Training

Training isn't just about tricks. People often ask what they can do about a bird that is
biting, or screeching, or that won't come out of its cage, or won't go into its cage, or is otherwise being difficult to live with. There isn't a short answer, but I hope this page will get you started in the right direction.

Training is both art and science. A science, because the principles have been carefully researched and shown to work with animals ranging from pigeons to humans. An art, because it's not always obvious how to apply those principles to parrots living your home.

Parrot training essentially revolves around one principle: the more rewarding a behaviour is, the more often a parrot will show that behaviour. So, for the most part, training means making sure that the behaviours that you want to see more of are rewarded, and making sure that the behaviours you want to see less of are not rewarded.

Operant Conditioning

If you want to modify your bird's behaviour, I strongly suggest that you learn to look at your bird's behaviour from the perspective of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is not a solution to any behaviour problem, it's just a way of looking at things that will often help you find a solution to a behaviour problem.

The key principle of operant conditioning is that birds (indeed, all creatures) will tend to repeat behaviours that are rewarding, and will tend to give up behaviours that are not rewarding. Birds typically bite or screech because it is somehow rewarding to them. If you can figure out what it is that the bird finds rewarding, and take away that reward, you're halfway to a well-behaved bird. The other half of the solution is teaching the bird some other behaviours that are rewarding for the bird, and that are pleasing for you as well.

In the early days of the study of animal behaviour, people studied classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, the animal is conditioned (is taught) to respond to its environment. Pavlov's dog is a well - known example this: a bell rings, the dog is given food... repeat this a few times... soon the dog salivates when the bell rings. In operant conditioning, the animal is taught to operate on its environment, not just respond to it.

For an example of operant conditioning, let's look at the first "trick" most people teach their birds: Targeting. Targeting simply means gently biting the end of a short stick
(chopsticks work great for this). If you put something in front of a bird's face, the bird will probably investigate the object by beaking it. When the bird beaks the chopstick, you "click" (more on this later) and the bird gets a treat. Repeat this a few times... Eventually, when you hold up a chopstick, the bird will walk across the table to beak it. The bird has learned that beaking the chopstick causes the human to offer a treat. Suddenly humans aren't so scary. Look how easy it is to operate them: all you have to do is beak a chopstick!

Fostering Desired Behaviour

Clicker training is a technique for teaching birds to operate human treat dispensers.
The "click" of a clicker is a signal to the bird that whatever the bird just did has set the treat dispenser into motion. It's simply a means of communication. Without the clicker, it's not always immediately clear to the bird just what it did that earned the treat. It's possible, it just takes longer. People have been training animals for ages using a simple "good boy!" or "good girl!" but the sharp, distinct, consistent sound of a clicker helps the animal learn more quickly how to operate human treat dispensers.

For many bird owners, clicker training is not really about teaching the bird to do tricks. Instead, the primary purpose of clicker training is to spend time with the bird, showing the bird that the human can be trusted - and what's more, the human is fun to be around. For some, the fact that the bird eventually does tricks is just a nice side-effect.

Extinguishing Undesirable Behaviours

The first thing you should know about extinguishing undesirable behaviour is that physical punishment does not work with birds. In the wild, when a creature attacks a bird, the bird flies away, and stays far away from such creatures. In captivity, that's not an option. Captive punished birds spend most of their time in abject terror because they can't get away from the attacker. Such birds tend to go insane after a while, pluck their feathers, become terrified of anything at all, attack anything at all, and so on. This is not to say that all plucking or phobic birds were punished by an evil human, just that physical punishment is likely to make the bird end up that way.

Isolation is the closest thing to punishment that you can safely employ. When a bird bites, or screeches, leave it in solitude for a few minutes (perhaps in its cage, perhaps not). Birds are social creatures, so being around their "flock" is rewarding, and being isolated is likely to make the bird unhappy. But you're not attacking - you're not even around - so the bird is less likely to think of you as a threat, and more likely to be happy to see you when you return a few minutes later.

When the bird realizes that biting means being caged for five minutes of solitude, it will bite less. When the bird realizes that screeching means being left alone until it quite screeching for a few minutes, the bird will screech less. Be aware that - especially with screeching - the problem will get worse before it gets better. This is called an "extinction burst." Basically, it tries harder and harder to get whatever reward screeching once produced. When it realizes that the reward isn't going to happen, the screeching will probably taper off.

In addition, it is often possible - and usually helpful - to reinforce a different behaviour to replace the behaviour you're trying to extinguish. For example, if your bird scream for attention, then in addition to ignoring screams, lavishly reward a more pleasant noise every chance you get. When the bird realizes that a mild peep or a "come here" is a more effective way to get attention, the screeching will be reduced even further.

Don't expect to extinguish screeching entirely though - morning and/or evening screech-fests are very difficult if not impossible to eliminate in some species. Screeching all day long, however, can probably be solved.


© 2003 Nate Waddups