Bird Training Blog

Ethical training as a way of life

July 18th, 2011

The following was written as my “Letter from the President” in the current issue of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators Flyer member’s magazine. I received emails and even a phone call or two from my IAATE collegues who had found it useful and even inspirational. I believe it is worth publishing to the wider audience that reads my blog, I hope you also find it useful, informative, and maybe even inspirational … enjoy.

(First published in IAATE Flyer, Sumnmer 2010)

Recently my mind has been occupied with several training and behavior subjects. This has involved watching a little more closely not only how the subjects of the training session behave but also how their trainers behave in their interactions with other members of their team. Some of what I saw was perplexing and it took me on several thought paths and to more observation and reflection. The question that kept returning was, “if these folks are applying the current best techniques and getting good, sometimes excellent results with their animals, why are their teams and relationships with their colleagues in such disarray?”

Slowly I came to the conclusion that when interacting with colleagues and team members these otherwise gentle, least intrusive trainers were hooked on aversive stimuli in their management and leadership styles. “Attracted to aversive stimuli like a moth to a flame” was how it was summarized by Dr Susan Friedman in one of our recent conversations on this subject. The often used adage “setting them up to succeed” simply wasn’t present. I have to admit it came as a bit of a surprise that when dealing with the human members of their teams many people forget, or at least set aside, all the lessons they have learned so well for their animals.

During my reflections I spoke to several trainers on the receiving end of this aversive attention. There appear to be two extremes of leadership style; both fail their subjects in several areas. First there is the micromanager who seems incapable of allowing their team members to make a move without having almost complete hands-on themselves. What they are doing is taking all control away from their team members; the team has no power to make any decisions, anything they do is heavily criticized, leading to apathy and resentment. None of these effects should be a surprise to the trainer who understands behavior science.

At the other extreme is the leader who believes they are giving their team complete freedom by not interfering or supporting at all. While this approach can be not nearly as destructive as the micromanager it does bring its own problems, perhaps stronger this time for the leader. Things that are important to the team leader may not be performed, individuals begin to formulate their own priorities and focus on them, tension may develop between team members as they compete for their own agendas. Plus, the team leader often ends up just taking care of what needs to be done rather than directing the team and thereby creates a twelve-hour workday for them self.

Both of these situations can be avoided relatively easily especially for people with the skills that good animal trainers possess. Making the switch from the traditional training techniques for the animal collection was not easy. From their earliest years many, many people have become highly proficient in the use of punishment to gain control over others. Fortunately that is changing, at least for the animals; what is needed now is for the expansion of the ethical training techniques to be extended to encompass the whole team; to our colleagues, our supervisors, and the facility interns … everyone.

Apart from making the effort to keep the ratio of reinforcement to punishment as high as possible perhaps the most important aspect of being a good team member/leader is clear communication of expectations and responsibilities. Imagine the interaction with your colleagues like a play in which you are all actors. The play simply will not work unless everyone on the stage has the same script. Becoming angry because something was not done by a colleague when they were unaware that they were expected to do it just won’t help; be clear about expectations; be clear about responsibilities. Ensure that when the team decides what to do it is also clear about who will do it and by when. In a nutshell use one of the most powerful tools of empowerment, communication.

At a time when the forms of communication available to us are expanding almost exponentially it is vital to focus not on the volume of communication but the quality. Listen to what your teammates are saying, read their email carefully, think about and consider their motivation, their expectations … then respond.

Keep soaring,

Sid.

Posted in Dr Susan Friedman, Ethics, punishment, Reinforcement, Sid Price, Training | No Comments »

The Real Secrets of Training Success and Where to Find Them

July 18th, 2011

I received an email from a professional colleague this morning that drove me right to the computer to write about it in my blog. Just recently many professional and personal issues have kept writing blog articles a little lower on the priority list than I would like; however this email was one that simply had to be addressed.
In the past I have written about information and misinformation on the Internet. I have done this in general terms and have not mentioned any names or web sites. My thinking there was that why add to the promotion of bad information and dubious marketing techniques by naming the culprits. Well this time I am going to name the web site because these folks are making a big push into the companion parrot world; plus if their marketing hype is to be believed they have duped at least one “professional” trainer into helping them. So the email I received pushed me over the edge.
I am speaking of the Bird Tricks web site. In particular an article and a story from someone they claim to be a customer. I say claim because the style of writing rings very close to the marketeers own style, plus if one studies the marketing techniques that their campaigns are based upon you will discover that recruiting writers to post to online groups and also to post recommendations is one of the “proven” techniques. Having said that, using such techniques (while ethically questionable) is not what this article is about.
The particular article concerns “taming” a Blue and Gold by using a technique called Flooding, basically exposing a bird to something it can not escape. In this case the bird appears to have a fear of hands and/or touching and bites when a hand is presented. The web site suggests that using a pair of sticks to touch the bird is the way to go. The theory being that no matter how much the bird bites the sticks it doesn’t hurt the owner so the sticks can stay there until accepted by the bird. The bird learns that any action it takes does not remove the sticks; it is helpless to make a change. This is called Learned Helplessness and can be a major factor in actually reducing the bird’s trust in the owner. It also does not teach the bird what to do, which should be the goal of our training.
Now the web site owners claim in some online posts that they have learned and changed the technique. Far from it since I read the article on their web site this morning.
Please be wary of this web site, the so-called trainers bring little to no actual training experience to the table. They have demonstrated over and over again their lack of understanding of the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and Operant Conditioning by what they write and say. What they have demonstrated admirably is their true motivation in entering the companion parrot world, and that is to maximize sales of their training materials, material that is widely available for free or for little cost from true Professionals. They obfuscate well proven techniques by inventing new names for them, thereby appearing to have invented something novel when in fact what they are selling are well published scientific techniques.
If you are looking for solid advice then read the writings (for free) of Dr Susan Friedman, if you need help with bird behavior join the Yahoo group of Dr Friedman and get a mentor to help you (for free), or take Dr Friedman;s online LLP course for a modest donation to a worthy bird cause. If you would like to support a professional who truly cares and gives a huge amount to the community subscribe to Barbara Heidenreich’s Good Bird Magazine.
Sid.

