Based on conventional bird wisdom it's easy to understand that my hands-on approach to bird taming is controversial.  What's also clear is that because of that same conventional wisdom, bird owners who have fearful or aggressive birds have been  made to feel helpless to do anything about it.  While the experts in the bird world  contribute greatly to our knowledge of bird care and behavior, many of them have inadvertently paralyzed bird owners.  They espouse "rules"  like,  "Never take a bird out of its cage until it chooses to come out.”   Or, "Never use gloves." (more on this in the article, 'The Biggest Myth')  Or, "Never make a bird do ANYTHING it doesn’t want to do."  And people listen. 

 Every day I get emails from people all over the world, tormented by their inability to get close to their birds.  They write things like, "Help!  I can't get my Amazon to stop biting me."  Or, "I try to get close to my African Grey, but he's terrified of my hands."  Or, "I've been trying to get my parakeet to sit on my finger for seven months and he won't.  Please help me."  Seven months of patience and no progress?  Yet the experts insist that theirs is the only approach.  So, where does that leave people and their terrified birds?  Nowhere.

Many birds are ignored, abandoned, neglected,  or shuttled from place to place simply because their owners don’t have any effective tools to get beyond the  fear and aggression.  But the tools DO exist.  I use them all the time and they're not that difficult to learn.  I demonstrate them in private sessions, programs and workshops around the country.  In virtually every case, my hands-on techniques achieve clear, positive results.  

As feedback  to that program several audience members emailed me, thanking me for "giving them permission" (that’s how powerful a grip conventional wisdom has on people) to do something about their birds.  Without exception, everyone who had seen the program and tried this new approach with their birds saw immediate, improvements in their relationships with their birds. With the right handling not only can you change a bird’s behavior in a very short time, you can open the door to an entirely new relationship.  There are clear, simple techniques to help frightened birds learn to trust. 

 So, when I hear people moaning about not being able to touch their nippy budgie I become exasperated.  That kind of behavior can be improved in a few minutes.  And many other such behaviors, as well.  With the right techniques, in a very short time, birds and owners that have spent years living in mutual fear can learn to live happily together.  What an unconventional concept.