But no matter what the new manager does, the people to be supervised totally ignore the orders they are given. Now, what do you think would happen to a person placed in that situation? Perhaps you would see increased tension resulting in a variety of unhealthy things like yelling, temper tantrums, nail chewing, etc.. In parrots, the result can be unacceptable behaviors like cage territoriality, biting, screaming, and feather plucking.

Out of Control....

I think all parrot behavior consultants agree on one thing: the behavior problems commonly seen in captive parrots are a direct result of a lack of control on the part of the human, and too much control on the part of the parrot. So it is obvious that a person cohabiting with a parrot must establish that he/she [the human] is the head of the flock and the parrot is in a submissive position within said flock. Sounds simple enough -- but how do you do it?

Actually, from my experience, it is simple. By establishing a relationship of nurturing dominance by teaching and consistently using four basic commands, you can successfully demote your parrot from its perceived position as head of the flock. These commands - Up, Down, No and OK -- block the parrot from making major decisions, such as whether or not it will come out of (or off of) the cage, whether or not it will go back into the cage, whether or not it will stop biting or screaming, etc. etc. These commands will NOT, however, turn a parrot into a little robot, so don't worry about that. These commands will also not remove all decision-making from the parrot's life, because a certain amount of decision-making is important for an intelligent animal's mental health. The parrot still has critical decisions to make regarding which food to eat (or fling) next, which toy must be beaten into submission next, etc. etc.

The First Command

The first command is Up. The meaning of this command is simple - Up' means step onto a human hand NOW. It does NOT mean, step onto a human hand IF the parrot is in the mood. Many people think their parrots are trained to this command, but when I question them in detail, it turns out the bird may know what the word means, but only follows it when the bird wants to -- if you have a bird like that, then you do NOT have a parrot who is trained to the Up command. Trust me on this -- this is one of the only truly black-and-white issues in the world! Just as you expect a properly-trained dog to sit when you tell it to sit, when you say ''Up'', the parrot MUST step up, not some of the time or most of the time but ALL of the time. This is YOUR decision, not the bird's. The most important thing to understand about this command is this: It's purpose is not JUST to get the bird on your hand -- it's purpose is to remind the bird that YOU are the one making the major decisions, NOT the parrot. And as with all commands taught to animals, the use of a single word is generally more effective than multiple words, so ''Up'' is often more effective than ''Step up'' and definitely more effective than ''Baby-get-on-my-hand-like-mommy's-good-little-birdy'' or what Blanchard calls ''motor-boating'' with ''upupupupupupupupup''.

Command #2

Down is command #2 is and it means step off the human hand onto an inanimate object (such as a perch), NOW. This is not a directional thing -- if you want your parrot to step up onto a high perch, the command is still Down.

This is the command you would use when it's time for the bird to go back in its cage so you can leave for work, neatly circumventing the bird-glued-to-a-hand routine. One of my clients told me a story about her macaw that I thoroughly enjoyed. She had the macaw on her shoulder [which I do NOT recommend] and was trying to get him off her shoulder and up onto the top of his cage by saying, ''Step up, Freddie, UP''. Well, Freddie apparently had a much better grasp of the proper use of these commands because he looked her in the eye and said "DOWN," then stepped onto the cage!

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