Oh dear. . .

Rico chasing a squirrel in the aviary!

Well, I saw a potential behavior issue coming a while back and I barely did anything to change it. Well here it is and ah, shall I say it could be a wee bit of a problem?

Rico started chasing the squirrels in the aviary a few years ago as you see in the photo to the left and the video below. The first few times he did it, I laughed. My attention is a huge reinforcer for Rico. After the first few times of laughing, I realized I could very well be reinforcing a dangerous behavior. The last thing I need is for a squirrel to turn around and bite Rico if Rico gets close enough. Well, the summer soon ended and the aviary time was over for the winter. Hmmm, right.

So we found ourselves cooped up in the house playing training games to bide our time for the weather to get warmer. Can you foresee what behavior I’m getting ready to talk about if I tell you we have two cats? After a month of being cooped up in the house, Rico identified a new moving target. I literally saw what he was thinking one day. He was perch on top of the refrigerator and I was cleaning up the kitchen. My husband’s oldest cat, Ceno who is 24 years old came walking through the kitchen. I glanced at Rico and if I could put thoughts to what I saw him thinking, I saw him thinking “How cool is this? A bigger squirrel for my indoor target practice.” His body hunched down and his eyes got big. “Oh no!” I thought and all I could do was look at Ceno and say “Run!” Ceno didn’t even see it coming. That’s ok because he rounded the corner and ‘out of site out of mind’. Rico turned and looked around as if to say “Ok, what was I doing.”

Well it didn’t take long before Rico started his indoor target practice. One time my husband was home and Ceno came running through the house. Rico came flying through the house behind him. My eyeballs about popped out of my head and I looked at my husband. He saw it! His eyes were huge and he looked at me and said “Was Rico chasing Ceno?”. I pretended like I didn’t see it and I said turned to watch the black running by and the white hovering above. “My bird would never do a thing like that” I said. All I received was ‘the look’ from my husband. I knew he wasn’t believing one word coming out of my mouth. “What?” I said as I looked up and he was still staring at me. I’m chuckling as I’m typing this because me and one of my birds are always up to something we are trying to hide from my husband.

This past winter Rico and I had a new behavior to work on modifying. We did it. It worked or is working.

Rico tossing an empty roll of vet wrap on the dining room table.

Rico barely chases the cat anymore but it is something he has learned and I will always have to watch it. Rico knows when the cat walks through the room, if he stays still he gets pine nuts. I have to make sure to watch for this. We are now able to space out the amount of times that I deliver the nuts. Sometimes the pine nuts aren’t of high enough value though. So I began searching for other things he likes to do that are of higher value to him. For whatever reason, Rico loves to toss a roll of vet wrap. I’ve taught him to play fetch by tossing the vet wrap in the aviary also. It is great exercise for him both physically and mentally. I’ve often wondered if him chasing the vet wrap could be a reinforcer for him chasing the cat. It is something I am constantly watching. Regardless, he loves chasing the roll of vet wrap, it wears him out, and it is something fun for the two of us to do together. Did I mention how much he loves this? HE LOVES IT. Pulling a roll of vet wrap from the drawer is a guarantee that it will stop Rico from doing whatever other behavior he is doing.

The last few minutes of Rico perched calmly beside me on the back of the chair.

Fast forward to today. Ceno the 24-year-old cat was not feeling well today and went in for a vet visit. He is fine but it looks they did a blood draw from his hind leg. My husband took him to the vet, not myself. So how did I know they probably did a blood draw? Because I’m sitting here at my computer working with Rico perched

beside me on the back of a chair. All is calm and then Ceno walks down the stairs and through the kitchen. Something caught my eye and I did a double take looking at Ceno. Ceno has a good portion of his hind leg wrapped in vet wrap. My eyes grew huge. I turned and looked at Rico. HE SAW IT! He also let out the loud “HAW” of a yell they do as he moved into position. I quickly looked back at Ceno and Ceno hunched, stopped, and turned and looked at Rico and I. Ceno was looking at me for confirmation that all was ok. I stood and yelled “Ceno run!!!”

A video from a few years ago of when Rico first started chasing the squirrels in the aviary.

Got A Question?

This is something I’ve been thinking about doing for quite a while. For several years I’ve been addressing questions on-line. I love it! The busier I get, the more questions I get. The more questions I get, the more I have found that I’m running out of time in a day. So I’ve been thinking about this. I don’t want to cut off answering questions that are being asked. I’ve tried to find the most functional way to address questions on behavior, training, and enrichment in any spare time I have.

I’m going to give this a shot and hope it works for many. I think it would be a great way for people to ask questions, read responses, and learn from each other and each response. I always learn from each interaction I have with a bird or other animal, and each interaction a person is having with their bird.

Click on the photo above to get the details in submitting a question. I am really looking forward to this.

Unknowingly Punishing Desired Behavior

We have the opportunity to reinforce desired behaviors such as asking our animals to return to us on cue.

Yep, I see it happen all the time. I see people unknowingly punish desired behavior and unknowingly reinforce undesired behavior. I myself have even done it knowingly, unknowingly, and not aware it has happened until the situation is over. I love sharing stories I see as I see them unfold or take place. The incident I’m about to share was one I have shared in a lot of recent workshops because it happened so quick and unknowingly to the animal caretaker.

Punishment is the procedure delivering an event that follows a behavior that decreases the future rate of that behavior. For example, little Johnnie sticks his hand on a hot stove. He gets burned. Him sticking his hand on the hot stove is the behavior and him getting burned is the event that follows the behavior. I’ve never met anyone that likes to stick their hands on a hot stove, therefore this was probably a punishing situation for Johnnie. The behavior of him running up and sticking his hand on the hot stove is probably going to be punished resulting in it never happening again or at a decreasing rate. This is how we all learn. This is how our birds learn. This is how our children learn. This is how our dogs learn. We move away from things we don’t like or things that bring us undesirable outcomes.

Another example of punishment could be (insert any animal here, I will use an example of a dog) we come home from work and see the dog has peed on the floor. The dog comes running to us to great us at the door and we smack him because we see the mess he has made on the floor. We may have just punished the rate of behavior in which the dog greets us at the door. Dogs aren’t punished. Birds aren’t punished. People aren’t punished. Their behaviors are punished. Their future rate of behaviors are punished. If the rate of behavior is not decreasing, punishment is not happening. This is also how we learn. We move away from things we don’t like and events that bring about undesirable outcomes.

Reinforcement is the procedure of delivering an event that follows a behavior that also increases or maintains the future rate of that behavior. The reinforcer must follow the behavior. If that behavior increases, then that behavior has been reinforced. For example, I am standing at the front door having a conversation with a friend and my nephew comes up and starts tapping on my arm to get my attention while saying “Aunt Lara. Hey, Aunt Lara. Aunt Lara.” I ignore him to try to finish my conversation with my friend. My nephew starts tapping harder. Then he starts pulling on my sleeve. I turn to him and say “What, what, what? What do you want?”. I may have just reinforced the behavior of my nephew using more force in getting my attention. If it was my attention that he wanted and he finally received it after delivering a nagging tug on my sleeve, I may have just reinforced his nagging behavior of tugging on my sleeve. How would I know if his nagging tug was reinforced? I will know if it happens again. More than likely if it worked for him this time, the next time he may skip the tapping on my arm and go straight for that nagging tug because it is what brought him his desired outcome previously.

An example with a companion pet or animal (insert any animal here) would be Rico, my parrot yelling “Hello, Hello, Hello” when I walk out of the room. Rico doesn’t

If attention is what the bird wants and you deliver it as the bird is screaming, you may be reinforcing the birds behavior of screaming.

necessarily like it when I walk out of his sight when he’s out of his cage. This is an increasing undesired behavior I have knowingly reinforced. He may yell “Hello. Hello. Hello.” when I walk out of the room. If the ‘hello’ isn’t working for him to bring me back in his line of sight, he may try another behavior to see if it will work. He may begin screaming and if I run back into the room to quiet him down so he doesn’t wake up my husband, I may have just reinforced the behavior of Rico screaming. If it is my attention he wants, I just gave it to him. And guess what that does? That puts value to the behavior of screaming for Rico. I have more than likely just reinforced Rico’s behavior of screaming to get attention while punishing the behavior of him saying “Hello”.

