Charlie is my 21 year old White Fronted Amazon. I have written about Charlie before so you may remember that I adopted him last year from a parrot rescue. I knew that Charlie "preferred" men, but since he didn't seem to hate women, I decided to adopt him. Charlie had lived with a man for 15 years and was very attached, so it was not too much of a surprise when he saw Rick for the first time and immediately fell in love with him. My husband is not very comfortable with birds but ended up developing a very close relationship with Charlie just because this bird is so in love with him.
We adopted Charlie one year ago and he has made great strides. I stick trained him so I can now easily transport him around without any force or pressure. In addition, Charlie has indicated several times that he would like to step up for me and he has. However, I was wanting to do more with that and try to work on getting Charlie even more comfortable with stepping up for me and feeling comfortable with that. I tried several different food reinforcers, even his favorites, but it just didn't seem to be reinforcing enough for him. After giving it some thought, I decided to use his most favorite and high value reinforcer.....Rick.
The plan was that I would give him access to Rick if he stepped up for me. I brought Rick into the room, but had him stand by the door and ignore Charlie and I. Charlie immediately started indicating that he wanted to go to Rick. I asked him to step up, but he kept looking and leaning towards Rick, who was still across the room still ignoring Charlie. I asked Charlie again and then, I asked Rick to ask Charlie to step up, from across the room. Then, I asked Rick to continue to encourage Charlie. Rick said, "It's okay Charlie, step up" and he did! I immediately transported Charlie to Rick who asked him to step up off of me onto him, which of course he did readily. We repeated this the next day. On day three, Rick was in the other room and Charlie was on his stand next to me, looking like he wanted some attention. He looked like he wanted to be picked up, so I offered my hand and asked, "Do you want to step up?" and to my surprise and delight, he did! I was so excited and called for Rick to come in so that I could reinforce it by handing him to Rick.
The day after that, I was sitting in my office at my desk and Charlie looked like he wanted attention, so I reached over and scritched his neck and head. He still looked eager so I offered my hand and asked, "Do you want to step up?" and he did. I kept my hand there, but he chose not to step back off of me. I moved him towards me and away from his stand and he was content on my hand. I offered him an almond and he chose to stay on me and eat it on my hand, rather than asking to go back to his cage or stand to eat it. After that, he sat on my hand, just relaxing and looking around the room. After a while I asked if he wanted to go back to his cage and I was surprised when he chose to hang out with me a little longer! This is amazingly huge progress for Charlie and I am so happy and very proud of him.
This is an example of the Premack Principle in which one behavior can reinforce another behavior. The low probability behavior (stepping up for me) is reinforced by a high probability behavior (stepping up for Rick).
I want to point out that while I am using access to Rick as a reinforcer for stepping up for me I am always carefully measuring Charlie's body language and making sure that he is not stressed. I would not deprive him of access to Rick altogether or allow him to get distressed just so that I could hold him. It took under a minute for him to choose to step up for me to get to Rick. In addition to that, I have spent a year building a relationship and bond with Charlie based on trust, respect and cooperation.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Spring Changes
Charlie is our 21 year old White Fronted Amazon that we adopted last year. He is the second WFA that we have had. I adopted Merlin as a 34+ year old bird with health problems who passed away after two years. I adopted Charlie knowing that he "prefers men". He clearly prefers my husband Rick, and the two have formed a close relationship.
Almost exactly in tune with the Spring forward time change, Charlie began to change in some ways. He seems restless, bored and frustrated some of the time. He calls to us much more often. He calls with a cute, "woo woo" whistle, and we respond with the same whistle. I increased his foraging opportunities, changed his toys and am trying to make sure he gets plenty of sleep.
Today, I was hanging out in my bird room/office and working on the computer and he began to make a loud whistle sound. Not a scream, but a loud whistle, that is not a sound I want to hear all the time! He continued with it for a while and I ignored it. After a little while, I left the room. Partly because I needed to go into the other room, but partly because I wanted him to recognize that when I hear that, I go. Once he was quiet and making quieter noises, I came back in. He didn't make the noise anymore, but was still restless. I realize that he is needing some more mental stimulation and possibly exercise.
After I came back in, I did a little training with him. Nothing big, just a little work on stick training, to which he is was very into. Then, I moved a bottlebrush stand, that I use for one of my other birds, over to him. I moved it close enough so that he could reach into the food cup from his cage. I put some treats in there. He did not get onto the stand (I don't think) but he did take the treats and step onto the seed cup a few times. After about 30 minutes of this, he quietly went back into his cage and is grooming and getting ready to nap.
I realize he needs something, he needs more to do and think about. Here is my plan:
Almost exactly in tune with the Spring forward time change, Charlie began to change in some ways. He seems restless, bored and frustrated some of the time. He calls to us much more often. He calls with a cute, "woo woo" whistle, and we respond with the same whistle. I increased his foraging opportunities, changed his toys and am trying to make sure he gets plenty of sleep.
Today, I was hanging out in my bird room/office and working on the computer and he began to make a loud whistle sound. Not a scream, but a loud whistle, that is not a sound I want to hear all the time! He continued with it for a while and I ignored it. After a little while, I left the room. Partly because I needed to go into the other room, but partly because I wanted him to recognize that when I hear that, I go. Once he was quiet and making quieter noises, I came back in. He didn't make the noise anymore, but was still restless. I realize that he is needing some more mental stimulation and possibly exercise.
After I came back in, I did a little training with him. Nothing big, just a little work on stick training, to which he is was very into. Then, I moved a bottlebrush stand, that I use for one of my other birds, over to him. I moved it close enough so that he could reach into the food cup from his cage. I put some treats in there. He did not get onto the stand (I don't think) but he did take the treats and step onto the seed cup a few times. After about 30 minutes of this, he quietly went back into his cage and is grooming and getting ready to nap.
