Shape the desired behaviors. “Shaping” is a training ideology that focuses upon rewarding the bird for approximations, and eventually deliberate acting, of the steps required to complete a training task.

• Shaping is well-named, for it is all about molding behaviors through positive reinforcement.
• As one example, if you were teaching your parrot to bathe itself in a small water dish, you would reward the bird for (among several other intermediary steps) looking toward the dish, looking at the dish, moving toward the dish, moving to the dish, testing the water, stepping into the water, and eventually splashing around.

Get your clicks. Pets ranging from birds to cats can often benefit from “clicker training,” which involves using a hand-held clicking device (think of the sound a pen clicker or metal juice-bottle cap makes) to indicate proper behavior worthy of a reward.

• The “click” serves as an audible cue that an appropriate response has occurred, and should occur immediately upon said response and be accompanied immediately by a reward. Thus, you may hear the phrase “click and treat” to describe what is essentially a single maneuver.
• For instance, if using a clicker during “step up training” — as detailed elsewhere in this article — the “click and treat” would occur immediately upon the parrot stepping up onto your finger/hand. Clicking can be incorporated into virtually any training program

Stay on target. Another training option, which can be used in combination with a clicker if desired, is known as “target training.” It uses a bird’s natural curiosity in investigating new objects to build a reliable response.

• In a basic version of target training, a chopstick, drumstick, or other wooden wand is pointed in the vicinity of the parrot, and any contact with the tip is immediately rewarded with a treat (or “click and treat,” if desired). Slowly, over time, the parrot will learn to follow the target throughout the cage and around the room, in the process learning to obey a simple command prompt.
• Target training builds a key basic skill, therefore, that serves as a gateway to more specific training.

Employ the “step up” as an early training step. As the name indicates, this skill involves your bird learning to step or hop from one perch to another as directed, with the target perch usually your hand, finger, or hand-held perch (such as a dowel rod).^[7]

• The step up is an ideal skill to teach early on for several reasons:
  • It is relatively easy to master for both teacher and student.^[8]
  • It derives from a natural parrot behavior, the desire to move from perch to perch.
  • It is practical, as having your bird hop into your hand on command makes everything from playtime to cage-cleaning easier.
  • It leads into other, more detailed skills as a basic maneuver.
• While the step up is a simple skill, there are numerous training methods of varying complexity from which to choose, a few of which are described in the following steps.

Test the most basic method. If your new bird has some prior training experience or just a natural inclination, the simplest training option may be sufficient.

• Offer your finger or wrist to your parrot (depending on the bird’s size and your preference), placing it in front of the bird at mid-breast level. Many birds will naturally step up onto the new perch without any coaching at all.
• Create a cue for the behavior, either by saying “step up” or employing a clicker simultaneous to the parrot making its move. Reward the bird immediately as well.
• If the bird does not step up unprompted, employ “shaping” and reward incremental behaviors, such as touching the perch with the beak, placing one foot on the perch, etc.
• It will take more than 1 training session for your bird to get this skill down.^[9]

Use an alternate treat-based step-up. In this method, you use the treat more as a lure to coax the desired behavior, but the basic training principles are quite similar.

• Hold the treat in one hand, and offer the other hand/finger to the bird at chest level. Orient your hands so that the easiest way for the parrot to reach the treat is by stepping up onto the offered perch.
• If your bird does not immediately step up, reward any contact with the offered perch at first, and incrementally reward only the desired step-up behavior.
• If you’re handy enough with the clicker to use it while both hands are occupied, it can be incorporated, and/or a verbal cue like saying “step up.”

Move on to the target-training step-up. If other methods have been less successful, or you have been utilizing target training already, you can teach the step-up by employing the familiar target and reward system.

• Hold your familiar target — a wooden drumstick, for instance — in one hand, and your desired perch (your finger, hand, or hand-held perch) in the other. Alternatively, if your manual dexterity is up to the task, you can do both with one hand, which leaves the other for holding treats, a clicker, etc.
• Locate the target so that it directs the bird to the new perch, which should be located in the common step-up position at the bird’s chest.
• Immediately reward positive behavior, and use the clicker or a verbal cue if desired. Eventually, the target will no longer be required to prompt the behavior. 

Don’t presume your parrot will (or won’t) talk. Especially for people new to parrot ownership, talking is usually the first skill they think of teaching and of which they presume their bird will be able to master.

• The truth of the matter is, every parrot is different, and you should never acquire a bird — even of a breed known for talking — with the assumption that it will talk.^[10]

Watch your mouth. Some parrots will require little or no training to learn to talk, and may in fact pick up words and phrases you’d prefer they not repeat.

• Excited utterances — such as things you might shout at the TV during a sporting event — are often more readily picked up by a parrot, and they’re listening more often than you may think.^[11] So be careful what you say around them!^[12]

Start young and stay calm. Parrots talk to other members of their flock, and it is easier to establish yourself as part of your bird’s flock early in its life. Therefore, you are more likely to have success when starting with a baby bird.^[13]

• Use a clear, calm, happy voice to repeat a simple word or phrase as you start the training process. Think about how you would try to teach a human child to say “Mommy.”
• Early in the process, reward any sound, then any approximately accurate sound, and eventually a recognizable sound with an immediate treat.