Now, back to my main example of what I observed one very snowy day this past winter. We had a huge snow storm and I can’t remember how many inches of snow it delivered but it was enough to give our city a level 3 snow emergency. What that means is there are no vehicles allowed on the road or you will be ticketed. (Ah ha, an intended punisher….the ticket. If the behavior of you driving decreases in level 3 snow emergencies, this behavior has just been punished and the punisher is the fine. Sorry, I couldn’t pass up that opportunity to define another example.) So there was not a car in sight. It was a beautiful day and a quiet day because there were no cars on the street. After about 5 hours of being trapped in the house I began to get restless so I went to the window to see what everyone in the neighborhood was doing. I noticed a woman walking her dog down the street. She didn’t have her dog on a leash. There were no cars on the roads so I understood why one would want to take advantage of this opportunity.

What I did see was a perfect example of her potentially punishing a desired behavior in her dog. If I would have run for my camera, I would have missed it all. Since I am a behavior nut, watching this whole event was pretty exciting. This is what I saw…

This woman was walking next to her dog down the street in front of my house. The dog was healing nicely beside her with no leash attached to his collar. She passed my house and I continued watching her. About three doors down from me lives a vet tech that has two dogs of her own. The vet tech often keeps the dogs outside behind a chain linked fence in her back yard while she’s home. As soon as I saw the dog walking down the street and point its head in the direction of the house with the dogs in the back yard, I began to quickly predict a potential problem or quick thinking in what the woman may do to reinforce the behavior of the dog staying by her side. We shall see “I thought” and I felt my heart skip a beat in anticipation of what behaviors were about to unfold. In the blink of an eye the dog looked right at that back yard and his ears pointed straight up and the dog took off running toward the fence that obviously contained the two dogs. The observable body language I could read from the woman, she made gestures that led me to assume she yelled something to her dog that was sprinting across the street and into the yard. When the woman yelled something the running dog stopped and returned to her immediately. I yelled “Good!” from the inside of my house. I was so into the modifying the behavior that I didn’t realize this woman couldn’t hear me and I didn’t realize that I wasn’t training the dog. What I did see then was the dog return to her very quickly and just as he returned she reached down and attached his leash to his collar. “Oh that’s too bad.” I thought. “Not her fault as she may not know or understand the power of positive reinforcement”. Let me explain.

The dog took off sprinting across the street. A behavior she obviously did not want to see happen. She yelled something to the dog and the dog returned on cue. I said “Good!” because this is the behavior you want, or I would want to see increase. I would want the behavior of the dog running to me on cue to maintain or increase. If the dog performs the desired behavior, I would have rewarded it or positively reinforced it. I would have given a head scratch or a

treat, whichever I thought would be a great reward to the dog at that time. Instead, what I saw was the dog perform the behavior she wanted to see and then

Myself and the beluga whales trainer positively reinforcing the behavior of the whale staying with a scratch to the tongue.

she attached a leash. If the dog doesn’t like the leash she may have just punished the behavior of the dog returning to her on cue. How will we know? We will

know if we were to continue watching her and see the rate of the behavior of her dog returning to her begin to decrease. If as she walked by the next house and her dog took off again and she once again yelled to the dog and the dog stopped but instead of quickly returning to her, he paused and looked at her and then ran back to her, what we would be seeing is the rate of the immediacy in returning to her begin to decrease. The next house the dog may stop, look at her, look at the dogs and then run back to her. At the next house we may see the dog stop, look at her, look at the dogs and then decide to go sniff some doggie butts.

Behaviors are always punished and always reinforced. Some of these behaviors are reinforced and punished before we even have time to think about them. The importance is in recognizing these and taking advantage of effectively applying reinforcement and punishment to the ones we do have the time to see coming for behaviors we want to see increase and decrease. If one thinks they are punishing a behavior yet the behavior is maintaining or increasing, they may want to sit back and re-analyze the situation.

Training a Bird to Station & Its Importance

A step in socializing Rico and Rocky with each other. A healthy benefit for behavior.

Many different topics come to mind when I think of something I could write here on my blog. I always wait and post something for when I’m really engaged in the situation. I was just talking about a certain training topic the other day and it was suggested many times that I write a post about it. That topic is stationing; training an animal, in this case a bird, to go to a designated area and stay there until cued otherwise. There are so many reasons this can come in handy.

All of my birds at home station and for different reasons. It may be as a cue to come out of the cage, preventing a bird scrambling up the side of the cage, or allowing me to open the cage door and change an object or clean. I taught one of mine to station while I’m out of the room because I was starting to have a problem with him dive bombing the cats as they tried to pass through the kitchen on their way to the litter boxes in the basement. I saw this behavior having the potential to turn into a serious problem in numerous ways.

I hate to admit it but I saw the almighty Rico, my Umbrella starting to become the bully of the house….dive bombing the cats and I saw him start to do the same with Rocky, my Moluccan. Having him do this behavior with my Moluccan had major potential for damage and not for Rocky, but for Rico. In thinking back about this behavior, it didn’t just start this winter. I have proof that it started or even existed last summer. Now it is to the point where it is dangerous for one possibly both birds. Below you’ll see my proof that this behavior existed last summer. What is reinforcing this behavior in this video?……me, and to be more exact, it is my encouraging tone of voice!

This behavior from the aviary has now shifted and perfected itself inside the house. First I identified what was reinforcing Rico’s dive bombing Rocky now that this was inside the house. Rocky is a runner, not a flyer. Rocky loves running through the house. The more Rocky runs freely, he squeaks a loud squeak that draws Rico’s attention. When Rico would see Rocky running through the house with his crest up and excited, this seemed to reinforce Rico’s behavior of flying near Rocky. It soon developed into flying and swooping closer to Rocky. Then eventually Rico would fly close enough I really started worrying about Rocky reaching up and snagging him out of the air, which is pretty likely if Rico got close enough.

I saw this starting to happen  and Rico was starting to get really good at it. I immediately came up with a behavior change plan through positive reinforcement training consisting of a few things at the same time. Before I move on, I saw the behavior of Rocky running in open spaces being punished, and to be exact it was being positively punished. By punished I’m referring to his behavior of running in open spaces decreased, hence the punishment. It was positively punished because the addition (+) of Rico flying in his environment caused the behavior of him running freely to decrease. Sorry, I’m not trying to get too involved, but for those following positive reinforcement, I just wanted to state what was being punished and how. The addition of Rico to Rocky’s environment was definitely becoming an aversive. I needed to nip this in the bud asap because my goal is to get Rico and Rocky interacting more without physical interaction so they both are socialized with other birds to help with any behavior issues.

Anyway, this behavior has since stopped. Rocky is now running through the house again with crest up and squeaking his very high-pitched squeak while Rico interacts with him vocally without dive bombing him. It is a pretty awesome sight to see.

I would positively reinforce (adding something to the environment that increases the rate of a particular behavior) Rico for other acceptable or desired behaviors like hopping across the kitchen table while Rocky would run through other parts of the house. He wasn’t standing still on the table but he was staying on the table. I positively reinforced him for staying on the table while Rocky ran. I stayed next to the table while first training this. I would reward him with “Good Boy Rico” every few seconds. Then I spaced it out to every 10 seconds. Then I would go over and give Rocky attention in hopes to increase his security in running through the kitchen again. I would keep my attention-giving to Rocky very short while looking over my shoulder to keep an eye on Rico making sure he wasn’t coming in for a dive bomb to Rocky again due to my loss of attention to him on the table. Initially I made sure I kept my interactions with Rocky short in order to be able to catch Rico watching and staying on the table. I would stand up and say “Good Job Rico” and give him praise and an added positive reinforcer for a job well done. I gave him a pine nut in addition. I was training Rico to station on the area of the table. I had to make sure I delivered positive reinforcers to Rico for this behavior, otherwise him staying on the table would soon prove to be of no value to him.

Reassuring Rocky.