Posted in Sid Price | No Comments »

I need help with my phobic parrot!

July 18th, 2011

You read it all the time in internet chat groups and even magazine articles, “I need urgent help with my phobic (insert parrots species).” It seems to me that the majority of people asking these questions and many of those answering them do not understand what phobia is.

Let’s start by going to Webster’s for a definition of phobia:

“Noun: an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.”

I feel that it is highly unlikely that most so-called “phobic” birds have the above described type of fear. The key words here are “inexplicable” and “illogical.” The root cause of such behavior can usually be traced to the history of interactions with the owner or in the case of a rehomed bird, the previous owner(s). This is hardly “inexplicable” or “illogical”. A bird that displays aggressive behavior towards hands is probably a bird that has never been “listened to” when it clearly communicated that the hand approaching was not welcome. Through its body language a bird communicates it is either ready or not to accept an approaching hand. When the owner sees, understands, and respects this communication the bird gains a little more control over its environment and with control comes confidence.

In addition using “phobic” to describe the behavior of a bird is applying what is defined in psychology as a construct or label. Regardless of whether the condition is based upon an illogical or inexplicable fear the word “phobia” only attempts to ascribe a condition or state to the bird, it does nothing to describe what the bird actually does, or the conditions in which it does it. Remember, the smallest meaningful unit of analysis is behavior and conditions.

The first step in addressing behavioral problems is to accurately describe the behavior, what happens immediately before the behavior (the antecedent), and what immediately follows the behavior that is maintaining it (the consequence). This is what is called a functional analysis of the problem and I wrote about this process in an earlier article. That article and another describing the basic terms of the science of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) should help those looking to address fear issues.

It is also important to note that fear behaviors may “appear” to be irrational and therefore phobic because the fear-eliciting stimulus appears harmless to the trainer. However these fear behaviors are not irrational from the perspective of how they come about, which is the process of Respondent Conditioning (to be discussed in a future article).

One final point, when trying to address unwanted behavior it is important to focus on what we would like the bird to do instead. Training a bird “what to do” is easier and less intrusive than trying to train it “what not to do.” The latter on its own implies the use of punishment (the reduction of a behavior) and aversives (things a bird will work to avoid). Both of these are things we try to avoid in training plans whenever possible. Training a bird “what to do” involves reinforcing desired behavior, the technique upon which we try to focus. As we build the reinforcement history of the desired behavior and at the same time attempt to avoid reinforcing the unwanted behavior we will tip the balance towards the bird offering the wanted behavior.

Sid.

Tags: constructs, labels, operant conditioning, phobia, phobic, respondent conditioning
Posted in Articles, Reinforcement, Sid Price, Training | No Comments »

Food and Weight Management – follow up

July 15th, 2011

My post about Food and Weight Management has drawn a few comments that I would like to address. Don’t forget that if you have any questions related to the articles posted here you are invited to use the email address (TrainingBlogAvianAmbassadors dot com) set up specifically to receive those questions. I can’t promise to address everything but I will read them all and do my very best to at least address the points you raise in a future article if at all possible.