I realize he needs something, he needs more to do and think about. Here is my plan:
- Increase his training sessions
- Start teaching wing flapping for exercise
- More foraging opportunities
- More toy changes/rotations
- More shower/misting training (he doesn't like it, but is getting more comfortable with it and I know he needs it)
- A new stand of his own to put near his cage for another play to forage and play
- As soon as the weather is good, I will be working on getting him out into the aviary for sunshine, fresh air and a little flying around
Monday, January 6, 2014
Changing Behavior Long Term
I have been wanting to write this blog post for a while, but have been struggling with how to put into words what I feel needs to be shared. Sometimes when working with an animal with behavior issues, I find that the actual problem behaviors that are happening are simply a symptom of another issue altogether. Sometimes the real problem or a part of the problem has a lot to do with the "background" or other things that are going on, or not going on, in an animals life. There are many times when a huge part of the behavior modification plan is not about what the animal is doing RIGHT NOW, but other things in his or her life that are contributing to these behavior issues.
When an animal is exhibiting some behavior problem, the owner wants to stop the behavior. I understand this, they are viewing the behavior has the problem and they want it to stop, but what if stopping the behavior in that moment does not change or modify the future of the behavior? Just stopping or suppressing behavior is not enough. It may be enough in some instances, but not all. Let's look at that.
If your dog is going to pick up and presumably eat a rotten piece of chicken bone on the street than suppressing that behavior in the moment is necessary. Because you need to protect the dog, you must stop him from doing that behavior. Likewise, if my parrot Nemo finds his way to my other parrot Iris' cage, a fight will ensue. I will need to remove him from the cage to stop or suppress a bird fight from happening, but this is not likely to change his behavior the next time. I have not "taught" them not to fight, I have simply intervened and stopped the behavior in that moment. This is not a problem as long as I understand that this behavior will not change just because I intervene.
Many behavior problems have several variables that are contributing to the issue. Many times things like lack of exercise, lack of mental stimulation, lack of enrichment, lack of out of cage time (for birds), lack of training, lack of sleep (for birds), constant or frequent stress or anxiety and many other things can help to fuel a behavior issue in an animal. I will frequently go to a clients house for a specific issue when there are so many other things that are contributing to the problem that it isn't possible to just "stop" the problem without changing many other things in the animal's life.
When looking at a behavior problem I generally do what is called a "functional behavior analysis", this means I identify the problem behavior, then I look at what happens just before the behavior which is called the antecedent and what happens just after the behavior which is called the consequence. These two things the antecedent and consequence fuel the behavior, however, there are likely other things in the environment, background things that may be in play.
For instance, I may to go a clients home to help them with their young, adolescent dog who is "hyper" meaning that he jumps all over the family and guests, runs wildly around the house and furniture and counter surfs. The owners want to know why he does that and how to "make him stop". When I interview the client I learn that the dog gets almost no exercise (just having a yard is not adequate exercise), little or no training, gets no mental stimulation and his family is gone for a better part of the day. When I start to explain that those things, lack of exercise, lack of training, lack of mental stimulation are part of the problem, people frequently fail to see how the two could possibly be connected and they persist in wanting to know how they can just "make him stop" doing all of the things that are actually just symptoms of the real problem which is all the things the dog needs and is lacking.
Here is another example. A parrot is screaming and the owners can't figure out how to get the bird to stop. It may be as simple as looking at what is happening before and after the behavior to figure out what is supporting the screaming. But, many times I find that the bird is not getting nearly enough uninterrupted sleep, doesn't have enough enrichment or mental stimulation or he hasn't been trained to entertain himself.
Sometimes it is truly difficult for people to see how different variables can impact their animal's behavior, even if indirectly. Many times it is very necessary to make changes in the animal's day to day life and management in order to see changes in their behavior because as I mentioned, many times just stopping the behavior in the moment will not get you the long term changes in behavior that you are hoping to see and accomplish.
We can't change behavior in an animal without making sure that their needs are met. If their needs are not met that animal is not in a position to learn or be able to change their behavior. What is hard for people to process and accept is that if we want to change an animal's behavior we must first change our own. If there is no change in what we do, how we set up the environment and how we manage things there is not likely going to be any change in the animal's behavior. If it were going to change on it's own, it already would have.
When an animal is exhibiting some behavior problem, the owner wants to stop the behavior. I understand this, they are viewing the behavior has the problem and they want it to stop, but what if stopping the behavior in that moment does not change or modify the future of the behavior? Just stopping or suppressing behavior is not enough. It may be enough in some instances, but not all. Let's look at that.
If your dog is going to pick up and presumably eat a rotten piece of chicken bone on the street than suppressing that behavior in the moment is necessary. Because you need to protect the dog, you must stop him from doing that behavior. Likewise, if my parrot Nemo finds his way to my other parrot Iris' cage, a fight will ensue. I will need to remove him from the cage to stop or suppress a bird fight from happening, but this is not likely to change his behavior the next time. I have not "taught" them not to fight, I have simply intervened and stopped the behavior in that moment. This is not a problem as long as I understand that this behavior will not change just because I intervene.
Many behavior problems have several variables that are contributing to the issue. Many times things like lack of exercise, lack of mental stimulation, lack of enrichment, lack of out of cage time (for birds), lack of training, lack of sleep (for birds), constant or frequent stress or anxiety and many other things can help to fuel a behavior issue in an animal. I will frequently go to a clients house for a specific issue when there are so many other things that are contributing to the problem that it isn't possible to just "stop" the problem without changing many other things in the animal's life.
When looking at a behavior problem I generally do what is called a "functional behavior analysis", this means I identify the problem behavior, then I look at what happens just before the behavior which is called the antecedent and what happens just after the behavior which is called the consequence. These two things the antecedent and consequence fuel the behavior, however, there are likely other things in the environment, background things that may be in play.
For instance, I may to go a clients home to help them with their young, adolescent dog who is "hyper" meaning that he jumps all over the family and guests, runs wildly around the house and furniture and counter surfs. The owners want to know why he does that and how to "make him stop". When I interview the client I learn that the dog gets almost no exercise (just having a yard is not adequate exercise), little or no training, gets no mental stimulation and his family is gone for a better part of the day. When I start to explain that those things, lack of exercise, lack of training, lack of mental stimulation are part of the problem, people frequently fail to see how the two could possibly be connected and they persist in wanting to know how they can just "make him stop" doing all of the things that are actually just symptoms of the real problem which is all the things the dog needs and is lacking.