I continued this process while paying close attention to the body language of both. If I saw the slightest change in body language of Rico while he was standing on the table I made sure to shorten my session with Rocky the next time to be able to catch the behavior I wanted to see in Rico and reinforce it. Because I caught all of this behavior pretty quick in the beginning before the undesired behavior got too out of hand, I was able to nip it all in the bud pretty quick. The concern is, Rico already knows and has seen consequences of him dive bombing Rocky. I state this because it could happen again. The more I pay attention to all of the precursors, the more successful I’ll be in changing the environment and training before it has the opportunity to happen again. I taught Rico to station on the table for a period of time in order to reinforce a desired behavior, Rico’s calmness, while extinguishing an undesired behavior, Rico’s dive bombing Rocky. This type of stationing was a temporary tactic used in a behavior modification plan.

With each time I interacted with Rocky, those times away from Rico became longer and longer. Soon Rico started doing other things like flying on top of the cupboards. When he did this, he would get other reactions from me, which resulted in him leaving Rocky alone. I gave this particular example to show how and why stationing could come in handy in working with two birds in an open space, such as the home. This particular behavior issue had every opportunity for the potential of aggression between two birds beginning to happen, and more importantly, with a dangerous consequence.

I still like Rico and Rocky to interact vocally with each other while paying close attention to body language. If I see the slightest change that may make me nervous, I try to identify the reinforcer and then make sure that reinforcer is no longer delivered, a procedure called extinction.

So back to stationing. I have 3 different scenarios of training a bird to station based on what behavior I was looking to increase. First, there is a video of Rico, my Umbrella Cockatoo being taught to station on a boing hanging next to the kitchen while I’m walking out of the room and out of sight putting food in cages. I have a several videos showing how I shaped, or initially trained  the  pigeon to station on a particular perch in her cage on cue. (you can easily see how this could be trained with our companion parrots in the house). Last, I have a video of me training two Red-Tailed Hawks on the same perch. I want the one to station and stay perched while I call the one beside her to my glove, return her, and reward for stationing. This one also you can see how you could train the same behavior to two parrots, even two dogs. These same steps could be used to train a dog, a pet rat, a horse, and yes even the domestic house cat.

Let me begin with Rico, my Umbrella Cockatoo. This is a video I shot last summer when I decided to train Rico to station on a boing hanging near the kitchen. Several things are going on in this video and there are a few reasons why I chose to train this behavior in this particular location. Rico is fully flighted and flies well. He is also quick to learn from his environment so it doesn’t take him long to figure out how to get into something I don’t necessarily want him to get into. Also, as Rico is getting older (almost 7) he is showing signs of nesting behaviors. I know these are natural behaviors but they are none I want to encourage as I see them causing frustration. Third, you will see the boing is hanging next to the cupboards that are full of bird food, treats, and toys. Rico loves to get into this cupboard and foraging through and eat all the treats. You will even see at one point where Rico moves toward the cupboard showing signs of thinking about going in, and changes his mind because he knows if he stays, the reward will be greater. So the training begins.

I edited this video to save time but to show the how I began training this behavior, showing real-time, and showing how I am bridging or marking the desired behavior from another room while I’m out of sight. Bridging or marking is the same as using the clicker in clicker training. My bridge is saying “Good” or “Good Boy Rico”. This marks the exact behavior I am looking for and lets Rico know that it is that particular behavior that is earning him his reward.

You see me rewarding him while I’m standing right there. He continues to stand there because he’s realizing if he stands there the treats are delivered. Another highly valued reinforcer for him is to hear me tell him he’s such a good boy. This has obvious effect, otherwise he would just walk down the boing and get the treats himself as he clearly sees they are within reach. If he were to fly off the boing or move on the boing, the bell that hangs at the bottom would let me know this from the other room.

Training him to station in this spot also comes in handy when I’m preparing dinner and opening cupboards. With each open cupboard comes the opportunity to fly into another lovely nest box. When I’m preparing dinner, I train and reward Rico for stationing on this same boing as I open and close cupboards reaching for spices. Yes, it comes in pretty handy and no need to use force or tell him “No!”. I can reward the behaviors I want to see and Rico looks pretty content sitting on the boing waiting for the goodies.

So, where to start? Ah, I have video of that too. These series of videos are taken by me with my cell phone while I’m training, so I apologize in advance for all the shaky video. In these videos I am training a pigeon to station. I make it extremely easy for her to give me the behavior I am looking for, which is why I start with a perch on the floor of her cage. Once she understands the cue, I begin changing the area of the perch. In the end, I placed the perch at the back of the cage. I did this because I heard a few people complain that Francis, the pigeon, was pecking people’s hands while they were trying to clean her cage. Time to put the ‘station’ cue to work. My intent was to get Francis to ‘station’ on the back perch, high above where people clean her cage grates and change her dishes. This way the undesired behavior of her chasing and pecking hands is not being reinforced if she’s stationing on her back perch. The key is to remember to reward her for stationing on her back perch. Otherwise chasing the hands becomes more rewarding.

Step 1: In this video you will see how I’m luring Francis to the perch. Here reward is a beak rub. I’ve placed the perch in an area easy for Francis to give me the behavior I’m requesting. This makes it easy for me to deliver her reinforcer. Francis will soon start doing whatever she thinks will earn her the reinforcer. In this video you’ll see she has no clue what I’m asking as she practically stumbles over the perch. I’m dangling my finger just above the perch, just above her head. She needs to step onto the perch to reach my finger.

Step 2: In this video, I am still saying the word “perch” ( which can be ‘station’, whatever word you choose) and you will see Francis doesn’t quite understand what it is that I’m requesting that will earn her the beak rub. What you do see in this video is her fluidly step up onto the perch. The reinforcer is quickly delivered to communicate to her that is the exact behavior that will earn her the reward.

Step 3: Wow! She’s getting it! Each of these videos were captured back to back and in one training session. Here you see she understands what it is I am asking that will earn her the reward. In this video you will also see where and how I have my hand in the cage to be able to quickly deliver the reinforcer when she gives the behavior. Immediacy in delivering the reinforcer is one of the four stages in reinforcer effectiveness.

Step 4: Just fine tuning the behavior. My goal is to ask her to perch and have her do it quickly, accurately, and consistently.

Step 5: By George, she’s got it!

Step 6: Here is where I took it further to put the behavior to work for the benefit of the cage cleaner’s hands. You will see that she now has a new perch and a new cue. I have now changed the cue to “station”. I could have and did shape the behavior of her staying put on that perch for long periods of time. In order to make sure I knew she understood clearly, I wanted to cue her off of it and say “station” again to make sure she would go back to it. She sure did! Here you will also see me target training her. Target training is training an animal to touch a particular object with a particular body part. I am training her to target to a plastic measuring spoon with her beak. This perch is directly above where I originally trained the behavior. You will even see that I leave her cage door open and she is choosing to stay in and continue training.

This is when I fell in love with Francis and our training continued well beyond that. Next was recall training and staying on my arm until cued off which we

Me training Francis the pigeon and Pete the blue jay at 2010's Meet The Flockers annual fundraiser for Nature's Nursery.

put to use in giving live flight demonstrations at a fundraiser with her and Pete, the blue jay.

In wrapping up this post, I’d like to finish with the video of how this training is also incorporated in training two Red-Tailed Hawks. You can easily see here also how this can be incorporated in how we would use this to train two parrots at home. We often call both of the Red Tails to the front perch in the enclosure to begin training. I am still working on getting the one used to a new trainer. In order to do this, the one Red Tail seems to give more behaviors if the other Red Tail is on the front perch with her. The problem we were running into was that the other Red Tail seemed to hog all the food. Another hurdle in the journey, but not one that can’t be figure out. So now we cue them both up to the front, ask the food hog to station, reward, and then train the other. This video was taken almost two years ago to the day. Kamikaze is the food hog on the left and Kamali is the one on the right. This video was taken back when I was the only one training. This was Kamili’s first time ever flying voluntarily to a glove. I was so excited but could now scream and jump for joy like I wanted to.

In this video you will see me reward Kamikaze for doing exactly what I want her to…..staying right there. I then turn to Kamali and call her to my glove. When she goes back, I turn to grab more food to once again reward Kamikaze for staying put while I trained the other.