One of the problems of blogging is that it is generally an unedited medium, by which I mean that most, if not all, of the posts people make to blogs are a stream of consciousness rather than a formal structured work that is ultimately edited by a third party. This means that sometimes a statement is made without the meaning or intent being completely clear to a reader. Great editors pick those mistakes up before they reach the reader. The Food/Weight Management article had a couple of those that a diligent reader picked up and rightly questioned. Also, I was asked “how do you decide if you need weight management rather than food management?” So, let’s get to it …

Let me address the last point first; how does a trainer make the decision to begin using Weight Management? The decision is really quite simple if one is always focused on behavior and that was one of the key points of the previous article. Let your observation of the behaviors you are training guide your training decisions. Also, don’t forget that adjusting diet is going to be the last tool you pull out of your toolbox. Be sure that you are setting up your bird for success by arranging the environment so that the bird is relaxed and comfortable. A critical aspect of starting out training is that the trainer and the bird have a history of positive interactions; don’t expect to bring home a new bird and start training a step up right away. It may take several days of walking by the cage and dropping treats into a bowl before one can even think about starting to train any specific behaviors. Always ask yourself “why should the bird interact with you?”, “what’s in it for the bird?” And remember that we want the bird to choose to be a partner in the training process.

So, back to the original question about when to use Weight Management; use it if the behavior you are training is just not shaping up the way you want, the response just isn’t there. However, only begin Weight Management after you have made sure that all of those things on the “will not perform” side of the motivational balance have been explored and if necessary corrected. Plus, be patient; do not withhold large amounts of food just to get the bird’s attention for training. I have heard of novices getting frustrated because their bird didn’t respond just the way they wanted so in their frustration they withhold a complete meal. This is just not necessary especially if the trainer is managing the food of the bird correctly. The need for gross changes in diet in my opinion are a reflection of the trainer’s lack of good diet management and rarely, if ever, justified or needed.

A phrase I used “relax the criteria” caused a little confusion. The context in which I used the phrase in the article was when a bird was in a new environment with lots of new potential distractions. Here I meant that I would relax my expectations of performance for the bird, e.g. if the behavior was a 20 foot flight to me I would start in this new environment just asking for a hop, then a flight of a few feet, gradually building the bird’s confidence in these new surroundings and for sure only raising my criteria as I observed good behaviorial responses. What I did not mean was that the trainer should continue to cue the behavior that was not working and accept the latency (delay to perform). Part of the process of generalization (performing behaviors regardless of environment) is to build the bird’s confidence not only in itself but also in the trainer. By setting the bird up to succeed (short hop and then short flights) the bird’s trust in the trainer is raised so that in the future in new environments this trust should increase the likelihood that the bird will perform the behaviors cued. Also, by relaxing the criteria and enabling the bird to perform a behavior we increase the number of times we are able to reward the bird, always a good thing! Repetition builds confidence – bird and trainer.

Another question related to how to remove some of the “will not perform” items from the motivational balance. As an example how do you train the bird to fly down from heights at a steep angle? Remember that we can always lower the weight of the bird and increase motivation to overcome the bird’s apprehension in making a steep downward flight. However, just because that works doesn’t make it the right choice for me. Reducing the weight again should be the last thing we think about doing. I will repeat a phrase here that should be one of the trainers’ mantras, set the bird up to succeed. First, before we placed our bird into an environment where it might have spooked up into that tall tree we should have trained it to fly down from high places. New trainers often forget that birds learn their flight skills through … flying. Therefore, in a safe environment we place our bird on higher and higher perches and allow them to learn to fly down. We train our bird to fly to places on cue and then send them into higher and higher tree branches (or meeting hall rafters!) and allow them to learn how to fly down. We set them up to succeed so that when they find themselves sitting high in a tree they already know how to fly down. The second part of the answer is for every trainer to observe and understand the limitations of their bird when it comes to its flight skills. No matter how much we fly our birds they never get as much “air time” as a wild bird, because of this their flight skills, while impressive, may never reach those of their wild cousins. Therefore we need to once again set them up to succeed by only asking them to perform behaviors we know they can perform. So, when your bird is high in a tree don’t stand right under the tree calling it down, move away from the tree and give your bird the “glide angle” it needs to make the flight.

Don’t forget:

Repetition builds confidence
Set your bird up to succeed
Ask yourself “What’s in it for the bird?”
Assume responsibility for all your bird’s behavior

Sid

Posted in Food management, Questions, Sid Price, Training, Uncategorized, Weight management | No Comments »

We are all trainers … all the time.

June 18th, 2011

I saw the following post on Facebook recently and it reminded me of something that I believe every animal owner is apt to forget, and that is that we are ALL trainers ALL the time

I’ve had birds all my life, though admittedly no parrots larger than a cockatiel. I tend to be permissive and I don’t think in terms of training birds so much as learning to read their body language and making friends with them. I think it’s very hard to make a bird do anything…rather, you win it over with gentleness, consistency and rewards. – Cathy Kendall

At the time I read the above quote I commented that is was a wonderful description of training; in it Cathy expresses the essence of what I strive for in my classes, workshops, seminars, and training. I have written about this previously in the article “Ethical Training as a Way of Life.”

Every time we are in the presence of another sentient being we will make some change in the behavior of that being, albeit often times a subtle one. Therefore if we wish to have a good relationship with any animal, and I include Homo sapiens here, we need to be conscious of our interactions at all times. We have all heard of living “La Vida Loca”, now is the time to live “La vida ética.”

Sid

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