Positive Reinforcement Training

[Linda Morrow]

Interesting thread on behavior modification. As a professional bird trainer, I'd have to respectfully disagree with some of the suggestions of that thread.

Few people can regiment to an hour a day, every single day at the same time for training. Most people do not have an attention span that long, much less parrots. An almond might be a good reinforcer to some birds, but certainly not the majority of birds. Many people have small birds and they make wonderful training candidates. My sun conures have learned many behaviors and that has extinguished the excessive screaming problem which is how they came to live with me. I was their fifth owner in two years. They have now been with me for six years and have even been on live national television.

Positive reinforcment training is about what is reinforcing to the bird. Reinforcement comes from more than a food pouch! Some birds respond better to praise, petting, or for the fearful bird, knowing when to back away can be reinforcing. When using food for reinforcement, we watch our birds and see what food they prefer, that is then set aside and used for training. It is not about food deprivation, but about food management. Instead of pulling their food during the day, we only pull the treat used for training. Also, it is fun to set up a few foraging stations for them to hunt for their food, this is good mental exercise for them while alone during the day.

We should train when it is convenient for us, making sure to be in a good mood. Birds learn a lot from us from our body language as we learn from theirs. Training times can be from a couple of minutes to as long as the both of you are learning. Too long can frustrate both you and your bird. They always remember what they learn. I had one bird that hadn't done any fun trick behaviors in years, but picked right back up on it.

Teaching tricks gives the bird other things to do instead of biting and screaming. It teaches the bird how to learn. It is great mental and physical exercise, it is communicating at the birds level of understanding.

For more information, and how to get started with gentle, non-forceful and non-stressful training, please visit my website at http://www.clickingwithbirds.com We have a free training list at yahoo groups called clickbirds.
Learn how to train at you and your birds own pace without stress to either of you.

Best wishes,
Linda Morrow
Director of Avian Education
Gulf World Marine Park
Panama City Beach, Florida.