Once I train an animal using positive reinforcement training, a piece of my heart goes to that animal. Positive reinforcement training paves a new pathway of communication between you and the animal, one the animal grows to respect and often times shows behaviors of wanting more. This is why I continue to train as many birds a week as I do. It makes a huge difference in their lives and when many of their choices lie in my hands, I choose to continue to offer this form of enrichment to them. I like to pay it back to them for allowing me to learn from them. They are nothing short of fascinating and I respect every ounce of that.

Well provide him with “what to do’s”

Everyday I stumble on to new circumstances, interactions, or behavior concerns with my birds or the birds in which I work. No day is ever the same so I don’t expect the behavior that happens in the house to be the same from day-to-day either. I don’t expect my bird’s behavior to be the same today as it was yesterday. We learn from our environment and exploring that environment is how we continue to learn. This works the same for our birds. What Rico, my Umbrella Cockatoo enjoyed interacting with yesterday is going to change in some way today. This is how intelligent minds work.

So this morning I decided to have Rico come out into the kitchen to fly around and interact with my husband and I as we both got ready for work for the day. It was something different and a consistent changing environment that Rico can learn from and interact with. By consistently changing I mean, a lot of things are changing around him. I’m moving about the kitchen putting away dishes and preparing fresh veggies for the birds. My husband is walking around taking out the trash and carrying things in from the garage. Every time we move something in the kitchen, Rico’s environment changes and Rico learns from watching and interacting with those changes. I learn more about Rico by watching what he focuses on and what items in which he interacts. By watching him and living with him, I can learn and predict what things he will be drawn to in his environment and what things he is about to get into. When we learn what items and situations are attractive to them, we can use these items and situations to guide them to the things we want them to do and away from the potential undesirable things they are getting ready to do. A perfect example happened this morning.

Rico was flying around the house and interacting with some of his favored toys. I was watching him while I was continuing on about my business. He checked and interacted with all of his toys and then flew back to the kitchen. He sat there perched on his boing with a bird’s-eye view of everything that was going on in the kitchen. He flew down to a huge bowl of popcorn I had sitting on the countertop from my late night munchies the night before. He flew down to it. He stood and stared at it and then the behavior began. He stuck his beak in the middle of the dish and began swiping back and forth. With each swipe he was pushing popcorn out of the bowl. I chuckled and continued lining bird bowls in a row on the counter. My husband walked over and took the popcorn bowl away from him. I watched him and I watched Rico. Rico looked up at him like someone just took the world’s largest lollipop from a three year old kid. My husband sat the bowl on another table. I laughed because on that table also sat his sunglasses, his pen, his watch, and a few important notes. I looked back at Rico and saw Rico look at the bowl and then move his eyes to the lovely, attractive, enrichment items beside the bowl.

I asked my husband why he moved the bowl of popcorn and the reason was exactly what I thought it was going to be. “Because he’s making a mess” my husband said. I replied “Well he was having fun with it and popcorn is very easy to clean up.” I could tell the interaction with that large bowl of popcorn was going to take up a good deal of Rico’s time and attention this morning. Now it was gone. Now what behaviors are going to take up the rest of his time this morning? Rico quickly flew to the other table. I told my husband the popcorn is a lot easier to clean up than destroyed pens, glasses, destroyed notes. My husband looked at where Rico flew to and immediately ran to collect his valuables. I picked up the popcorn dish with Rico perched on the side of it and moved them back to the countertop where it was a safe place for Rico to play and safe for all of the items around him. There he began swooshing the popcorn out of the dish once again. I laughed as I looked back at my husband. I could see him understanding why I was letting him swoosh the popcorn.

 

Rico learning what 'to do' from the objects provided

Telling Rico what not to do doesn’t give him the opportunity of learning what is ok to do. Often when we continually tell a bird what not to do and pull them away from the objects we don’t want them interacting. Usually the only thing this teaches the bird is how to get to those objects faster and sneakier next time. I knew the swooshing of the popcorn was only going to attain his interest for a so long. So, I grabbed a paper cup and threw an almond in it. I stuck that almond in the new contraption of a toy we made the day before. He now has to search for a way to get the toy open to get to the cup to extract the almond which he has to shell before eating. He loves this and I know, because I watch the things he enjoys interacting with in his environment. If I don’t provide appropriate enrichment items, he’ll make his own. 😉

 

Behavior…Thinking Outside of the Box….what watching wild birds can teach us about the birds that live with us.

I woke up this morning planning how my day was going to go. I know I have a full plate today. I have several deadlines to meet. A few of those deadlines are this weekend and the rest are next week. All of that and that doesn’t even really include the daily work I have. Calgon? Nah, as I sit here and type this, I’m sitting beside my Umbrella Cockatoo, Rico who is resting on the back of the chair next to me. He is now resting from the past hour of training and enrichment I’ve provided to him to keep him occupied while I fed the birds, cleaned the house, and emptied the dishwasher.

I’ve been wanting to write a new blog post, and one of my new year’s resolutions is to write here more often, even if it is a daily thought on anything avian or anything behavior related. So, before all of the hustle and bustle of the day starts, I was staring out the front window. Movement drew my attention there. It is the area which my husband provides food for the outdoor birds. A big flash of blue drew me in closer. Ah, the almighty blue jay. How they captivate me now that I’ve had the opportunity to really get to know them through having Pete, Nature’s Nursery’s program blue jay, stay here with me at the house for a few months while I trained him and watched him fledge. I watched this blue jay hop around and gather food in his pouch below his bottom beak. I knew that was what he was doing from watching Pete for several months. Boy was this blue jay big. Big and round and storing up for the winter months he was already experiencing. His colors were vibrant and his beak was massive. Anyone that watches blue jays, knows what they do with that beak and that beak deserves to be respected.

This blue jay was out there foraging for food along side a few other species of outdoor birds. I noticed the house sparrows. I always notice them. All of a

Pete, Nature's Nursery's program blue jay.

sudden something scared the birds. The cool thing was watching the difference in behaviors among the species. There were several. They all acted the same way and I’m sure they responded off of each other by taking flight the moment the first one started taking flight. It was such and experience because the house sparrows flew out, close, and around. Half of the flock went to the right of the house and half of the flock went to the left. They stayed low to the ground and stayed close in cornering the house. I didn’t see where they went but I knew where they went from watching them for so many years. The went to the bushes surrounding the house and the bushes across the street. The blue jay however responded to all of the birds flying away, but responded much differently. The blue jay was the last to take flight. He didn’t fly out and around. He flew up to the tree above the feasting sight. More birds flew through and away at that time again and I kept my eyes on the blue jay and he just flew up two branches. Do you know what I saw? I saw confidence, but that’s me being anthropomorphic. I saw an individual bird surviving without a flock of his own. I saw a bird that responds to his environment based on past experiences. This was a blue jay old enough to have learned and still learning from his environment. He didn’t find the need to scatter far as the house sparrows. The big, blue jay still stuck out like a sore thumb on a tree with no leaves. When he jumped up only two more branches at the next scattering of the birds, I saw a confident bird.

Watching the behavior of the outdoor birds continually keeps me learning about the behaviors of the parrots living in my house. Does this sound crazy? I sure hope not because there is a lot to learn just by looking outside your window. I watched that blue jay up in the tree. He brought his food up out of his pouch and held it in his foot and began banging away on it with that massive tool of a beak. I smiled because Pete showed me this and it was so cool to see a wild bird doing this. That blue jay had a lot of mental stimulation going on. That bird just foraged for its food, paying close attention to its surroundings, flew, perched in a tree extracting the contents of its find by cracking open whatever it was in his foot. All the while he had to pay attention above him and below him. He had to….his life depends on it. I smiled and walked to the bird room to get Rico.

Here is a video of Pete bringing food up from his pouch and caching it in a toy part I gave to him.

