Bird Collar Training - 8 Steps

1. Let her see you hold the collar.

Hold the collar in your hand and let your bird see you holding it. You’ll spark her curiosity when she sees you with a new “toy” that she's not allowed to play with yet. Try to imagine the last time you petted an animal affectionately and do the exact same thing with the bird collar while your bird is watching. Show your bird that you adore this new bird safe collar! The fear response should lessen as you "click and reward" the bird each time it shows the slightest sign of curiosity over fear.  Ignore all fear responses and reward interest in the collar!  NOTE FOR SAF-T SHIELD COLLARS:  The shiny surface of the Saf-T Shield,  bird cone collars is reflective and sometimes  scary for a bird. If your bird is unduly frighted of the reflection simply use a very fine grade of sandpaper to remove the shine.

2.  Reward the bird for showing curiosity and calm behavior.

When was the last time you saw a bird in the wild wearing any apparel? Probably never. So, it's safe to say your bird isn't going to take kindly to you sticking a parrot collar around its neck straight out of the box. Place the bird collar at a reasonable distance from the bird, rewarding all calm and curious behaviors.  Ignore frightened behavior.  Inch the collar closer and closer to the bird as it tolerates it.  Always reward calm, curious behavior.

3. Place the bird safe collar close to your pet. 

Now that your parrot has finally started to show some curiosity towards the bird collar, shift the focus to actual bird collar training.  Move the collar closer and closer to the bird, always observing its body language to insure that your bird isn't frightened. Click and reward calm, curious behaviors and as the collar gets closer and closer to the pet. Eventually, you should increase the length of time between "clicking and treating" so that your bird learns to maintain composure for longer periods of time. Keep time increases to about 30 seconds to a minute.

4. Reward the bird for touching the collar.

Congratulations, we're now at the stage where your bird will come into initial contact with the bird collar. At this point you're only interested in letting it mouth the collar. Looking at something and touching it are two completely different things, so you're really doing exceptionally well if your bird is happy to mouth the fabric. A bird that is plucking enough to warrant a collar must already be stressed, so now that the bird is physically accepting the collar be careful to take conditioning slow so as to not undo the work you’ve accomplished so far.

"click and treat" from the looking at the collar when it is just inches away from its body to the bird actually reaching out to mouth and touch the collar.

5. Let the fabric rest on the bird.

After your bird has mouthed the fabric its fear levels should be lower than ever before. Nobody is afraid of something they've stuck in their mouth because they now have a 'feel' for it. It's now time to rest the fabric on the bird. Once again, be very attentive to your birds body language as you gauge how quickly to proceed and attentively click and treat every little accomplishment.

The collar only needs to rest on your bird for a brief period of time to get a "click and treat".  Keep things as positive as possible and always end training sessions on a positive note.  At this stage, you’ll want to gradually increase the length of time that the bird tolerates the collar in contact with its body, up to a few minutes or more.

6. Practice holding your bird and placing collar on it.

This might be the scariest step of all for your bird, especially if it is not used to close handling or it is afraid of toweling.  If your bird isn’t used to close handling, please break down being held and having head and beak touched into short, reachable steps.  Remember to condition acceptance of each tiny accomplishment similar to how we've described bird collar familiarization; i.e. stepping up, coming into contact with your body, manipulating it’s wings and head, etc.  

A great primer to learn these steps is Good Bird Inc., Conditioning Your Bird For the Veterinary Exam. 

• Sound: Allow your bird to become accustomed to the sound of the opening and closing of the Velcro strips.  "Click and treat" tolerating the sound. 
• Wearing: Next", "click and treat" as your bird allows you to put collar around its neck. 
• Acceptance: Finally, you’ll want to "click and reward" your bird for wearing the collar while doing something other than chewing the collar, such as eating or playing. However, keep in mind that the bird collar is designed to be preened.  Chewing and preening are calming activities for a bird.

7. Don't forget to click and treat all along the way.

Generously using the Clicker Training for Birds will actually supercharge your training results. But, by paying close attention to your birds body language and training for acceptance in slow, short steps, you are highly like to experience success.

8. Always Combine Bird Collars with A Variety of Anti-plucking Strategies...

By now, your avian veterinarian has coached you on creating the optimum diet for your bird and advised for supplements.  We recommend that you read our eBook on The Parrot Feather Plucking Workbook and explore what other adjustments may need to be made to manage or eliminate the feather picking cycle.  Collars and barriers have a useful place in eliminating the problem but they don’t address the underlying cause.