How to teach your bird to call you using a "contact phrase/word/sound" rather than screaming for attention.
(Differential Reinforcment of Alternative Behavior)

LESSON 1

The first step in this process is determining why your bird is screaming. This requires you to observe your bird in several situations. Does your bird scream when you leave home? Scream when you talk to someone else? Scream when you're in another room and it can/cannot see or hear you? Scream when its near you but you're paying attention to something else (ex: Bird is on your shoulder while you're on the phone/doing bills/etc). These are all examples of attention demanding screaming. This article can help YOU! However, for anything to be achieved and any progress made you must follow these instructions and TIGHTLY ADHERE TO THEM! Deviating just once can set you back weeks or even months. Are you up to the challenge? We'll see, if at any time you feel frustrated, stuck, or have ANY questions, feel free to e-mail myself or join the behavior group where I learned this technique.

E-Mail Andrea for Behavior Tips

Join the BAS Group
You can also go to the site and read the articles there, which deal with this process and will help you greatly!

Still with me? Good. Let's continue. So your bird loves you so much he/she can't get enough of you huh? I've been there. Alex screamed so much he drove my family bonkers. I tried everything, this worked wonders for me. Not to mention it stuns your friends when you're all in another room and you hear "come here" from another room. Anyhow. The purpose of this exercise is to give your bird an effective way of calling you that provides more results than screaming. Right now I bet most of you react in some way when your bird screams. You go get him, talk to him, or even yell something...anything to make him/her stop. Well, let's look at this from your bird's point of view.
I want Mom/Dad/Friend to provide attention. I know if I scream really loud that eventually if I don't stop they'll come here, or talk to me, or give me something fun to eat or play with, or put me somewhere else.
Ummmmm....so why exactly would your bird view screaming as a bad thing? You've sucessfully taught your bird that screaming = your attention...in whatever form or fashion its given. This process employs ABA, Applied Behavior Analysis, described below.

          A(ntecedent): what happens immediately before the behavior
          B(ehavior): the bird's behavior
          C(onsequence): what happens immediately after the behavior

          PFB. The Probable Future Behavior. If the above action, behavior, consequence continues to occur like it is, the PFB is what will continue to happen in the future, as a result.


So, I'll use Alex as my example here...

          A. Andrea leaves Alex's room to work on the computer in the study.
          B. Alex screams LOUDLY, trying desperately to get my attention.
          C. Andrea talks to Alex, rewarding his behavior.

          PFB. Alex will continue to scream when Andrea leaves the room because he gets her attention as a reward.


Well, I realized there was a problem going on. So I decided to do something about it. If I ignore Alex when he screams, then I'm no longer rewarding the bad behavior (screaming). This is called EXTINCTION. You're causing the behavior to "become extinct". So let's look at it this way.

          A. Andrea leaves room
          B. Alex screams for Andrea
          C. Andrea COMPLETELY ignores Alex, no matter what.

          PFB. Alex gets frustrated. He doesn't understand why his tried and true method suddenly stopped working.


Before you start ignoring your bird, realize that this eliminates any way he/she has of calling you, and frustrates them. They have no alternative choice. So, you need to picka word, phrase, or sound that your bird can use to "contact" you with. This is called the CONTACT CALL. This should be a word or phrase that your bird already says FLUENTLY. Several people choose "step Up" for this, you can pick whatever you want, as long as your bird can already and does already say it. If your bird does not say any words yet, you can also use a whistle, chirp, or any other pleasent sound that your bird makes regularly. DO NOT try and start this program before your bird knows the word/phrase/sound well. It WILL NOT work if you do. You'll waste everyone's time and aggravate your poor bird needlessly. In my case I picked the phrase "come here" because Alex says it alot when he's jabbering and says it in several different pitches. Its appropriate as well, so I went with it.

The basic idea here is to COMPLETELY IGNORE (yes...even when you're nerves are boiling) any scream that your bird might come up with. Meaning you don't so much as look at them if they're sitting directly infront of you when they scream. You don't go in the room, you don't say anything, you act as if you're oblivious. At first, your bird will scream MORE, MUCH MORE. But this is because your bird thinks you're suddenly ignorant and can't remember what "SCREAM" means. They're trying to get to you. Continue about your daily life, ONLY giving your bird attention when he/she is quiet, or talks. Even if you were about to walk up to the cage, if the bird screams, you turn right away like you suddenly remembered something in the other room. Note: If you give in, this WILL NOT work! Not even once, not your kids, not your spouse, not your neighbor. Let EVERYONE know if the bird screams, it gets NOTHING! I cannot stress how important that is. I'll show you in ABA terms.

          A. Andrea leaves room
          B. Alex screams for Andrea
          C. Andrea COMPLETELY ignores Alex, no matter what.

          PFB. Alex gets frustrated. He doesn't understand why his tried and true method suddenly stopped working. BUT...now you'll teach him the Contact call, to alleviate the frustration...


