my gray has found a noise that she wont stop doing now.

[furley]

My gray heard a fire detector go off and now she makes that noise and i have been trying to get her to stop, she only makes the noise 1 time but keeps repeating it. I tried to say stop it but know she makes the noise and then says stop it lololo,I know she is using it to get my attention,as she uses it when i leave the room, and knows I don't like it,I thought about using a spray bottle on her and give her a little shower every time she does it but I don't think that is right as that would be negative reinforcement,so can anyone give me suggestion on the best way to get her to slow down on that noise as it is a very hi pitch, and I am not sure how long I want to listen to it.lolo I am not sure how to go about a game plan to help with it.

Thank you for any suggestions that might help.

[Acappella]

What you need to do is called sound extinguishing, and it's basically doing the opposite of what you're doing. Lol. You need to respond to the annoying sound 0% of the time, and if you think I don't know how hard this is listen to my sad story. Dorian hates the tv being on, especially at night. As the sun starts to go down he starts making the beeping sound my toaster oven beeper makes. He was making this beep every 10 seconds or so until I either turned off the tv or took him out of the room where the tv is. I had to totally ignore it even though it is like nails on a chalkboard to me and I wanted to go up to his little grey face and beg him to stop! Lol. I couldn't do that because That's What He Wants!!! He wants my attention on him, not the tv. Diverting my attention to him would only reinforce that the sound is working and get him to do it more. Now, this particular little battle of wills has been going on for months, at least three, but I am winning. He still makes the beep but it isn't at nearly the interval that he was using it at. I only respond to him when he makes a sound I find acceptable, and when he does I respond with a lot of enthusiasm and with consistency. If he makes the annoying sound while I'm responding to him I immediately shut up and turn my back on him. He's not stupid. Stubborn, but not stupid! He is getting the message. So will your girl. You may want to invest in a pair of foam earplugs at the start. It makes ignoring the sound that triggers you easier, and you can still hear her. You can always come on here to vent during the process. It's a rare grey owner who hasn't been through this at least once. Good luck. You can do it!

[SRSeedBurners]

Our Grey learned to do an ear-piercing shrill that drove everyone in the house bonkers. We tried every damn thing and probably made it worse till we learned to just wear ear plugs and completely ignore the behavior. She finally quit after six months. It may be a long haul.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

All had perfect advice. Ignore, put in ear plugs, and they move on to the next sound they become obsessed with! If you stress about it... they pick up on your feelings and do it more. I can't hear alot in my right ear, so I don"t go crazy. When working in MRI, everyone gives me one ear plug but recently my ear had an explosion, and I can hear. Now I am hearing better then ever but I am not sure I am better off! Lots of complaints from Sophie and Ollie. To me, it is just whining Nancy

[Q9550]

Our grey Nonesense makes the most annoying noises you can imagine. We live in a complex so she has picked up on all the different car alarms she hears as well as the birds outside. She copies all these noises and its so annoying especially the car alarms. At first it use to really bother me but then as time went on i realized that its her being her, maybe she enjoys making all those alarm noises or maybe shes trying to communicate with the birds outside or maybe its just to annoy us and get our attention, whatever her reason is i just let her be and ignore her when she starts her rampage. Hopefully she will get bored of them and stop most of them as time goes on.

[furley]

Thanks Acappella,and the rest,I here what you are saying and have gone into that taktic,but i also am trying this,when she makes the sound now I counter it with my flock call to her,as i have one that we do with each other,been doing this for 2 days with here now and when she does her bad sound and i counter it with good sound, and she does a good sound , i reword her with favorite treat, all ready she seems to not do as much so I well keep trying this.thank you so much for your response, and I well keep you posted on progress...

What you need to do is called sound extinguishing, and it's basically doing the opposite of what you're doing. Lol. You need to respond to the annoying sound 0% of the time, and if you think I don't know how hard this is listen to my sad story. Dorian hates the tv being on, especially at night. As the sun starts to go down he starts making the beeping sound my toaster oven beeper makes. He was making this beep every 10 seconds or so until I either turned off the tv or took him out of the room where the tv is. I had to totally ignore it even though it is like nails on a chalkboard to me and I wanted to go up to his little grey face and beg him to stop! Lol. I couldn't do that because That's What He Wants!!! He wants my attention on him, not the tv. Diverting my attention to him would only reinforce that the sound is working and get him to do it more. Now, this particular little battle of wills has been going on for months, at least three, but I am winning. He still makes the beep but it isn't at nearly the interval that he was using it at. I only respond to him when he makes a sound I find acceptable, and when he does I respond with a lot of enthusiasm and with consistency. If he makes the annoying sound while I'm responding to him I immediately shut up and turn my back on him. He's not stupid. Stubborn, but not stupid! He is getting the message. So will your girl. You may want to invest in a pair of foam earplugs at the start. It makes ignoring the sound that triggers you easier, and you can still hear her. You can always come on here to vent during the process. It's a rare grey owner who hasn't been through this at least once. Good luck. You can do it!

[Greywings]

Good job as long as it works, although she may be learning that if she makes that bad noise followed by the preferred sound she gets a reward. hmmm

[Timbersmom]

I actually thought that very thing, Greywings.

[Talon]

I agree with Greywings and Timbersmom.....my Amazon has taken to screaming at the window, NO NO NO and whatever else I can't understand in the mornings....it is quite annoying a, but when she does it and it lasts about 15 minutes . I immediately stop talking and ignore her completely.....its been months, but I refuse to acknowledge her behavior. Just something that comes with owning a parrot. You can't control their behavior as much as you wish!