Here is another example. A parrot is screaming and the owners can't figure out how to get the bird to stop. It may be as simple as looking at what is happening before and after the behavior to figure out what is supporting the screaming. But, many times I find that the bird is not getting nearly enough uninterrupted sleep, doesn't have enough enrichment or mental stimulation or he hasn't been trained to entertain himself.
Sometimes it is truly difficult for people to see how different variables can impact their animal's behavior, even if indirectly. Many times it is very necessary to make changes in the animal's day to day life and management in order to see changes in their behavior because as I mentioned, many times just stopping the behavior in the moment will not get you the long term changes in behavior that you are hoping to see and accomplish.
We can't change behavior in an animal without making sure that their needs are met. If their needs are not met that animal is not in a position to learn or be able to change their behavior. What is hard for people to process and accept is that if we want to change an animal's behavior we must first change our own. If there is no change in what we do, how we set up the environment and how we manage things there is not likely going to be any change in the animal's behavior. If it were going to change on it's own, it already would have.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Stick Training Charlie
Charlie is my 20 year old White Fronted Amazon. When I adopted Charlie a few months ago, he was very fearful of the stick. He would sometimes step onto a stick for someone, but only after he felt he had no choice. This is using negative reinforcement, which means that something aversive goes away, in this case, the stick stops chasing you, when you do the behavior...stepping onto the stick. As you can imagine, it can be relationship damaging but it can also make the stick a scary thing. Also Charlie is more comfortable with men than women and part of what I am trying to do is make him more comfortable with me. Doing something frightening, like chasing him with a stick, would not be helping to further our relationship and take it in the direction I want to go. I want Charlie to feel comfortable and safe around the stick and around me.
I set out to stick train Charlie using positive reinforcement and by shaping the behavior. Shaping means that you slowly build the behavior and reinforce all approximations towards the complete behavior. Essentially, I started out by reinforcing Charlie for looking at the stick, then moving towards it, for staying near it, for putting a foot on it, then two feet one it, etc.
The process can vary in how long it takes to get to the goal behavior. It depends on many things including the animals learning history, their individual personality and temperament, the skill level of the trainer, how often training is done, past life experiences for the animal and so much more. It probably took a couple of weeks of my working on this sporadically for us to get to where we are. Had I worked on it more often, we would have gotten to our end goal much faster.
The most important thing with this training is that you take your time and allow the animal to take their time. Do not push or force or pressure the animal. Instead, take what the animal can give you and reinforce that.
In this video I am usually using pieces of cashew, sometimes a safflower seed and on a few occasions a sunflower seed to reinforce Charlie's behavior.
I set out to stick train Charlie using positive reinforcement and by shaping the behavior. Shaping means that you slowly build the behavior and reinforce all approximations towards the complete behavior. Essentially, I started out by reinforcing Charlie for looking at the stick, then moving towards it, for staying near it, for putting a foot on it, then two feet one it, etc.
The process can vary in how long it takes to get to the goal behavior. It depends on many things including the animals learning history, their individual personality and temperament, the skill level of the trainer, how often training is done, past life experiences for the animal and so much more. It probably took a couple of weeks of my working on this sporadically for us to get to where we are. Had I worked on it more often, we would have gotten to our end goal much faster.
The most important thing with this training is that you take your time and allow the animal to take their time. Do not push or force or pressure the animal. Instead, take what the animal can give you and reinforce that.
In this video I am usually using pieces of cashew, sometimes a safflower seed and on a few occasions a sunflower seed to reinforce Charlie's behavior.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Introducing New Foods
The best diet for birds is a varied one. Variety is very important and this is where a lot of people go wrong. All of my birds get some pellets, some seed, either loose or in the form of nutriberries and fresh food daily. The fresh food is different all the time depending on what I have made for them or what I decide to choose. Here are some of the things that I make them for their fresh food meals:
- Mash - For my mash I usually use a brown rice base. To that I add vegetables which can be chopped, cut up or food processed depending on your birds and how they prefer their food. Sometimes I use a frozen veggie mix. I will also sometimes through in some raw pasta, baby food, raw oatmeal and ground flax seed. Sometimes I add in one of the ready made mixes like Goldenfeast, or Krazy Korn as well. You can be creative.
- Grain Bake - I just recently learned about these and started making them. Basically, you fill a baking dish with different grains, cover it with water and bake it for an hour at 350 degrees. I have put brown rice, pasta, oatmeal, fruits, veggies, just whatever! Again, you can be creative!
- Bird bread or muffins - I love to make bird bread or muffins for the birds and they love eating them. I will sometimes buy a bird bread mix such as Avian Organics or Mama Bird which basically contains everything you need and simply fix that. Other times, I will use a muffin mix, like Jiffy, add some veggies, seed, pellets or whatever you think your bird will like and cook it up. The birds love it and it can be a great way to convert a seed only eating bird.
- Many times I simply cut up veggies for them. I usually cook sweet potatoes and carrots, but leave things like squash raw. I offer fruit as well, but more veggies than fruit. I sometimes offer lettuce, which for the small birds, I hang in the cage. It doesn't have a huge amount of nutritional value, but it is still enriching and they love it.
- Chop - You can make a chop by simply chopping or food processing (depending on the size of your bird) and mixing it all together.
- Dry mixes - I buy different dry mixes and keep them on hand for days when I will be gone long and unable to take out the wetter foods that may spoil. I offer veggie crisps, dried fruits and veggies, mixes such as My Safe Bird Store's Quacker Jax, Bountiful Harvest or Veggie Crisp. Sometimes I make my own by throwing in a bunch of dry pasta, some dry cereal like cheerios and shredded wheat, some dried veggies, etc.
- Other stuff - I save leftover pasta and will throw in some veggies and offer that. I sometimes make my birds scrambled eggs and a little wheat toast. I sometimes offer comfort feedings of warmed baby food, mixed with a little oatmeal.
- Skewers - Some birds love to eat hanging food. Try using a skewer and hanging fresh, raw fruits and veggies in the cage. I like to do corn cob wheels, halved jalapenos, fruit, pepper pieces, just whatever you think your bird might like!
- Many of these things can be made in large batches and divided up so you have some for now and some to freeze.
- Remember when feeding fresh food that is wet or moist to take it out of the cage a couple of hours after serving it so that it doesn't spoil.
