Teaching Husbandry Skills

What is Husbandry?

For our purposes, we will use “husbandry” to mean, teaching our parrots skills that will allow us to care for their physical health with less stress, more cooperation and equal participation on their part.

Generally refers to the care and raising of animals.

Quick Review of Clicker Principles

• Clicker Training is a training method based on operant conditioning principles.

• It uses a “clicker” as a bridge or marker to indicate which behavior will result in a reward.

• It relies on positive reinforcement.• It’s a process wherein the trainee learns how

to learn (and the trainer learns how to teach).

http://bestinflock.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/clicker-training-for-birds-workshop/

It’s the CLICK that does the Trick!

• The Clicker is a unique sound that your bird is unlikely to hear at any other time than during a training session, unlike the word “good” which you probably use around your bird quiet often.

• When properly “charged” the Click becomes a promise of the reward to follow, which eliminates the need to use luring & bribery.

• The Click marks a very specific moment when the behavior is being done correctly. Think of the Click as being the shutter on a camera that must open at the exact right moment to capture the desired image.

Understanding the Reward

• The REWARD is something that is reinforcing TO THE PARROT, something he will work for.

• It can be food, a toy, attention, affection, praise, drama, etc…

• The parrot decides what is reinforcing to him, at that moment.

• A Reward is NOT something that We THINK he SHOULD like.

• Just because something was a good reward yesterday, does not mean it holds equal value today.

When Things Go Wrong• Check your timing. If you are clicking too soon or

too late, you are not reinforcing the behavior you intended, and causing confusion and frustration for your parrot. Remember to think of your clicker as a camera, you have to click at the exact right moment to catch the image you want.

• Check your reward, is it really something your parrot wants right now?

• Check your environment. Is there something distracting your parrot or you?

• Check your parrot’s physical state. His he tired, sick, hungry or full?

What Behaviors to Teach?

• Stationing (stand quietly in a specific spot)– Coming out of and going back into the cage

• Stepping onto a handheld perch• Stepping onto a scale• Going calmly into a carrier• Taking medicine from a syringe• Being comfortable being toweled• Trimming toenails• Recall (coming to you)Can you think of others?

What would make it easier for to take care of your parrot?

How to Start? Write a Training Plan

• Choose your Goal Behavior.• Visualize that behavior and write out a description

in observable terms. • List the steps, or approximations, needed to get

your bird from where they are now to the goal behavior. Keep in mind that the smaller the steps, the easier this will be for you and your bird to accomplish.

• Determine what type of reinforcer you’ll be using and any supplies needed.

• Keep a written log.

Project Parrot, A Behavior Guidebook for You and Your Parrot, by Jenny Drummey

Targeting (TEACH FIRST!!!)• Targeting is touching a target stick, usually with the

beak. • This behavior is easy to teach and easy learn. • It can be taught wherever the bird is comfortable, inside

the cage or out. No touching is required.• It builds confidence in you and the bird, and provides a

common language for future training.• Since it requires the presence of a prop, the target stick,

it will not become a begging behavior. • Targeting is the foundation for a majority of the other

behaviors you might want to train.

How to Teach Targeting• Goal- Bird touches the end of a target stick

with his beak• Approximations– Bird looks at target stick– Bird moves toward target stick– Bird touches target stick with beak

• Bird has mastered this skill when he will move however far in any direction to touch the target stick

Some Behaviors that can be Taught with Targeting

• Stationing, (and coming out of and going back into cage)

• Stepping onto a hand held perch• Stepping onto a scale• Recall (coming to you)• Going calmly into a carrier• Drinking from a syringe• Getting comfortable with a towel

Shaping

• Start with a behavior that your parrot is already doing.

• “Capture” the behavior by clicking and treating.

• Refine into desired behavior through a series of small approximations, until the desired behavior is reached.

Some Behaviors that can be taught with Shaping

• Trimming Nails• Lift Foot• Lift Wings• Flap Wings• Getting Comfortable with a Towel• Bathing• Foraging• Wear a Harness

ResourcesBooks:

Project Parrot, A Behavior Guidebook For You and Your Parrot, by Jenny DrummeyGetting Started Clicker Training for Birds, by Melinda JohnsonDon’t Shoot the Dog, by Karen Pryor

Web resources:Yahoo Group BirdClick http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bird-Click/?yguid=295463844Lara Joseph, avian behaviorist http://www.larajoseph.com/LaraJoseph/Home.html http://larajoseph.wordpress.com/Jenny Drummey’s site http://www.projectparrot.com/

Training Classes:Phoenix Landing’s intensive workshop http://www.phoenixlanding.org/stepup.htmlSusan Friedman’s Living & Learning With Parrots online course http://behaviorworks.org/htm/comp_professional_overview.htmlSteve Martin’s Natural Encounters Institute

As always, THANK YOU, for your dedication to continuing to learn more about how to better care for the parrots in your life

as well as those around the planet!