You DO NOT want to start ignoring your bird before you put the contact call into place. The day you begin ignoring the screaming is the day you begin rewarding the contact call. Otherwise you're just aggravating the bird. The important part now, is teaching your bird that although screaming no longer yields ANY results, their chosen word is a miracle worker. With Alex, I chose "Come here" So I'll use that in my examples. EVERY SINGLE TIME I was anywhere in the house, be I busy or be I not, if I heard Alex jabbering and he said "Come here" Off I went. I popped my head into the room and said "Did you say Come here? I heard that!" and lavished him with every kind of praise I could think of. Scratches, favorite treats, play time, etc. But every single time he said it, I would yell from wherever I was "Did you say COME HERE?" And rush to get to him as quickly as possible and make over him like he'd won the Nobel Peace Prize. IMPORTANT NOTE! The phrase I used "Did you say COME HERE", is called THE BRIDGE. It is a phrase that connects the desired behavior (Alex saying "Come here") to the desired consequence (Me giving Attention) before I had a chance to get into the room. This is used to make sure Alex is sure what word it is that is getting the attention. If you don't use this, your bird will probably continue to jabber until you get to him and have no clue what word got your attention. Using a bridge provides consistancy, and makes this go MUCH quicker!

So, are you confused? If so, e-mail me, I'll help you. The group can MORE than help you with any behavior problem, contact them if you need to :) If not, let's continue. I'd like to stop right here to explain some things to you. Please do not expect your bird to understand this in a day, in a week, or even a month. Alex took about 2 weeks to really grasp what was going on, some birds take longer, some less. If your bird seems to be screaming MORE, please don't give up, its because they don't understand yet. You have to remember they don't understand your language, you're trying to teach them that. This takes much time, much repetition, and much consistancy. So, right when you're about to give up, promise yourself to give it 2 more weeks, then 2 more, until you hear that first call. You will be amazed, once they start to grasp it, they're ALL OVER IT! Once Alex realized "Hey...wait a minute. This gets me more attention than screaming EVER did." I almost couldn't get him to STOP saying it. Then I had to teach him what, "I'm busy" means. That will be covered in LESSON 3. Now that you've had your pep talk, let's continue.

Now, your bird is getting ignored, has no clue why, and is in the other room screaming and/or jabbering off every word he/she knows. Then you hear it (remember I'm using "come here" as my example, insert whatever word you chose everytime I use "come here".) Your bird just happens to say "come here". What do you do? You instantly say "Did you say "come here?" and go to them QUICKLY. If you can have a treat ready, fuss over them. "What a great bird, I heard you say "come here". You're so good." Followed by scratches, loving, playtime, anything your bird thinks is just GREAT. Each bird is different, so you'll have to find out which positvie reinforcment works best for your bird....some like treats, some attention, some screaming, etc. After rewarding them you put them back where they were, and go about your business. They'll probably be sad you left, they were having such great fun, so you have to be strong. Ignore ALL screams. But if they say it again, you repeat the above. This is EVERY SINGLE time they say it. No matter what. Here's this plan shown in ABA format.

          A. Andrea leaves room
          B. Alex says "come here"
          C. Andrea answeres "Did you say COME HERE?" and goes to see Alex.

          PFB. Alex will soon realize that screaming is useless and the only way to get my attention is with the call. He will scream less and use the call more because it gets him what he wants.


If you are executing this program correctly you should see marked progress within 5 days! If you're not, its because you're not running the program effectively. E-mail and ask and we'll see what we can figure out. Is someone still reinforcing the screaming? Perhaps when you're away? You bird WILL SCREAM MORE at first. This is called EXTINCTION BURST. The screaming will get worse before it gets better. Yes its still working, Alex screamed non-stop the first day or so and I panicked but the BAS group assured me I was on the right track. Sure enough, he came around and is using his contact call like a pro.

Once your bird has a FULL understanding of what the contact call is and what it means, you may progress to lesson 2. Not sure if you're ready? Keep going another week, then e-mail me and we'll discuss it. Or join the group, they'll set you straight for sure. Ok...When I say your bird is READY, that means several things have happened. They no longer get ANY reward for screaming. You've seen an immense decrease in screaming. Your bird says "come here" very well, very often, and uses it at appropriate times (when you're in another room, when you're doing something else near it and it wants you,etc) If your bird is still trying to use screaming occasionally its because they're testing you to see if it might still work. It is VERY IMPORTANT at this stage that you do not reinforce this screaming, they will digress and you'll have to start again. When you're ready to move on to LESSON 2 its because your bird is starting to drive you crazy with the "come here"'s and you almost can't get anything done...because your bird is calling you so often. This is when you're ready. You'll know.

Now get to it! DO NOT EVEN SO MUCH AS READ LESSON 2 until you're through with LESSON 1. This is important, you'll try to rush your bird. HA, its not even there yet! Finish LESSON 1 and e-mail me...I'll give you the LINK to LESSON 2 :) That way I KNOW you're ready, and you won't make things worse than they were! Take care, and GOOD LUCK!

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