Here in our households live our parrots. Our parrots have evolved through millions of years. Those are millions of years that time has perfected the body and mind of the parrot to utilize every single part on its body. Open and avian anatomy book. What you will see is something far different from any mammal. It is astounding. Look at the number of air sacs and how they attach to the bones and what functions and effect that has to the health of the bird. Look at the bones and how they function and work in the ways we see our birds moving. Look at the feathers and how each section has a name and how important those names are in identifying what purpose they serve in flight. There has been much controversy over avian intelligence and how the avian brain lacks the folds that a mammalian brain has. It was assumed that avian intelligence wasn’t comparable to those animals we considered smart. Maybe hence the word bird brain, but anyone who cares for a parrot would consider being called a bird brain a compliment. We see the intelligence and studies are finding several fascinating and amazing details of the things birds are capable of. Read any book by Bernd Heinrich and search for his videos on YouTube.  Watch your bird move. Watch how he sees his environment. Watch what things in his environment attract his attention and what things cause him to move away. There…..there you will see the anatomy of the avian mind. It is vast, it is fascinating, and it serves a purpose.

Here is a video of Rocky, my Moluccan Cockatoo I brought in as a re-home over 4 years ago. With his foot, Rocky is selecting which hand the toy part is in. In the end, he quickly outwitted me to get what he wanted from his environment.

Animals learn from their environments. Our birds learn from their environments such as their cage, their play stations, their physical activity whether that’s hopping, running, or flying. This is why I’m such an advocate of enriched animal environments, especially those of our parrots. I’m fascinated with birds but especially parrots because of how quick they are in learning and manipulating their environment. Their minds are built for that. The ability in how quick on can manipulate its environment is a sign of intelligence. Our parrots are as intelligent as the environments we provide to them! And that my friendly readers, is a powerful statement.

Think outside of the box. There is enrichment all around us that we can safely provide to our birds to keep them learning. The mind of an animal under human care that is continually learning is one that is enriched and enriched environments play a big role on their happiness and mental and physical health. Many studies show this. Ok, I threw in the happiness but I see behaviors in birds that I label as happy correlated with enriched environments based on that individual bird or animal. Not all cockatoos like to untie knots. Not all macaws like to destroy wooden blocks. Not all birds play with toys…..so teach them! This absolutely can be done. A bird that sits in a cage all day and interacts with nothing pulls heavy on everything inside of me.

This morning I brought Rico out to fly around the house and get his exercise and mental stimulation outside of one of the environments I call his cage. The smarter the bird, the easier it is to label them. Smart birds search for novelty (new things or experiences) items in their environments. These are the birds that are quickly labeled “trouble makers” or “always getting into something”. This makes me laugh and I so look forward to interacting with this type of bird. Taking five minutes to watch them can teach you an enormous amount about what they are thinking, what they like, and how their mind works. This information can then be used to enrich their environments.

Rico was flying around the house and coming to my hand on cue. That was only going to last for a short time because his reinforcers for this behavior are going to and did quickly change. The pine nuts are only going to be attractive until he’s had his fill of them so I need to identify another reinforcer for future desired or requested behaviors. It was the tone of excitement in my voice that kept him on my hand and doing back flips for a short while. That would soon change too. I knew he was hungry and knew he hadn’t eaten yet today so I filled his foraging toy with food. That would only last so long too, right? I see many parrot owners reading this and nodding their head because they know exactly what I’m experiencing. Your heart rate is probably starting to race and your rate of breathing increasing too, right? Because you know exactly the attention this take and at what pace I am moving. I’m smiling as I’m typing this and I’m making this sound tougher than it really is.

When Rico was finished with his foraging toy, he flew right to the opened dishwasher. From past experience I knew this would probably attract his attention and it did. So each time I have that dishwasher open, the more opportunity I’m giving him to learn to fly to it faster and start going after whatever it is that is attracting his attention. The dishwasher is just a $500 parrot toy to an inquisitive parrot. He flew to it. Instead of pulling him away from it and teaching him to grip harder onto it and bite me if I forced to pull him off of it, I pulled him up to perch on it and then quickly thought of something else I had that he might like. I pulled out a dishwashing utensil basket we never use from the cupboard beside the dishwasher. He saw it but was it more exciting that the huge dishwasher itself right in front of him? Probably not, but the yummy almond slivers that he hasn’t received this morning probably are. I asked him to step up and he knows in situations like this, the chances are extremely high he’s getting a huge reward. He stepped up and I showered him with praise and then almond slivers. Rico loves trying to figure out how to manipulate objects to get what he wants. So, I grabbed a close by toy and threw it in the utensil basket. Living with Rico, I know through observation that most of the reinforcer in interacting with challenges like this, is mostly the challenge, not necessarily the toy.

Here is a video I shot this morning of the quick contraption I put together that kept Rico busy many times throughout the day. Here is a video clip I shut off after a minute and a half. He quickly figured this out and each time he did, I had to figure out a way to make it harder for him to unlock the top of the basket.

Eyes to the Skies

 

Black Vulture landing on telephone pole - photo courtesy of Dena Drenner

I think of this saying so often because my eyes are so easily guided there. Just this morning leaving the house my eyes were drawn upward watching a flock of starlings dance and swim in the sky. Two flocks of them interacting and weaving in and out from one another. A few words that came to mind were “flowing”, “awesome”, and “artistic”.

 

Further down the road I caught the familiar flight pattern of a crow. I really enjoy watching crows. I wish I could pull my Jeep over and just sit and watch. Driving down the busy road today, this was not an option so I slowed down and watched the laborious wing flaps of a solo crow this morning. He was flying upward and there he perched atop a telephone pole. There he perched and looked around. I could have just stopped there in the middle of the street and watched and wondered what was going through his creative mind. Traffic was patiently putting up with my decrease in speed. I quickly sped up to the speed limit and headed to my destination.

I have the fortune of being able to come in close encounters with two species of corvids, a crow and a blue jay. I see much similarity in how they move their heads and eyes in observing their environment. I see the similarity in how they observe me. They both look at me in a unique way than which other birds do that I’ve come in contact with. They look at me with a message in their eyes. There is communication happening, but can I understand it? As much as I’d like to think at how well I may be able to communicate with them on any one interaction, there is I’m sure, so much more communication being attempted than I could ever read. Ah, the fascination of mine grows with these birds. I will forever be in awe of them. Forever.

In the mornings before the sun rises, I often hear a call of a distant crow. Each time I hear this I always say softly to myself “Hello crow”. Soon after as the sun begins to rise, I’ll hear the numerous sounds of the energetic and ever investigating blue jays. “Hello blue jay”. For whatever reason I don’t know and didn’t realize until now, these are the only two species of birds I say hello to when I hear them or see them. Others make my jaw drop in amazement of their beauty in flight and interaction with the sky.

Have you ever sat in your back yard and leaned your head back and taken the time to observe for just 5 minutes, to what happens above you on a daily basis? Take 10 minutes. I did this once and I remember the day I did it. I was sitting in the aviary working on a project. I needed to take a break and leaned back in my chair, took a deep breath to clear my head and sat there staring at the empty sky while I cleared my thoughts. Soon a bird passed that caught my attention. I watched him fly out of sight. Soon I saw a smaller bird fluttering around a larger bird which looked like the same species. “I wonder if that is a parent teaching a fledgling.” Soon I started observing the same call from two different trees. Soon I saw this same fledgling flying to the call from one tree, and then soon flying to the call from the other. “Am I really seeing and observing two parents aiding in teaching their chick to fly?” I sat up in amazement but quickly learned my view was better leaning back in my chair. “How awesome is this?” I thought.

Here came a few crows. I heard their ‘caws’ moving in from a distance’. Here they came, all three of them. I watched the smaller birds head back to their trees.

Einstein, program Screech Owl, overlooking the house sparrows foraging in the aviary.

The laborious but beautiful flight of the crows. They perched high in the neighbors tree. I saw a blue jay fluttering about that tree. I heard the call of the blue jay. I could assume he was not happy, not sure but he sure was rustled from his tree and didn’t settle down until the crow took flight again. Off they went to another tree. I swiveled my chair around to follow them. I saw them up there in the tree swaying up and down on their small branches. They soon took off in flight giving out their ‘caws’. “What are they communicating to each other and those in their environment?” I wondered. I also caught myself almost holding my breath hoping they wouldn’t leave my sight and just fly from tree to tree so I had more time to observe them. Their caw grew distant and eventually faded. “Thanks for coming by” I thought. What an amazing bird.

