Functional Reinforcers
Blu Lu reminding me to look for the functional reinforcer for desired responses. You can almost hear the “Aaaaah, thank you. That is what I wanted”
#functionalreinforcers #stepupbehavior #getbetterresults #parrottraining #animaltraining #whatdoesyouranimalreallywant #nonfoodreinforcers #itsnotaboutfood
Dear Friends,
As many of you know during the pandemic, I started working towards earning my master’s degree in applied behavior analysis. The demands of the lawsuit have required extensive investigation, writing, as well as fundraising on my part. For this reason, I have taken a leave of absence from school until January. This has also allowed me to recently accept more onsite consulting to pay for legal fees. This has kept me away from the internet the past few weeks. However, I am home now and available to provide more details on the recently filed motion. One of the documents filed was an affidavit that provides a summary of the events that transpired and the overall situation. You can find a link to the affidavit here. https://animaltrainingfundamentals.com/uncategorized/affidavit/
The novel idea presented at the ABMA conference mentioned in the affidavit was the constructional approach to addressing fear responses and aggressive behavior observed in exotic animal training. On my recent consulting trip, we had numerous amazing transformative sessions in which fear responses (some quite extreme) were addressed using the constructional approach and a noncoercive negative reinforcement contingency. In one session this dik dik went from avoiding people to allowing someone to be close enough she could have offered desired food items. I am more convinced than ever of the value of this procedure, as are my clients. And while I was overseas, I noticed there has been even more supportive conversation from additional resources about this topic on social media. Despite this legal battle, it is exciting to see the information after many years is starting to spread exponentially lately. I am proud to be a part of the community that has helped bring this valuable resource to those of you working with exotic animals in managed care. You can take a "parrot" version of a course on this topic here https://vimeo.com/ondemand/constructionalapproach
The legal battle is not ove
Does your parrot only like one person?
It is not uncommon for parrots to show preferences for one individual in the household and then present aggressive behavior towards others. The common advice has been to provide preferred food items, train cute tricks and generally build up pleasant associations with the less preferred person. However this may not have been successful for you and your parrot for a number of reasons. Curious to know why? And more importantly what can help? Join me tomorrow Dec 12th at 11:00 AM Central time for the LIVE Webinar on The Constructional Approach to Addressing Fear Responses and Aggressive Behavior https://animaltrainingfundamentals.com/the-constructional-approach-for-addressing-fear-responses-and-aggressive-behavior-for-parrots/
#parrotproblem #parrotfear #parrotaggression #scaredparrot #aggressiveparrot #parrotwebinar #parrothelp #parrotbiting
Nail clippers. From No Thank You to No Big Deal in 4 Sessions
Four 5 minute sessions to go from nail clippers…..no thank you! To nail clippers, no big deal. And to add another secret, I am not a lefty. I purposely included training my parrot to allow my left hand to be sloppy and clumsy. You are just seeing before and after here. I will go through the process in the webinar on Saturday. There is a reason it only took four sessions that you may not have considered before. Hint: This reason has nothing to do with the treat he is getting. Join me on Saturday to find out (and watch) exactly what I did. https://animaltrainingfundamentals.com/the-constructional-approach-for-addressing-fear-responses-and-aggressive-behavior-for-parrots/
#parrotnailtrim #parrotnails #parrotwebinar #parrottraining #parrotfearresponse #parrotaggressivbehavior
This is one of my video clips I shared in the recently released course we developed for providing Fear Free veterinary care for birds. Can you see why this clip is so important? I have even slowed it down to help you look for some tiny details. OK, here is another hint. I titled the video “assessing interest in stepping up” 😊 We really go into body language in this course, in more detail than you can imagine, to help caregivers and professionals make decisions to promote voluntary participation as much as possible. We also cover signs of fear anxiety and stress. Learn more about this course designed for anyone with an interest in improving the welfare of birds when it comes to the veterinary visit. Visit this link https://fearfreepets.com/fear-free-certification-overview-avian/ Course authors are Dr Alicia Alicia McLaughlin, Dr Anneliese Strunk, Barbara Heidenreich and Pamela Clark.
#parrottraining #companionparrots #avianveterinarian #avianmedicine #birdtraining #birdmedicine #fearfreepets #fearfreemedicine #fearfreeveterinarycare #stressfreemedicine #streefreeveterinarycare #stressfreeavianmedicine #bluethroatedmacaw #macawtraining #macawstepup #parrotstepup
Great success in just one session! Soooo many details facilitate a nice step up. Let’s talk about a few of them. Many of you already know about a technique I have refined over the years of teaching many parrot training workshops of making your tightly closed fist an extension of the perch so that there is an opportunity to reinforce smaller approximations. You will also notice we talk about the instability of the perch being a factor in making things a bit more challenging in this example. More goodies are offered when the bird is on the hand than for when the bird gets on the perch. Repetition is important to help the bird understand what action earns desired consequences. And you will notice we are not too worried about letting the bird see the food at this stage of the process. If you look closely you will also see those sunflower seeds are broken into tiny pieces. This is important too. This helps keep the bird grazing in the right position, rather than grabbing and going. Step up is a complex behavior and carefully executing many details to your shaping plan can help increase success. Learn more about training this behavior in the webinar recording Train Your Parrot to Step Up. More info here https://barbarasffat.com/webinar-recordings/ #stepup #parrotstepup #parrotbiting #parrotproblem #amazonparrot #parrottraining #animalambassador #educationanimal #yellownapedamazonparrot #yellownapedamazon
Answering one of your questions about do you need to reinforce a parrot every time it steps up onto your hand? I am answering selected questions on SM and in my podcast. Visit https://animaltrainingfundamentals.com/smlinks/ to submit your question #parrottraining #parrotbehaviorproblem #parrotstepup #rescuedparrot
Looking forward to our training session with the keas at Warsaw Zoo this Saturday! Will you be there? Our bird training workshop features live bird training demonstrations where I will show you how I get started training new behaviors with birds I have never met before. We will also be going over behavior problems like addressing fear responses and aggressive behavior. There is still time to get registered. Visit this link for more information. https://ethoplanet.com/en/kursy/seminar-with-barbara-heidenreich/ #birdtrainingworkshop #parrotrainingworkshop #warsawzoo #polandbirdtraining
Cooked butternut squash day is a good day to practice taking fluids from a syringe to prepare for oral medications. This is a behavior we only practice once in a while here because it’s in maintenance mode. It’s surprising how infrequently some behaviors can be reinforced in order to still be maintained. But that can be a good thing, especially if there are many tasks in your day when it comes to animal care and you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed. You don’t really need to practice every single behavior every single day in order for an animal to remember. So if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed try putting those behaviors that the animal knows really well on the back burner for a bit and focus on training new ones to make progress. There is a good chance your animal will remember those behaviors that have a good long reinforcement history when you ask for them weeks or even months down the road. And if not, it shouldn’t take too much to build them back up again. #oralmedications #syringetraining #parrotmedicationtraining #parrotmedication #parrotmedicalbehaviors
(Sound on) Rumor has it parrot training event coming your way NOLA. July 14th. Watch this space for more info coming soon. #parrottraining #parrottrainingworkshop #bluethroatedmacaw
Kinda gross parrot factoid. They love mealworms. They bite those little fat packets in half. Hold them like an ice cream cone and lick out the insides. This very delighted sun conure is happy to demonstrate. He and other birds in this aviary dine on a few mealworms when they are called in for their daily visual health check. #sunconure #aviary
Working on a biiiig project that will benefit birds. Should be released later in 2019 #bluethroatedmacaw