Merlin enjoying some squash
Iris with a dirty mash face
Argyle eating a rigatoni
Ivan enjoys a muffin
Nemo eating some bird bread
Always offer fresh food first thing in the morning. This is when the birds are most hungry. I do not ever withhold food to get them to eat something else, but I will feed the things that they eat more readily after having offered them something fresh.
When I am offering a new food to the birds, I usually sprinkle some seed and/or pellet on the top or even incorporate it into the new food to get them to try it. I have found that when doing vegetables, many birds love corn and peas, so you can try those.
With some birds, if hold the food, look at the food and even pretend or actually eat the food, they will give it a try.
Most birds will try it if they live with other birds who eat it. So, if you have groups of birds living together, one may start and get everyone to try it!
I offer it every day and continue to offer it, even if they don't eat it. It can take quite a while for birds to realize that something is edible and to actually want to try it.
Be creative! Don't be afraid to try new things, just make sure that they are bird safe.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
We tried that and it didn't work...
I am writing this post because I come across this statement both on internet forums and in real life as a behavior consultant.
Many times when people complain about problem behaviors in their animals (regardless of species) and are given advice they respond that "they have tried that and it didn't work". It is important to keep in mind that in order for our animals behavior to change we have to change our own behavior. As a species, we tend to blame the issues on someone else. The bird is being (insert any label here) hormonal, dominant, mean, jealous, stubborn, etc. when the fact is that the behavior has simply been reinforced (consequences) and the stage has been set for the bird to do it (antecedents). As owners we can control and change antecedents and consequences. In other words, the behavior is sandwiched between two things that change behavior, both of which we can control.
When people tell me that they tried something already and it "didn't work", I don't usually have to look far to see why it didn't work. While not every solution will work for every animal, learning theory doesn't change from individual to individual or even from species to species. Learning theory remains the same across the board. Functional analysis (antecedent-behavior-consequence) remains the same across the board. So, it isn't that it simply doesn't work for that animal, it usually means that there is a problem with how it's being executed.
How a behavior modification or training plan is executed is important. The skill of the trainer comes into play here. For some things, the timing is critical and if it's not right the bird will be confused and may be reinforced or punished for the wrong thing. For instance, let's say that a person asks their bird to step up and the bird bites the owner's hand, which causes the owner to pull their hand away. The bird was probably reinforced for biting. The owner is upset so then asks the bird to step up onto a stick which the bird does and then puts the bird in a time out to negatively punish the behavior. What message could the bird be getting? Probably that biting makes hands go away when he doesn't want to step up and that he got timed out in his cage for stepping up on the stick. It is important and critical even to look at what happens just before (antecedent) and just after (consequence) a behavior to determine if and how it can be modified.
Another problem with owner's execution is with extinction. We know that any behavior that is not reinforced will go away or go extinct. There are some exceptions like if the behavior is a response to stress. If a bird is screaming because he is not getting enough attention, exercise or enrichment then that screaming will not likely go away from ignoring the bird. In this case, the screaming is a symptom of being ignored and is a sign of stress. But, in cases where the bird's needs are met and the bird is screaming for attention ignoring the bird will cause the screaming to go extinct or go away. This is one where people constantly say "we tried ignoring him and it didn't work". The fact is, while they may have tried ignoring the bird, they simply didn't do it long enough. If the bird has learned that screaming brings the outcome of attention, any attention, the bird will keep screaming. Once the owner starts to ignore the screaming to extinguish the behavior, the bird will have an extinction burst which is when the behavior gets worse before it gets better. Many times it is during the extinction burst that the owner caves because the screaming gets worse and they can't cope with it which only cements the behavior even further. The bird has now been taught that if they just keep pushing and persisting, the desired outcome will eventually happen.
When a behavior has a strong reinforcement history meaning that the animal has practiced doing something and then getting the desired outcome for a long time, the behavior will be more resistant to extinction.
In the case of screaming, another thing that happens is that the owner "thinks" they are ignoring the behavior, but they aren't. Birds (and dogs) are very good at reading our body language and some of our body language can unintentionally reinforce behavior. I once had clients who had an American Bulldog who would bark at their back door and they said they couldn't get her to stop. She was a big, goofy funny dog and just looking at her made you smile. I asked them if they ever laughed while she did it, they said "yes, all the time". Bingo! When a bird is screaming for attention and the owner is attempting to ignore it, there are a million things the owner could do to reinforce it including, but certainly not limited to flinching, covering their ears, looking in the direction of the cage, turning up the TV, etc, etc. So, keep in mind that the animal, not us, get to decide what is reinforcing and you may have to look at other things going on.
The fact is, extinction can take some time. A bird who has been screaming for attention for 2 years is not going to miraculously stop after 10 minutes of being ignored because there is too much reinforcement history that has supported the behavior. The bottom line is, it takes time. I am not saying it's not frustrating, I wouldn't want to try and ignore a screaming bird for 2 hours, but I didn't make the rules, science did. It isn't always fun, but it IS the way it is.
So, keep in mind that if a behavior modification plan feels like it isn't working, you may need to adjust how you are doing things. You may need to wait longer. You may need to adjust how you are putting the plan into action. You may need modify the consequences or adjust the antecedent, but you will get there.
Many times when people complain about problem behaviors in their animals (regardless of species) and are given advice they respond that "they have tried that and it didn't work". It is important to keep in mind that in order for our animals behavior to change we have to change our own behavior. As a species, we tend to blame the issues on someone else. The bird is being (insert any label here) hormonal, dominant, mean, jealous, stubborn, etc. when the fact is that the behavior has simply been reinforced (consequences) and the stage has been set for the bird to do it (antecedents). As owners we can control and change antecedents and consequences. In other words, the behavior is sandwiched between two things that change behavior, both of which we can control.
When people tell me that they tried something already and it "didn't work", I don't usually have to look far to see why it didn't work. While not every solution will work for every animal, learning theory doesn't change from individual to individual or even from species to species. Learning theory remains the same across the board. Functional analysis (antecedent-behavior-consequence) remains the same across the board. So, it isn't that it simply doesn't work for that animal, it usually means that there is a problem with how it's being executed.
