grayghostandgreyparrot

Hi, I've been looking at outdoor aviaries and the cost is way to high. Dog kennels of similar size are a fraction of the cost. Has anyone tried this? Is the bar spacing too wide? Can a Grey squeeze through a 2" opening? I saw a hinged folding kennel that would be great to set up in the spring and store away in winter.

Thanks. I'd never heard of closet talkers. My parrot will make other noises in my presence like bark or the beeping of the microwave. It's just the human words that it won't do when I'm there. Dr. Pepperberg's method is modelling. She will have a human assistant help her. She will say a word, then the human assistant will repeat. Then there is an exchange of some commodity, food or toy. When the human doesn't repeat correctly, the human is told "no" and ignored until the correct response is given. The exchange it bilateral. The assistant will also make requests of the Dr. and give her a treat or "punish" her for the incorrect response. The bird learns by modelling this exchange between Dr. P and her assistant. Thus I thought I could use the toy as my "assistant". As we all know, it takes dedication to train our parrots and it's not always easy to find an assistant to help you multiple times a day for these training sessions. Below is a video of her demonstrating her training method.

Hi. I'm new to the forum. I have a 2 year Grey. The problem, I'm having is that he/she will only talk when I'm not there. I think it's speaking to get me to come back and pay attention to it, but won't talk when I'm there. The minute I walk away it will talk again. I can hear it from a different room "practicing" new sounds/words but the minute I come over, it just stares at me and maybe whistles. I get it. It can see that I'm interested in it when it talks and is using this to "train" me. Any ideas on how to change things around? Also, I've been reading the work of Dr. Irene Pepperberg and her modelling method of training. I was thinking of buying a toy parrot that records your voice and plays it back. Has anyone tried this? I don't want to waste the money on the toy if it's not going to work. It's just hard to find someone to help me with the modelling method. I thought the fake parrot might work. Thanks.