Playing is serious business!

The processes of learning and playing are interlinked. Playing inevitably involves the notions of learning, which in turn includes elements of play. As such, when at play, the parrot acquires knowledge by combining ideas with experiences, and these experiences are an integral part of what we call socialisation.

The author guides us with humour through the playful universe of the parrot and presents more than a hundred games, tricks and other hilarious ways to amuse ourselves with our friend. She reduces to rubble many myths surrounding this formidable bird: how does it learn, what motivates it, what is a good game to play according to its level of maturity, what constitutes a good human play friend relative to the parrot’s expectations, what can we expect from such an animal?

Once more, Johanne Vaillancourt succeeds brilliantly in making the topic accessible to a wide audience. She explains in a clear and natural manner the mechanisms that govern our parrot’s behaviour and the manner in which it perceives its environment. She helps us develop a well-adjusted socialisation, taking into account the bird’s nature and its needs … all while playing with it. What an extraordinary adventure!  Philippe Thibodeau (CAJV)