How a behavior modification or training plan is executed is important. The skill of the trainer comes into play here. For some things, the timing is critical and if it's not right the bird will be confused and may be reinforced or punished for the wrong thing. For instance, let's say that a person asks their bird to step up and the bird bites the owner's hand, which causes the owner to pull their hand away. The bird was probably reinforced for biting. The owner is upset so then asks the bird to step up onto a stick which the bird does and then puts the bird in a time out to negatively punish the behavior. What message could the bird be getting? Probably that biting makes hands go away when he doesn't want to step up and that he got timed out in his cage for stepping up on the stick. It is important and critical even to look at what happens just before (antecedent) and just after (consequence) a behavior to determine if and how it can be modified.
Another problem with owner's execution is with extinction. We know that any behavior that is not reinforced will go away or go extinct. There are some exceptions like if the behavior is a response to stress. If a bird is screaming because he is not getting enough attention, exercise or enrichment then that screaming will not likely go away from ignoring the bird. In this case, the screaming is a symptom of being ignored and is a sign of stress. But, in cases where the bird's needs are met and the bird is screaming for attention ignoring the bird will cause the screaming to go extinct or go away. This is one where people constantly say "we tried ignoring him and it didn't work". The fact is, while they may have tried ignoring the bird, they simply didn't do it long enough. If the bird has learned that screaming brings the outcome of attention, any attention, the bird will keep screaming. Once the owner starts to ignore the screaming to extinguish the behavior, the bird will have an extinction burst which is when the behavior gets worse before it gets better. Many times it is during the extinction burst that the owner caves because the screaming gets worse and they can't cope with it which only cements the behavior even further. The bird has now been taught that if they just keep pushing and persisting, the desired outcome will eventually happen.
When a behavior has a strong reinforcement history meaning that the animal has practiced doing something and then getting the desired outcome for a long time, the behavior will be more resistant to extinction.
In the case of screaming, another thing that happens is that the owner "thinks" they are ignoring the behavior, but they aren't. Birds (and dogs) are very good at reading our body language and some of our body language can unintentionally reinforce behavior. I once had clients who had an American Bulldog who would bark at their back door and they said they couldn't get her to stop. She was a big, goofy funny dog and just looking at her made you smile. I asked them if they ever laughed while she did it, they said "yes, all the time". Bingo! When a bird is screaming for attention and the owner is attempting to ignore it, there are a million things the owner could do to reinforce it including, but certainly not limited to flinching, covering their ears, looking in the direction of the cage, turning up the TV, etc, etc. So, keep in mind that the animal, not us, get to decide what is reinforcing and you may have to look at other things going on.
The fact is, extinction can take some time. A bird who has been screaming for attention for 2 years is not going to miraculously stop after 10 minutes of being ignored because there is too much reinforcement history that has supported the behavior. The bottom line is, it takes time. I am not saying it's not frustrating, I wouldn't want to try and ignore a screaming bird for 2 hours, but I didn't make the rules, science did. It isn't always fun, but it IS the way it is.
So, keep in mind that if a behavior modification plan feels like it isn't working, you may need to adjust how you are doing things. You may need to wait longer. You may need to adjust how you are putting the plan into action. You may need modify the consequences or adjust the antecedent, but you will get there.
Changing problem behavior in birds
I wanted to write a post that could help people understand how you can go about changing or modifying problem behavior in their parrots. It is good for people to know this because once you get the concepts, you can apply it to anything.
Behavior doesn't just "happen", it happens because of what happens before the behavior, or the set up, which is called the "antecedent" and by what happens just after the behavior, which is called the "consequence". The great thing is that, those are both (the antecedent and the consequence) things we can change which will change the animal's behavior. The other great thing is that, we KNOW this. It is scientific, it is proven and we know that it is how it is. It does not change between species, breeds or anything like that, we ALL learn this way. People will blame behavior on all sorts of different things, but the truth is that the behavior is only going to keep happening if it is effective. No animal, human or non-human, does things for no reason. The key really is figuring out what the reinforcement is for the animal as this is what drives the behavior. The reinforcers, of course, are what change from individual to individual.
In general, I am talking about changing behavior that is considered problem behavior. I want to note that some behavior that people consider "problem" is actually natural, normal behavior for that species. You won't be successful at and shouldn't try completely getting rid of natural behaviors. Excessive screaming can be modified, but not ALL vocalizing. Destroying furniture can be modified, but not ALL chewing. Also, it is important to keep in mind that in order for our animals behavior to change, we have to be willing to change our own behavior first. If no change on our part was required, the problem would have resolved itself.
Finally, keep in mind that animals get better at whatever they practice, so don't let a behavior go on and on before putting together a training plan. If they are doing it over and over and it is being reinforced, it is getting stronger. It is best to figure out how to modify it as early on as you can.
Changing Antecedents
When you want to change a problem behavior, the first thing to look at is whether not it is possible to simply change the antecedent so that the behavior can't happen. Remember, the antecedent sets the stage. Here are a couple of situations where I could simply change the antecedent:
A dog barks at the front window when the mailman comes to the porch. Here are some antecedents I could change:
1) Do not allow the dog access to the front window before the mailman has come. Simply keep the dog away from the window by keeping him in another part of the house.
2) Move the mailbox off of the house and onto a stand at the end of the driveway.
3) Close the blinds
Any one of these could work, depending on the dog, the set up of the house, etc. If the dog can run upstairs and see the mailman from another window, then we may have to make sure he can't get to other front windows as well. If the dog is very sensitive to sound and barks even if he can't see the mailman, we may have to move him to a specific area of the house and add white noise. There are a ton of things we can do to change the set up.
Another example:
A Meyer's Parrot (named Nemo), climbs onto and then guards the garbage can when sitting on the side of it. If you go to reach for him or ask him to step up, he will react by lunging with an open beak. Here are some antecedents I could change:
1) Move the garbage can to someplace in the room where it is more difficult for him to get to and less noticeable to him.
2) Take the garbage can out of the room when he is out of his cage.
3) Put something over the garbage can so that he can't see it and/or on it.
