How do I train my parrot to not say certain words?

Susan: How do I train my parrot to not say certain words?
My 4 year old nephew was visiting this weekend and he taught my parrot the N word. Now that is all she will say. How do I make my bird unlearn this word?

Answers and Views:

Answer by joewebb
If he dosnt hear the word he will forget it.One of my birds said bad words when we got it he dosnt say them now.

Answer by Heather
Just ignore the parrot when she says it. For a bird any attention is rewarding even yelling at her so just ignore her and only pay attention to her when she says good words and she will stop saying it so often.

Answer by Speaking For Parrots
Yes, you need to ignore it… completely. If your bird senses that you’re getting upset when she says it, she’ll want to say it more. And she will definitely pick up on any subtle cues from you, which will be like positive reinforcement.

So, when she says it, first, take a deep breath… that’s for you. Second, walk out of the room… that serves two purposes. One is that you’ll leave and not give off any subtle cues, and two, leaving will act as negative reinforcement. The last thing our birds want is for us to leave.

You also need to be proactive in the future. There are certain things that people are not permitted to do in my house. Foul language is one of those things, as well as purposely trying to teach my birds things. It must be understood that certain behavior will not be tolerated, at all.

Boy, that’s quite a precocious four-year-old.

Answer by wacky
You can teach a bird to say words but you can not teach it what Not to say.

All you can do is to avoid any word that sounds like what it has so quickly learnt.

It goes to prove one thing , and that is it is a quick learner.