 

Soon the sky filled with passing birds. A quick sight of a flock of doves. I love watching flocks of doves. They remind me of cockatiels. I often wonder what a flock of flying cockatiels looks like and hang on the lingering sight of the doves quickly disappearing behind the large maple tree.

The chirps of the house sparrows that gather daily in the bush next to my patio table caught my attention. I could sit and watch them forever as I often do. They hang out in that bush and chirp away. I try to observe who’s chirping and who reacts to that chirp. There is obvious communication in those chirps. I watch them gather in their favored areas of the neighbors back yard and in the gutters of my house and garage. It was funny, one day I was sitting in the aviary working on my computer. I thought I felt something wet hit my hand. Then I swore I felt something wet on my face. I beginning to think I was imagining things when I saw drops of water on my computer screen. I turned behind me and noticed this rain shower being produced in the corner of my second story patio. I quietly stood up and backed up. There were three house sparrows there having a hay day taking a bath in a puddle of water that gathered in the corner of the patio. They caught sight of me observing them and immediately took flight.

It’s amazing what I’ve learned this summer watching those house sparrows. I’ve watched the adults take off for long periods of the day while the young ones stayed behind in that bush. I watched the young ones bounce around and fly from branch to branch. I watched them fly around the neighbors back yard and I even began throwing bird food onto the ground inside my aviary near my patio to bring them closer so I could observe them better. They came. They learned to squeeze through the netting. I eventually lifted the netting in a few areas near the patio table to give them easier access. I watched them from my chair, and they observed me very cautiously. I smiled. I smiled a lot. Soon a thrush of small brown birds came back to the bush and the bush was alive again with movement and sound. “Mom and dad are home guys” I thought.

Over the summer I learned to turn and observe the environment when I heard the house sparrows take off in flight. If you watch close enough you’ll begin to know the difference in flight and if there is immediacy behind it. When you hear the immediacy, look around. Often I saw the neighborhood Red-Tailed Hawk soaring above. “Ah there you are you amazing creature, you!” I’ve tipped my head back enough and watched this rugged looking Red-Tail in the spring molt in new feathers. What amazing and majestic hunters they are. I love the Red-Tail Hawks. She’d cruise around the sky and all birds were out of sight. She’d do a few observational circles and move on. “We all have to eat, but please don’t eat the house sparrows from my neighboring bush” I caught myself thinking numerous times. One time mid summer I heard one of these sparrows being carried off by a flying predator. “Oh no” I thought as I spun my patio chair around that evening at dinner. I looked toward the direction of the fatal cry. That hawk must eat also, I understand as I sat staring in the direction.

Tip your head back as the sun begins to settle in for the evening. You’ll see the species taking flight change. It’s neat to watch the night-hawk come out and flutter in what looks like senseless flight to those that may be unaware. Insects abound and all around forming those ‘not-senseless’ flight patterns. Just amazing. A little later you’ll see that wing shape change. Enter the bat. Soon it is so dark I can’t see anymore and I’m still sitting in that chair. I stand up and walk inside for the evening leaving the skies to the nocturnal, flighted, hunters.

It is amazing the avian highway that exists above us if we just take that 10 minutes to tip our head back and point our eyes to the skies. Try it, you’ll be amazed. It really is cool and educational observing all this life and that avian expressway that happens just a few feet to several hundred feet above our heads. It is a whole new world up there and its fascinating to be able to observe it. I know what I want to be if I come back in another life. The tough thing is deciding which species. Enjoy.

An Unexpected and Enjoyable Encounter

Rocky in action playing 'toss' instead of showing previous aggressive behaviors such as chasing, biting, and lunging.

This unexpected encounter brought a great smile to my face and an enjoyable start to my day. Just the fact that I can attach the descriptive words “enjoyable encounter” with my Moluccan Cockatoo Rocky, is one that brings a smile to my face. It brings a smile because it proves to me several things: behavior of an older bird can be modified, Rocky benefits from it, my husband and I benefit from it, we can have a happy household again.

Let me give a quick background on Rocky. I brought Rocky home with me a little over four years ago. Rocky is a re-home and came to my house when he was eight years old. Rocky had many behavior issues. With time, education, advice, patience, and learning what reinforced these negative behavior issues, I was able to change many, well almost all of his negative behavior issues. One issue is what prompted me to sit down and type this entry in my blog today.

One issue I still work on with Rocky is his behavior when he is out and my husband and I are in the room together. When my husband and I are in the same room together with Rocky, Rocky clearly shows signs of how he would like me to leave. If I ignore these signs, his form of communication will increase. This form of increased communication begins with a look in my direction. Then it will increase to him getting down from where ever he is and running over to me on the floor. He’ll tip his head sideways to look up at me and then he runs back toward the direction of my husband. If I still exist in the environment, he’ll run over faster. If I don’t move, he’ll move in slower toward my foot. If I were to leave my foot there, a bite would soon happen. How do I know all of this? Well, I know because I experienced it once. One bite was enough of a punisher for me to start working on changing this behavior.

The body language and forms of communication were all there. It begins with a look in my direction, clue #1 that predicted behavior is about to occur. I don’t wait for times like this to occur to begin wondering how I should tackle the problem behavior. When I have the time in which to think about how to change or prevent predicted behavior, I’ll get a plan in place. Sometimes that plan works, sometimes it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, I’ll come up with a different plan. How I tackled this particular behavior, was one thought out before the behavior could occur again. If I wait until the behavior to happen before I begin trying to work on changing it, I could do things that reinforce the undesired behavior. For example, if I run, it reinforces Rocky’s behavior of chasing after me. Yea, not a good plan in changing the behavior. By no means does this mean I should stand still and endure the bites. Oh, I ran the first time. Actually I hopped onto the countertop. After that encounter is when I began thinking of how I could change the behavior.

I observed Rocky in different environments such as in his cage, in the aviary, with me when we were alone, and when he was with my husband when they were alone. I noticed Rocky seemed to enjoy tossing things. Bingo! I tried tossing a ball with Rocky when we were home alone. He would run across the floor and chase it and toss it into the air. He began tossing it back to me. Because he kept tossing it back to me, I kept tossing it in increasing distances across the room. Slowly I increased the distance, and he continued chasing it and bringing it back to me. We would do this several times a week while my husband was not home.

Rocky running and playing fetch with a ball in the aviary

Now came time for the weekends. Our whole back yard is an enclosed aviary. This is one of the best and safest ways we could provide outside time with our birds. My husband and I love sitting in the back yard with our birds. Rocky and I would be sitting at the patio table relaxing while I sipped a cup of coffee. All was fine until my husband would get out of bed and grab a cup of coffee and head to the back yard. Rocky’s body language would immediately change. If he was sitting on me I would feel his feet tense in his grip. His feathers would flatten and his eyes would slightly change shape. Off the chair he would go running and whistling after my husband. My husband would pick him up and come and sit at the table. Rocky would turn and look at me. “Here we go!” I thought. I would get that look that resembled as though Rocky was asking me “Are you seriously still here consuming my oxygen?” Getting that look was a cue to me. I’d head to the lawn and grab a ball. The tossing and fetch game would begin.

Fast forward to this morning. My husband was sitting at the dinning room table reading his morning paper. I was standing at the kitchen counter getting the dishes lined up to feed the birds. The birds were all still in their cages awaiting their morning veggies. All of a sudden my ears perked at a noise I thought I heard. “It couldn’t be” I thought as I turned and looked in the direction of the hallway. Yep, the noise I heard alright was Rocky’s nails clicking on the hardwood floor as he ran down the hallway and stopped in the opening to the kitchen and dinning room. “Hi” he boisterously shouted with his crest high in the air. My husband said “Hey its Rocky” in an excited voice. I said “Oh dear, its Rocky” when I felt my heart begin to pound faster. It scared me. Him on the floor unexpectedly with my husband and I in close proximity to each other scared me. Yea, my heart should be racing.