I usually do #1 which works well
It should be noted that for the lunging behavior the antecedent would be reaching for him. If I do not mess with him, he minds his own business, cheerfully playing in the garbage can. So, I can make the lunging not happen by just leaving him alone. I actually do this sometimes. When I know I have plenty of time, I let him hang out on the side of the garbage can, leave him alone and when he gets bored he climbs up on the playstand and steps up with no problem.
Some other examples of changing antecedents are:
-If you have two birds that fight, do not have them out at the same time. If they aren't out, they can't fight.
-If you have a bird who flies out of the room, shut the door or put up a net or curtain. If it isn't an option, they can't do it.
-If you have a bird who flies at guests who come over, don't have him out when people come over. If he isn't out, he can't fly to them.
-If you have a bird who chews on the blinds, open the blinds when he is out or move the cage so he can't access the blinds.
If, for whatever reason you can't change the antecedent or the set up, then you may have to come up with a training plan to modify the behavior.
Changing Behavior
The best training plan, in my opinion, for getting rid of a behavior you don't like is to train an alternative behavior or an incompatible behavior. Teaching an alternative behavior means that you teach the animal to do something else. Teaching an incompatible behavior means that you teach something to the animal that they cannot possibly do at the same time as the behavior you don't like.
The point is that you teach the animal to do an acceptable behavior INSTEAD of the behavior you don't want him to do. This is what I do if I can't change the antecedent. Frequently, clients will tell me (about their dogs), "I don't want him to jump on people who want to greet him". So, I ask, "What would you like him to do?" Then they say, "I just don't want him to jump" at which point I really push and say, "What do you want him to do when he greets people? What would be acceptable? How about if he sits instead?" They say that would be so great, so we train that. The dog has to sit before greeting a person. It is MUCH easier to train what you want instead of trying to get rid of everything you don't want. You could spend an animals lifetime trying to get rid of all the behaviors you don't like, when simply training a few behaviors REALLY WELL, can give them the information and the tools to be able to do what you ask and get it right.
So, for my problem behaviors from above:
A dog barks at the front window when the mailman comes to the porch.
1) I could train the dog to go lie on his mat quietly when the mailman approaches. He cannot quietly lie on his mat (which is in another room away from the front window) and bark at the mailman at the window at the same time.
2) I could train the dog to come to the owner and sit down when the mailman comes on the porch.
You can see here that there are a ton of behaviors I could teach the dog to do INSTEAD of barking at the mailman. Depending on the reinforcement history of this behavior, the temperament and learning style of the dog, the skill level of the owners, this could be really easy to do or really challenging. You can see that simply changing the antecedent is much simpler if it is possible.
A Meyer's Parrot (named Nemo), guards the garbage can when sitting on the side of it. If you go to reach for him or ask him to step up, he will react by lunging with an open beak.
1) I could teach him to follow a target to move him away from the garbage can.
2) I could teach him to climb onto a certain perch on the playstand (near the can).
Some other examples of alternative behaviors are:
-Teaching a bird to talk quietly instead of screaming.
-To teach a bird to step up with his head upright instead of biting.
-Teach a bird to go station on a certain perch instead of trying to bite your hand when putting the food bowl in.
-To teach a bird to play on a play stand instead of walking around on the ground.
-To teach a dog to sit instead of jumping up.
Reinforcers
Like I mentioned before, when animals do a behavior, they are doing that behavior for an outcome or for the reinforcement that follows it. They get something out of it. If we want to build a behavior we have to find out what is reinforcing to the animal and add that immediately after a behavior happens. When we think of reinforcement, we think of food or something that we may be giving in order to strengthen behaviors that we want to teach the animal. Food, attention, play, are all things that we may use to intentionally reinforce an animal, however, the animal is the one who really decides what is reinforing. In other words, I don't get to say that because I like petting my dog a certain way that it is reinforcing, he may be more reinforced by food, or a ball toss, or whatever. The only way to determine whether or not something is reinforcing is to see what happens to the behavior that the intended reinforcement follows. If it happens more frequently or is maintained, it was reinforcing. If the behavior does not happen more often, or happens less, it was NOT reinforcing to the animal. Below is video I made for my clients to explain reinforcers and how they work. These are reinforcers for building behaviors, but remember that there is something that is reinforcing the behaviors that you want to modify also. You aren't giving a piece of food, but make no mistake that the animal is getting something out of it. If they weren't, they wouldn't keep doing it.
Finally, if a behavior is happening that you want to stop happening and you can't change the antecedent then you will need to find out what is reinforcing the behavior and change that. Remember that what reinforces the behavior is what happens right after the behavior happens. Let's figure out what is reinforcing for the animals in the examples above:
A dog barks at the front window when the mailman comes to the porch.
In this case, the dog is alert barking. Every single day the dog alert barks at the mailman and every single day he is reinforced by the mailman going away after dropping off the mail. The mailman did not intend to reinforce that behavior and he didn't leave because the dog barked, but because it happened directly after the dog barked, the barking is reinforced. In this case, it makes more sense to change the antecedent set up and/or teach an alternative behavior since I really can't control the mailman.
A Meyer's Parrot (named Nemo), guards the garbage can when sitting on the side of it. If you go to reach for him or ask him to step up, he will react by lunging with an open beak.
In this case, the reinforcement for the bird is my backing off or removing my hand. He did not want to be removed from the garbage can to he lunges with an open beak which causes me to remove my hand and the behavior is reinforced. Now, he may also not want me to reach in the can but I am pretty sure it is because he doesn't want to be removed or asked to step up. I am not stupid enough to test out this theory and see what happens if I just reach in as I think I know what the outcome would be and frankly because I have worked around the situation by changing antecedents and/or simply not reaching for him, it doesn't matter.
Some examples of things that can be reinforcing to birds. Keep in mind that this is by no means a complete list of things that can reinforce a bird, nor will all of these be reinforcing to every bird:
-Getting food
-Getting attention
-Getting scratched or pet
-Excitable tone of voice/excitement
-A reaction (for some birds, a reaction of any kind can reinforce a behavior, even a flinch or yelling at the bird)
-Increasing distance from someone (moving the person away)
-Chewing on wood or other things including, but not limited to pens, keyboards, furniture, paper, boxes, plastic, books, etc, etc, etc
-Foraging
-Shredding stuff
-Play
-Toys
-Exploring/investigating
In any situation that has problem behavior we have to look at what sets it up (antecedents) and what keeps it going (reinforcement). Change the antecedent and/or remove the reinforcement and the behavior will stop happening. This is easier said than done sometimes as it can take good observation skills as well as good mechanical skills sometimes to change behavior. As Bob Bailey says, "Training is simple, but not easy."
