The "Clicker Training for Parrots" workshop is one of the many classes offered by Phoenix Landing. Clicker training is a fun way to interact with your bird, but it's also a useful tool for addressing behavioral issues. Once you apply the principles of clicker training to your daily interactions, you will be amazed at how effectively you will be able to communicate with each other, how much faster you will build trust, and how quickly your parrot will learn tricks that delight and amaze. This interactive class will be an introduction to clicker training for birds, how it works, why it works, strategies for dealing with "problem" behaviors, ideas for getting started, and pitfalls to avoid. It includes an overview of basic training terminology and in-class exercises to drive home training techniques.

1. Clicker Training for Parrots Phoenix Landing September 24, 2011

2. Why Teach Silly Parrot Tricks?

3. Introduction: What Is Clicker Training Clicker training is a training method based on operant conditioning principles. It uses a “clicker” as a marker or bridge 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)

4. Animals Are Always Learning Every interaction is training, whether you intend it to be or not. With this in mind… what are you teaching your bird?

5. Clicker Training Goals Teach your bird how to learn Tune into your bird’s body language Show your bird that it has choices Establish a common and consistent language Interact in positive ways Alleviate boredom Teach appropriate behaviors Have fun!

6. Terminology: Reinforcement / Punishment Positive Reinforcement (R+) Negative Reinforcement (R-) Positive Punishment (P+) Negative Punishment (P-)

7. How to Remember R+/R-/P+/P- Positive = adding something Negative = taking something away Reinforcement = causes the behavior to happen more often Punishment = causes the behavior to decrease

8. Positive Reinforcement After the bird does a behavior, you give him something he likes. This encourages the bird to do the behavior again.

9. Negative Reinforcement The bird does something. Then something he doesn’t like gets taken away. This causes the behavior to increase.

10. Positive Punishment The bird demonstrates a behavior (or absence of desired behavior). Something happens that he doesn’t like. This causes the behavior to decrease.

11. Negative Punishment The bird demonstrates a behavior (or absence of behavior). Something he wants is taken away. Sometimes referred to as a time out from positive reinforcement. It’s best if immediately paired with positive reinforcement or will lead to frustration.

12. Motivating the Bird It is our job to figure out how to make the bird want to offer the behavior Give cues vs. commands (the importance of offering choices) There has to be something “in it” for the bird

13. Reinforcers / Rewards Something is “reinforcing” if your bird will work to attain it Rewards can be food, praise, affection, attention Only the trainee can determine what is “rewarding.” Food tends to be a stronger reinforcer (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)

14. What Is a “Clicker” A clicker is: a mechanical device that makes a sharp, distinct sound a “marker” that indicates the precise moment the desired behavior occurs a signal (“a promise” even) that a reward will be forthcoming

15. What a Clicker is NOT A clicker is not magic. It does not compel an animal to do something A clicker is not the reward A clicker is not a request A clicker only has meaning insofar as you pair it with a reward

16. Why Use a Clicker The clicker has several advantages as a marker: It’s precise It’s distinct It’s consistent It’s a unique sound

17. The Problem of Language

18. Creating a Common Language Initially, the click is meaningless. You must create meaning by teaching your bird that click=treat. At first, just “charge the clicker”. Click  Treat, Click  Treat, Click  Treat Then begin with simple exercises. Set your bird up to succeed Teach your bird that it can make the click happen. Be consistent and don’t allow the click to lose meaning.

19. Timing, Timing, Timing Because the click has very specific meaning, it’s important that you apply it precisely. Practice your clicker timing.

20. Exercises: Perfecting Your Timing Drop a ball, click when it hits the ground Have someone else drop a ball, click when it hits the ground Work with a partner, agree on a specific behavior to capture and click at the exact moment it happens. Give each other feedback on whether the timing was right.

21. Ways to Get the Initial Behavior Capturing Luring Shaping Approximations Chaining Forward chaining Backwards chaining

22. Capturing: Definition “Catching an animal in the act of presenting a behavior. Typically the behavior is presented in its entirety. When followed by a reinforcer this can teach the animal to present the behavior again. This may lead to the behavior being offered frequently. At this point a cue can be inserted prior to the presentation of the behavior. A challenge with capturing a behavior is if the behavior breaks down, a trainer must wait for it to be offered again to recapture it and put it on cue.” -Barbara Heidenreich

23. Capturing Wait for the behavior to occur Click at the precise moment it happens Continue to do this consistently until your bird understands this is the desired behavior.