I looked at my husband and said “How in the heck did he get out?”. I then realized I went in and opened his door to put almonds in his cage this morning and changed my mind on opening the door when I could stick the almonds in his foraging toy right in front of him. Yea, I forgot to lock the door when I changed my mind.

Well here he was, bright and chipper and fully alert on the kitchen floor on this fine and dandy Friday morning. “Peek A Boo!” he yelled as he headed right toward me. I sat the dishes down on the counter and I knelt down to greet the approaching Peek A Boo’er. “Hey Rocky” I said as I offered my hand for him to step onto. As predicted, he declined the invitation and turned and headed toward my husband sitting at the dining room table. I turned my head to glance around the kitchen for an object to use to help me with my idea rewarding an alternate behavior instead of taking any chances in reinforcing an undesirable behavior such as a lunge toward the foot, or a faster pace in running toward me. There sat a rubber ball I had bought for Murray with the intention of using as a foraging toy. It was fresh out of the dishwasher and resting on the counter for the past 5 days until I figured out what I wanted to do with it.

“Hey Rocky!” I said as I tossed the ball in the air. Rocky hadn’t yet reached my husband, so I was quick to interject before he had the opportunity to increase his speed in running toward me and not in a good way. Rocky’s crest went up as he turned his head to see me and this big, red ball being tossed in the air. His body quickly turned to follow his head and here he came. Because this had been well-practiced in previous times, I waited to toss it until he reached me. When he stood still in front of me, it wasn’t my foot he was focused on, it was the ball being tossed overhead. I tossed it toward the dinning room. “Doooot” Rocky squealed as he ran toward the ball. He reached it and tossed it. “Yea!” I yelled as I clapped my hands. Here he came tossing the ball in my direction and the games began.

It wasn’t long and I was laughing so hard. Rocky was excited and playing and my husband sat there pretending to read his paper. I caught him numerous times looking over his paper and smiling watching Rocky and I. I soon stopped squatting on the floor and decided to just sit down and enjoy this unexpected and very enjoyable encounter. An enjoyable encounter with one fantastic and well-behaved Moluccan Cockatoo. It didn’t take long before Rocky climbed up my leg and was sitting on my arm while I began preening his head and kissing around his eyes. He would stop and look at me and I would tell him how much I loved him. He replied with “Is Rocky a good boy?” “Yes, Rocky is a good boy.” I replied. Oh how this bird warms my heart and changed my life. Yes, this bird that was highly suggested being put to sleep for all of his negative behavior issues. “I love you Rocky” I said as I leaned in for another smooch on top of that beautiful pink head of his. “Rocky is a good boy.”

In this video: Rocky calmly playing ball instead of chasing me out of the room. Notice my husbands feet at the dining room table.

A Girl & Her Dog

Positive reinforcement interactions with our pets makes for strong, trusting, and lasting relationships - Photo courtesy of Rebecca Gerondale.

I think about posting here every day. Boy do I love to write and am going to try to come on here and just post small thoughts or experiences as I see or am involved in them.

Today I was driving down the street about a block from my house. Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I was in a residential neighborhood and was driving slow so I had the time to observe a very interesting and powerful interaction. It happened quickly too which made it even more interesting.

A woman was walking from the front door of her house and across her lawn to the side-walk. Something behind her caught my eye. It was a small dog on a long retractable leash. I’m not all that good at identifying dog species but it was small and had an adorable face. Don’t they all? If I had to guess, I would say it was a Lhasa Apso. What was fascinating about the moment was the interaction I saw next. From the best of what I remember, it wasn’t the presence of the dog that made me look in its direction. It was what the woman had done that made me look behind her.

The woman was heading across the front lawn at a casual pace when all of a sudden she stopped and looked behind her. She looked down and about 8′ behind. There in that spot about 8′ behind her she was looking into the face of the dog on the end of the leash. In my best guess and observation of the quick situation at hand, I am assuming she stopped and looked behind her because the dog wasn’t moving. Maybe it was a quick tension in the leash that caused her to stop and turn and look at the dog. If I didn’t think the woman would have thought I was stalking her, I would have slowed down to observe the rest of the interaction. What I observed in those quick few and powerful moments was her reaction to something in regards to the behavior of the dog. She looked at the dog and the dog was standing there looking directly back up at her and into her face. “Wow, what a powerful statement that is” I thought to myself as I continued down the street now focusing on the parked cars on either side of the street making sure I didn’t hit one. She was looking down at the dog and the dog was looking directly at her face. What a clear line of communication there was in that snapshot in time between a girl and her dog. There was a lot of information being shared there at that moment. If I could rewind time, I would have had my camera ready to share this image. That dog was communicating with her and what she did after that I do not know but it stayed with me for a while after that.

I sat in the waiting room at my doctor’s appointment after that and thought “I wonder what the girl did after that.” Why did this stay on my mind? It stayed on my mind because this is how great relationships are formed between girls and their dogs, boys and their pets, families and the outside world, us with each other. I wanted to think that the girl stopped and respected the reluctance in her dog’s behavior. This means she was helping in keeping choice in the dog’s environment which has a major impact on behavior, let alone the impact on a great relationship and bond with each other. If she really knew her dog she would be able to figure out why the dog was stopping and determine what to do from there in the best interest of the two of them together. My mind hit ‘Option B’ in replaying this scenario. She could have then said “Come on. Let’s go.” as she tugged on the leash and continued walking as she pulled her dog a few inches before it gave in and continued to follow behind her. A picture that is probably very easy to visualize.

Not too many years ago, a neighborhood scenario like this would have not even attracted my attention. Neither would the one of my neighbor continually yelling at her son with more and more effort and a gradually increasing coercive tone to her voice as each week passes. As to not leave this post hanging and imaginations running wild, let me mention what I think happened. I think the girl stopped and paid attention to the reluctance in her dog. Why do I think this? I saw her body language. Without going into much detail, her body language was sympathetic or concerning to the reluctance in her dog. It was the way she paused and her relaxed stature that made my mind feel more at ease with assuming she bent over and asked her dog what was wrong. This thought brought a smile to the corner of my mouth as I gazed across the waiting room floor of the doctor’s office waiting room. “Yea, I think she waited for her dog” I thought. The dog’s body language told me so. I wanted this for the girl and her dog. I know how strong this makes for a trusting and happy relationship. The dog looked at the girl as though the girl understood this language. The body language of the girl looked as though she respected this line of communication.

“Lara Joseph”, the woman called as she stood in the door way waiting to take me back to the doctor’s office. “Yep, that’s me!” I said as I stood up and smiled at her. “How are those birds of yours?” she asked me. Boy, do people know how to peak my interest or what?

A Quick Example of How Positive Reinforcement Can Help in Preventing an Undesired Behavior

I’d like to make this a quick post, but I know how that goes. I would also like to add photos and videos to this today as I try and repeat some of this interaction with my bird to better explain the detail.

I have a little dilemma in my household right now. Rico, my Umbrella Cockatoo is showing more nesting behaviors than I’ve ever seen him exhibit. This hasn’t been much of a problem, but I do see how it could quickly turn into a problem if I stop paying attention to detail. He is showing many behaviors some people could and would label as ‘hormonal’. Is he hormonal? Well, he’s maturing and showing signs of what is described as nesting behaviors. This is by no means a reason for me to stop interacting with him, stop working with him, and blow off behaviors and label them as “Oh, he’s just being hormonal.” This would cause me to stop paying attention to detail and give way for the opportunity for some behaviors to become aggressive. I work with these changing behaviors and continue to live and grow with my 4 maturing parrots. I redirect nesting behaviors by reinforcing alternative behaviors such as flight, play, wing flaps, etc. Very recently, every time I walk Rico through my kitchen, he glances up at the top of the cupboards. Well, there are open spaces between our kitchen cupboards and the ceiling. If you have a broody bird, this may be very evident to you in how a bird may see this or how they may react to it. Rico sees this closed in space and flies to it almost immediately. So what’s the big deal? He’s wanting to chew the edges of the cupboards. Yea, white streamlined cupboards, this will be extremely obvious especially when are wanting to sell the house.