Negative Punishment
It is also sometimes possible to change behavior by removing something that the animal wants in order to make a behavior go away. For instance, if I am working on step up with a bird, using a tested reinforcer (like a seed) that I have determined the bird really likes as a lure and he tries to bite me, I can remove my hand AND the opportunity for reinforcement for just a few seconds, before giving the animal the opportunity to make the right choice for which he can be rewarded.
Some examples of negative reinforcement are:
A bird screams for attention and the owner leaves the room. You are removing what the bird wants, YOU, immediately after the behavior of screaming happened.
A dog jumps up on the owner and the person turns away. The owners attention is removed immediately following hte jumping.
Remember if you use negative reinforcement to be sure to reinforce the animal when they make the right choice. In other words, any time the bird is quiet you need to reinforce that. At first, frequently and then you can build duration of quiet periods up from there. For the stepping up, you would reinforce with the seed EVERY time the bird does the behavior correctly. The other thing to keep in mind is that in order for negative punishment to be effective, it has to happen every time. If the animal is reinforced some of the time for the problem behavior that will still keep the behavior strong.
In general my go to is:
1) Change antecedent if possible
2) Train an alternative or an incompatible behavior
3) Possibly consider negative punishments, but I would try to change it with the first two options.
I hope that this helps some and that it gives people a better idea about how they can use these tools to change behavior in their birds.
Behavior doesn't just "happen", it happens because of what happens before the behavior, or the set up, which is called the "antecedent" and by what happens just after the behavior, which is called the "consequence". The great thing is that, those are both (the antecedent and the consequence) things we can change which will change the animal's behavior. The other great thing is that, we KNOW this. It is scientific, it is proven and we know that it is how it is. It does not change between species, breeds or anything like that, we ALL learn this way. People will blame behavior on all sorts of different things, but the truth is that the behavior is only going to keep happening if it is effective. No animal, human or non-human, does things for no reason. The key really is figuring out what the reinforcement is for the animal as this is what drives the behavior. The reinforcers, of course, are what change from individual to individual.
In general, I am talking about changing behavior that is considered problem behavior. I want to note that some behavior that people consider "problem" is actually natural, normal behavior for that species. You won't be successful at and shouldn't try completely getting rid of natural behaviors. Excessive screaming can be modified, but not ALL vocalizing. Destroying furniture can be modified, but not ALL chewing. Also, it is important to keep in mind that in order for our animals behavior to change, we have to be willing to change our own behavior first. If no change on our part was required, the problem would have resolved itself.
Finally, keep in mind that animals get better at whatever they practice, so don't let a behavior go on and on before putting together a training plan. If they are doing it over and over and it is being reinforced, it is getting stronger. It is best to figure out how to modify it as early on as you can.
Changing Antecedents
When you want to change a problem behavior, the first thing to look at is whether not it is possible to simply change the antecedent so that the behavior can't happen. Remember, the antecedent sets the stage. Here are a couple of situations where I could simply change the antecedent:
A dog barks at the front window when the mailman comes to the porch. Here are some antecedents I could change:
1) Do not allow the dog access to the front window before the mailman has come. Simply keep the dog away from the window by keeping him in another part of the house.
2) Move the mailbox off of the house and onto a stand at the end of the driveway.
3) Close the blinds
Any one of these could work, depending on the dog, the set up of the house, etc. If the dog can run upstairs and see the mailman from another window, then we may have to make sure he can't get to other front windows as well. If the dog is very sensitive to sound and barks even if he can't see the mailman, we may have to move him to a specific area of the house and add white noise. There are a ton of things we can do to change the set up.
Another example:
A Meyer's Parrot (named Nemo), climbs onto and then guards the garbage can when sitting on the side of it. If you go to reach for him or ask him to step up, he will react by lunging with an open beak. Here are some antecedents I could change:
1) Move the garbage can to someplace in the room where it is more difficult for him to get to and less noticeable to him.
2) Take the garbage can out of the room when he is out of his cage.
3) Put something over the garbage can so that he can't see it and/or on it.
I usually do #1 which works well
It should be noted that for the lunging behavior the antecedent would be reaching for him. If I do not mess with him, he minds his own business, cheerfully playing in the garbage can. So, I can make the lunging not happen by just leaving him alone. I actually do this sometimes. When I know I have plenty of time, I let him hang out on the side of the garbage can, leave him alone and when he gets bored he climbs up on the playstand and steps up with no problem.
Some other examples of changing antecedents are:
-If you have two birds that fight, do not have them out at the same time. If they aren't out, they can't fight.
-If you have a bird who flies out of the room, shut the door or put up a net or curtain. If it isn't an option, they can't do it.
-If you have a bird who flies at guests who come over, don't have him out when people come over. If he isn't out, he can't fly to them.
-If you have a bird who chews on the blinds, open the blinds when he is out or move the cage so he can't access the blinds.
If, for whatever reason you can't change the antecedent or the set up, then you may have to come up with a training plan to modify the behavior.
Changing Behavior
The best training plan, in my opinion, for getting rid of a behavior you don't like is to train an alternative behavior or an incompatible behavior. Teaching an alternative behavior means that you teach the animal to do something else. Teaching an incompatible behavior means that you teach something to the animal that they cannot possibly do at the same time as the behavior you don't like.
The point is that you teach the animal to do an acceptable behavior INSTEAD of the behavior you don't want him to do. This is what I do if I can't change the antecedent. Frequently, clients will tell me (about their dogs), "I don't want him to jump on people who want to greet him". So, I ask, "What would you like him to do?" Then they say, "I just don't want him to jump" at which point I really push and say, "What do you want him to do when he greets people? What would be acceptable? How about if he sits instead?" They say that would be so great, so we train that. The dog has to sit before greeting a person. It is MUCH easier to train what you want instead of trying to get rid of everything you don't want. You could spend an animals lifetime trying to get rid of all the behaviors you don't like, when simply training a few behaviors REALLY WELL, can give them the information and the tools to be able to do what you ask and get it right.
