GREY FISHER
My bird is terrified of strangers
 Until recently, my 5-month-old Maximilian's pionus was very outgoing and loved it when company came over. However, after I took him for his first vet visit he became terrified of new people. I was with my bird almost the entire time the vet was with him and besides being a little nervous he seemed fine. But now, whenever people come over, he wheezes and puffs up. He won't do anything but sit on me or in his cage. Can we help him get over his new fear? I have to take a trip soon and I am worried that he will seriously panic when left with his sitter. Please help!
-- Ashley Collard, Traverse City, Mich., collardak@charter.net
 It's not unusual for a trip to the vet to result in fearful behavior. One of my dogs used to panic when I started to load him into my car but would willingly leap into my partner's Jeep. The difference? The jeep went to the park, hiking, the beach; the car went to the vet. He paired the action of riding in the car with the negative experience of going to the vet while the Jeep became a symbol of all the fun things we did together. (I didn't want to get sand in my car, after all!) How did I fix the problem? I did it by teaching him that a car trip could be just as much fun as an outing in the Jeep. I started taking my car to the dog park, the beach, whatever fun excursion I had planned for that week, and eventually he learned that being put into the car did not mean we were going some place scary.
So what's the lesson here for your bird? He now equates strangers with something scary. However, you can resolve the problem in the same way. You have to make meeting new people a positive experience for him. If you are having someone over that you want your bird to get to know, allow them to give him his favorite treats. Take these special goodies out of his diet and let only strangers you want him to be comfortable around give them to him. Reinforce him with anything he likes (perhaps a head scratch) for any "outgoing" behavior when company is over. Eventually he'll learn that strangers bring him good things to eat, and he'll start to look forward to meeting more of them.
This said, it is perfectly normal for birds to avoid strangers. In the wild, they hang out with their mates and a small extended family. Some pet birds as well socialize only with their mates. If you want your Maxi to be a well-socialized little party animal, then you need to start using positive reinforcement to bring him out of his shell. Good luck to you and have a fun vacation!
Grey Fisher is a trainer at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. Previously he was a trainer with Natural Encounters, Inc., a world-renowned organization that helps zoos all over the world train birds and many other types of animals using positive reinforcement.
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