Without getting too involved in that issue, my point is that I’ve been walking him through the kitchen and rewarding him for staying perched on my arm as we walk by the mother load of kitchen cupboard nest boxes. He’ll stay on my hand and will remain perched. I ask him to touch my finger and when he does, I’ll reward him. This allows me the opportunity to reward him for something I want him to do vs chasing him and having to grab him from the tops of the cupboards. He now pays attention to my finger and waits to touch it to receive his reward. This is a perfect example of how target training is beneficial. We use this same tactic with a Turkey Vulture who will lunge in certain instances. If I delay in asking Rico to touch my finger and rewarding him in staying put on my arm as we walk through the kitchen, he’ll be in flight.

Once a bird learns a behavior, they learn it. Once Rico learns there are lovely potential nest box areas on top of the cupboard, I can’t un-teach that. I can teach him other things and this is what I am doing until I can put my plan in place of how to prevent the chewing of the cupboards. I want to try and prevent him continually flying up there because with each flight up there, this behavior is being reinforced. The continuation of this builds for stronger reinforcement for flying up there. Does that make sense? The less opportunity I give him to practice this, the less reinforcement is being delivered for the behavior. His reinforcement for flying up there is the opportunity to chew and whatever else is going through his mind. So through the kitchen and by the cupboards we walk as I ask him to “touch” and reward, “touch” and reward until we walk by the cupboards. No need to restrain him. I just need to pay close attention to the shape of his eye, watch where his eyes are focused, and the change in stance. It works wonderfully.

Today it was raining outside. I don’t have my plan for the kitchen cupboards ready yet, so we couldn’t hang out on the main floor of the house. Hmmm, only two other areas and the basement was out. So up the stairs to the bedroom we headed.

The bedroom is a large open space resembling a loft. Birds are not what we had in mind when we designed it, but oh how cool of a place it has turned out for them to be. Lots of room for flight, for different perch placement, for running, and for having fun. Before I took him up there, I thought of the few things that may be laying out that I don’t want him getting into. Some of these things can not be moved, such as the electrical outlets. He can easily fly to the vanity tops and reach the electrical outlets. He also can easily reach whatever is plugged into them. He can also fly on top of the shower door and eat the plastic molding which keeps the water from coming out of the shower. There is an open cupboard that resembles an oh so lovely nest box too. He could find all kinds of areas where I don’t want him to be. A little forethought can be your best friend when it comes to rewarding desirable behaviors so you don’t have to punish undesirable ones. Pre plan in setting the environment up for success and working with your bird’s reinforcers. Reward the good. Birds tend to work towards whatever brings them desirable results. The key is to identify them, use them, and not over saturate them so these rewards quickly lose value to your bird.

So up the stairs we continued to walk as the layout of the bedroom was flying through my mind. Rico was still perched on my left hand with eyes forward and body language showing me he couldn’t wait to reach the top of the stairs. I was running through my mental grab bag of goodies to use to positively reinforce the behaviors of Rico’s play in order to avoid areas in which I didn’t want him to go.

I have a little stash in a cupboard next to my sink in the bedroom. In this stash I keep potential objects or toys that I run across on a daily basis, that might be intriguing to a bird about to get into something I don’t want him to. My husband and I always save our plastic dental floss containers when we are done with them. He throws them in my stash and that is where they sit until I need them. Well, today I remembered that stash as I was walking up the stairs. (Note: I pull out the metal tear strip in the dental floss box before giving to them. This prevents metal toxicosis and an opportunity for the bird to cut himself.)

I sat Rico on the counter top. I watched what he was watching and he immediately looked at my husband’s side of the sink. All kinds of goodies stashed near the sink including the remote control to the TV. I saw him look and I spun on my heals to the stash. I pulled out the empty dental floss container and said “Look what I found.” Well guess what nosey bird turned to look to see what I had? I knew he would look, just as I knew he would look for things I didn’t want him to get into. I prevented the potential for having to grab him from reaching all the objects I didn’t want him to. Many times by reaching and pulling an animal away from things we don’t want them to have, only teaches them how to get it more quickly next time. What frustration this must build in the animal.

Rico hadn’t played with a dental floss container in quite a while, so you can imagine how much value this was to him. I was pretty sure this would work too. I handed him the container. Bada Bing, Bada Bang he had the little window taken out of the front of the container, the box was open, and the plastic wheel was now spinning by the force of his tongue between his top and bottom beak as he stared at me as if to say “Now what?” Little turd. It’s so hard to keep one step ahead of an intelligent creature, as most parrots are. I quickly put the whole thing back together again. He looked at me and quickly disassembled it. I thought “Huh, time to increase the level of complexity.” I glanced across the room at the bed. It is about 25′ – 30′ away. I said “Do you see this?” as I held up the reassembled dental floss container. His eyes told me he saw it. I said “One. Two. Three!” as I gave it a huge toss to hopefully land on the bed. Rico was in flight in that direction before the dental floss container was half way there. This bought me some time. I wanted to change my clothes and wash my face while I was up there.

After throwing the dental floss container, he had to now fly to the bed and disassemble it. The flat surface of the bed was a different surface for him to stand. It took him longer to take the container apart. I used that time to do what I needed to do. I turned and washed my face. By the time he was done disassembling, I was done washing my face. Bingo! He stood there on the bed with the opened container in his beak. I cued him to come back to my arm. He dropped the dental floss container and flew across the room to my hand. I sat him on the cupboard and headed over to grab the container. I put it back together as I was walking back to him. I showed it to him again and did a toss. Bam! He went right after it. While he was disassembling it, I changed my clothes while encouraging him to keep destroying the container. As I was changing my clothes, I was delivering verbal reinforcers to keep his attention focused on the container vs flying to me while changing. I said things like “Get it Rico!” and “Look at you!” If you could see him, these words have an obvious effect on his behavior. He’ll do whatever it is that is rewarding him with those words and do it more dramatically. Clothes were changed. I went back over to the vanity and cued him to my hand while the dental floss container was in his beak. He turned and looked at me and flew to my hand with it in his beak. This may sound dumb, but I was so excited to see him fly with an object in his mouth. This is new to him and he is realizing not only is his flight a mode a transportation for him, but it is a mode of transporting objects he wants. For me, this is so absolutely cool to watch because I’m watching him learn and he’s thriving from his learning.

I put the container back together and had Rico on my left hand while the dental floss container was in my right. I threw it. He flew after it. He landed and ran up to it. He grabbed it and I immediately cued him back to my hand. He flew back to my hand. I tossed it again. He went after it. Once he had it in his beak I cued him. He flew to my hand with it in his beak. I threw it once again to see if I had a retrieve being trained. Boom! Went right after it, picked it up, turned and looked at me, this time I didn’t verbally cue him to my hand. I just raised my hand for a place to perch. That was his cue and he was on it quicker than a beak can touch an electrical outlet. I was so excited and I think ever bird in the house could hear this. The one standing on my hand with crest up, head bobbing, and yelling “Woooo, Wooooo, Wooooo!” was the one I was interested in showing how excited I was. My excitement over his actions are such a HUGE and VALUABLE reinforcer for him.

We must have played this game for about 10 minutes. I had trained a retrieve without pre planning. What I was more impressed with was the fact that we were upstairs all around these things that Rico would love to explore and destroy yet he never once went after any of them. His attention was all about the dental floss container, the interaction with me, his flight, his new-found retrieve, and his disassembling the container. These were all reinforcers for him in the environment of being upstairs. These reinforcers could and would quickly change as I changed environments, for example, going outside. Because I was able to identify a reinforcer for alternative behaviors (dental floss container), and use this according to his attention span, I was able to keep his attention completely focused on rewarding desirable behavior. I never once had to punish a behavior by telling him “No” or by pulling him away from something. Both of those instances have undesirable  consequences of which many people are unaware.

“Oh look!” I said to Rico. “It’s not raining anymore! Want to go outside and fly?” Usually I say “Let’s go put our wings on!” but regardless, he knows ‘wings’ and he knows ‘fly’. He responded with the head bob and the “Woooo Woooo Wooooo” and down the stairs, through the kitchen and out the back door we went.