So, for my problem behaviors from above:
A dog barks at the front window when the mailman comes to the porch.
1) I could train the dog to go lie on his mat quietly when the mailman approaches. He cannot quietly lie on his mat (which is in another room away from the front window) and bark at the mailman at the window at the same time.
2) I could train the dog to come to the owner and sit down when the mailman comes on the porch.
You can see here that there are a ton of behaviors I could teach the dog to do INSTEAD of barking at the mailman. Depending on the reinforcement history of this behavior, the temperament and learning style of the dog, the skill level of the owners, this could be really easy to do or really challenging. You can see that simply changing the antecedent is much simpler if it is possible.
A Meyer's Parrot (named Nemo), guards the garbage can when sitting on the side of it. If you go to reach for him or ask him to step up, he will react by lunging with an open beak.
1) I could teach him to follow a target to move him away from the garbage can.
2) I could teach him to climb onto a certain perch on the playstand (near the can).
Some other examples of alternative behaviors are:
-Teaching a bird to talk quietly instead of screaming.
-To teach a bird to step up with his head upright instead of biting.
-Teach a bird to go station on a certain perch instead of trying to bite your hand when putting the food bowl in.
-To teach a bird to play on a play stand instead of walking around on the ground.
-To teach a dog to sit instead of jumping up.
Reinforcers
Like I mentioned before, when animals do a behavior, they are doing that behavior for an outcome or for the reinforcement that follows it. They get something out of it. If we want to build a behavior we have to find out what is reinforcing to the animal and add that immediately after a behavior happens. When we think of reinforcement, we think of food or something that we may be giving in order to strengthen behaviors that we want to teach the animal. Food, attention, play, are all things that we may use to intentionally reinforce an animal, however, the animal is the one who really decides what is reinforing. In other words, I don't get to say that because I like petting my dog a certain way that it is reinforcing, he may be more reinforced by food, or a ball toss, or whatever. The only way to determine whether or not something is reinforcing is to see what happens to the behavior that the intended reinforcement follows. If it happens more frequently or is maintained, it was reinforcing. If the behavior does not happen more often, or happens less, it was NOT reinforcing to the animal. Below is video I made for my clients to explain reinforcers and how they work. These are reinforcers for building behaviors, but remember that there is something that is reinforcing the behaviors that you want to modify also. You aren't giving a piece of food, but make no mistake that the animal is getting something out of it. If they weren't, they wouldn't keep doing it.
Finally, if a behavior is happening that you want to stop happening and you can't change the antecedent then you will need to find out what is reinforcing the behavior and change that. Remember that what reinforces the behavior is what happens right after the behavior happens. Let's figure out what is reinforcing for the animals in the examples above:
A dog barks at the front window when the mailman comes to the porch.
In this case, the dog is alert barking. Every single day the dog alert barks at the mailman and every single day he is reinforced by the mailman going away after dropping off the mail. The mailman did not intend to reinforce that behavior and he didn't leave because the dog barked, but because it happened directly after the dog barked, the barking is reinforced. In this case, it makes more sense to change the antecedent set up and/or teach an alternative behavior since I really can't control the mailman.
A Meyer's Parrot (named Nemo), guards the garbage can when sitting on the side of it. If you go to reach for him or ask him to step up, he will react by lunging with an open beak.
In this case, the reinforcement for the bird is my backing off or removing my hand. He did not want to be removed from the garbage can to he lunges with an open beak which causes me to remove my hand and the behavior is reinforced. Now, he may also not want me to reach in the can but I am pretty sure it is because he doesn't want to be removed or asked to step up. I am not stupid enough to test out this theory and see what happens if I just reach in as I think I know what the outcome would be and frankly because I have worked around the situation by changing antecedents and/or simply not reaching for him, it doesn't matter.
Some examples of things that can be reinforcing to birds. Keep in mind that this is by no means a complete list of things that can reinforce a bird, nor will all of these be reinforcing to every bird:
-Getting food
-Getting attention
-Getting scratched or pet
-Excitable tone of voice/excitement
-A reaction (for some birds, a reaction of any kind can reinforce a behavior, even a flinch or yelling at the bird)
-Increasing distance from someone (moving the person away)
-Chewing on wood or other things including, but not limited to pens, keyboards, furniture, paper, boxes, plastic, books, etc, etc, etc
-Foraging
-Shredding stuff
-Play
-Toys
-Exploring/investigating
In any situation that has problem behavior we have to look at what sets it up (antecedents) and what keeps it going (reinforcement). Change the antecedent and/or remove the reinforcement and the behavior will stop happening. This is easier said than done sometimes as it can take good observation skills as well as good mechanical skills sometimes to change behavior. As Bob Bailey says, "Training is simple, but not easy."
Negative Punishment
It is also sometimes possible to change behavior by removing something that the animal wants in order to make a behavior go away. For instance, if I am working on step up with a bird, using a tested reinforcer (like a seed) that I have determined the bird really likes as a lure and he tries to bite me, I can remove my hand AND the opportunity for reinforcement for just a few seconds, before giving the animal the opportunity to make the right choice for which he can be rewarded.
Some examples of negative reinforcement are:
A bird screams for attention and the owner leaves the room. You are removing what the bird wants, YOU, immediately after the behavior of screaming happened.
A dog jumps up on the owner and the person turns away. The owners attention is removed immediately following hte jumping.
Remember if you use negative reinforcement to be sure to reinforce the animal when they make the right choice. In other words, any time the bird is quiet you need to reinforce that. At first, frequently and then you can build duration of quiet periods up from there. For the stepping up, you would reinforce with the seed EVERY time the bird does the behavior correctly. The other thing to keep in mind is that in order for negative punishment to be effective, it has to happen every time. If the animal is reinforced some of the time for the problem behavior that will still keep the behavior strong.
In general my go to is:
1) Change antecedent if possible
2) Train an alternative or an incompatible behavior
3) Possibly consider negative punishments, but I would try to change it with the first two options.
I hope that this helps some and that it gives people a better idea about how they can use these tools to change behavior in their birds.
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