24. Luring: Definition “A hands-off method of guiding the dog through a behavior. For example, a food lure can be used to guide a dog from a sit into a down. This is a common method of getting more complex behaviors. Lures are usually food, but they may also be target sticks or anything else the animalwill follow. Trainers must take care to fade the lure early.” - Karen Pryor

25. Luring Lead the animal into the position you want by getting them to follow the reinforcer (or target stick). Not the ideal method of getting behaviors because they don’t teach the animal to think and offer behaviors.

26. Shaping Approximations: Definition “The form of an existing response is gradually changed across successive trials towards a desired target behavior by rewarding exact segments of behavior.” - Wikipedia

27. Shaping Reward successive approximations (small substeps or subtle variations) of the desired behavior until the the bird gets closer and closer to the actual desired behavior. At first, reward anything close to resembling the first step of the behavior and slowly increase the criterion for a reward.

28. Chaining “The process of combining multiple behaviors into a continuous sequence linked together by cues, and maintained by a reinforcer at the end of the chain. Each cue serves as the marker and the reinforcer for the previous behavior, and the cue for the next behavior.” - Karen Pryor

29. Chaining String individual behaviors together to create a more complex series of behaviors. Forward chaining: begin with a behavior the bird knows and move directly into the next behavior to master. Add new behaviors to the end. Backward chaining: the animal works in successive steps toward the behavior they know. Add new behaviors to the beginning.

30. Important Tip Always break behaviors down into the simplest steps.

31. Can You Apply the Concepts? What steps do you think it took for Mika to learn to bring me the pink ring? How would you begin to teach “wave”?

32. Exercise: Capturing, Shaping, Chaining

33. Getting Behavior on Cue What is a Cue? A signal that it’s time for the bird to offer a behavior Cues can be verbal, visual, etc. When to Introduce Cues Introduce the cue after the bird understands how to do the behavior. You can’t “cue” a bird to do a behavior it doesn’t know how to do.

34. Tips on Cues: Cues must be: Consistent Simple Meaningful

35. Remember…

36. Learning How to Learn The goal in clicker training is not simply that the bird performs the behavior, but that the bird goes through the learning process.

37. The First “Trick”: Targeting What is targeting? Animal touches a “target”. For birds specifically: Bird bites the end of a small stick. Why teach this first? Easy to teach, easy to learn Builds confidence Can be taught wherever the bird is comfortable No opportunity to bite

38. How to Teach Targeting Goal: Bird Bites Tip of Target Stick Approximations: Bird looks at target stick Bird takes step toward target stick Bird reaches for target stick Bird bites target stick Bird moves in the direction of target stick in order to bite it Bird has mastered this behavior when it will move in any direction, as far as it needs to, in order to bite the stick.

39. Ideas for Beginner “Tricks” Prop Tricks: Target Station Step Up Retrieve Go Up a Ladder Ring a Bell Non-Prop Tricks: Wave Turn Around “Big Eagle” Walking Recall Flying Recall Dance

40. Avoiding Common Pitfalls The problem of “begging” Bad click timing Bird isn’t motivated Bird or trainer is frustrated Setting too-high criteria Inconsistency of cues, criteria, goals

41. Myths and Misconceptions The click is a special sound that encourages animals to perform tricks. - FALSE The clicker allows you to be “dominant” over your bird - FALSE Any training that involves a clicker is “clicker training” – FALSE Clicker training is only useful for teaching silly tricks – FALSE Because birds are undomesticated, you can’t teach them tricks – FALSE In clicker training, a click takes the place of a reward – FALSE If you teach a behavior with a clicker, you are stuck carrying a clicker around forever – FALSE You have to be highly trained to be a good trainer - FALSE

42. Where to Learn MoreAbout Clicker Training Buy “Clicker Training for Birds” from the Phoenix Landing Store Join the Bird-Click discussion group: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bird-Click/ Get Jenny Drummey’s Project Parrot Handbook and attend other PhoenixLanding Behavior workshops Visit http://bestinflock.wordpress.com

44. www.phoenixlanding.org/blog

46. www.discountparrotsupplies.com/about