Diary of An Animal Trainer

Lesson: The ABCs of Behaviour

2012-02-21T10:43:00.004-05:00

To view a pre-requisit lesson about behaviour, view Lesson: What is Behaviour?

Introduction

Behaviour is defined as anything that an individual does, under certain conditions, which can be observed. In order to change behaviour, we must not only be able to understand what the behaviour is, but also be able to predict when it will occur, and why it occurs. This lesson explains what antecedents and consequences are, which both always occur with a behaviour, and what information they give that enables us to change behaviour.

Why Does My Animal Do That?

Why do animals behave in the way that they do? Why does the cat run away from her carrier? Why does the horse rear? People often try to answer these question by using labels to determine what the animal is: Why does the cat run away from her carrier? Because she is spoiled. Why does the horse rear? Because he is spirited. Labels, however, do not explain behaviour. I will show you. Take a parrot that bites, for example: Why does the parrot bite? Because she is hormonal. How do you know that the parrot is hormonal? Because the parrot bites. Now we’re back to square one with our assessment of the parrot’s behaviour, since these “explanations” are circular.

Image by Susan Friedman and James Fritzler.

What’s In It For Me?

Behaviour has a function. Every behaviour serves a purpose for the individual behaving. If you are wondering why an animal is behaving in a certain way, keep in mind the question “what’s in it for the animal?” Presenting the specific behaviour has a particular benefit of some sort to the animal. The animal may gain access to something of value to them, or they might be escaping something, but in any case, there is something “in it” for the animal for behaving that way.

The ABCs

Behaviour does not occur in isolation. There is always something that happens right before a behaviour, and something that always happens right after a behaviour:

A - The antecedent. It immediately precedes a behavior.

B - The behaviour, defined in observable terms.

C - The consequence. It immediately follows a behaviour.

Behaviour doesn’t take place alone. Antecedents take place before the behaviour, and consequences take place after the behaviour. Let’s take another look at the parrot that bites. When a hand is placed in front of the parrot (A - antecedent), the parrot bites the hand (B - behaviour), then the hand is removed (C - consequence). Listed out in the A-B-C sequence, it looks like this:

Antecedent - A hand is placed in front of the parrot.

Behaviour - The parrot bites the hand.

Consequence - The hand is removed.

We have now identified what happens right before and after the parrot bites.

About Antecedents

Antecedents set the occasion for the behaviour to occur. Behaviour occurs under certain conditions, in other words, a behaviour will take place all the time. No dog will bark every minute of every day. The dog will only bark sometimes, under certain conditions. If we identify the antecedent of a behaviour, we can predict when that behaviour will occur. The parrot bites the hand when a hand is placed in front of the parrot. The parrot does not bite all the time.

About Consequences

Consequences predict the future frequency of the target behaviour. They give the individual feedback whether to behave in that way again or not. Behaviour that produces a desired result to the animal will be repeated more often, and behaviour that produces an undesirable result to the animal will be repeated less often. It is, therefore, the consequence of the behaviour that will answer the question “why does he do that?”. If the parrot bites, then the hand will be removed. So, why does the parrot bite? The parrot is biting in order to remove the hand from in front of him.

Why This Information is Beneficial

If we can identify the antecedent of a behaviour, we can predict when the behaviour will occur. If we can identify the consequence of a behaviour, we can predict whether the behaviour will be repeated more often, or less often. Once we are able to identify the antecedent and consequence of behaviour, we can change the behaviour by changing the antecedent, or consequence, or both.

“There are no behaviour problems, only problem situations.”

- Susan Friedman, Ph.D.

Summary

Every behaviour serves as a function for the animal.

Behaviour never occurs in isolation.

Antecedents immediately precede the target behaviour.

Consequences immediately follow the target behaviour.

Behaviour occurs under certain conditions.

Antecedents set the occasion for the behaviour to occur.

Consequences influence the future frequency of the behaviour.

Targeting with Topaz

2012-02-20T18:23:00.000-05:00

Topaz learned how to target within the first week of her training. She learned to orient herself towards the feeding want (the target) and follow it in different directions and areas in her aquarium. This video shows the steps in my shaping plan that I used to teach her this. All of the video footage is from a single training session with Topaz. You can view a previous training session here.

Remember, the principles of behaviour are universal across all species of animals. While you may deliver food as positive reinforcement to animals differently, how you see this behaviour being shaped in this video can apply to teach other species of animals targeting including, parrots, horses, dogs, and cats and many other animals.

New Arrival: Piper the Pacific Parrotlet

2012-02-20T15:35:00.002-05:00

Parrots are one of the animals that I specialize in working with. I have cared for and trained many individual parrots of many different species over the last 5 years. I have lived with several parrots, and have worked with a large number of them for 1.5 years as a veterinary assistant. I attended a Natural Encounters workshop for professionals last December, where I spent 5 days training Sophia a Kea and other birds.

Mark and I recently decided that we wanted to welcome a parrot into our family and we were looking to get a small species of parrot, so we chose a Pacific Parrotlet. They are one of the smallest parrot species, and also happen to be a personal favourite of mine. We brought one home yesterday. Mark came up with the cute name Piper, and it stuck. Piper is a female and she is just weaned.

I spent all yesterday afternoon setting everything up for Piper before I picked her up in the evening.

All of the perches ready to be installed in the aviary. We are using perches of a variety of textures, shapes, and colours for healthy feet, motor development, and enrichment.

A variety of toys to put in the aviary for Piper.

Building the aviary. It's 6 feet tall!

Topaz, our Kenyi Cichlid, watching me putting Piper's aviary together.

When Piper arrived yesterday evening, she was very still and silent. Her new environment must have been a lot to take in considering she was raised in a rubbermaid and she wasn't well socialized to people, new environments, and new objects. Even though Piper is weaned she was never given the chance to learn how to perch, climb, and develop fluent flight skills. Yesterday she started figuring out how to use her feet and beak to climb on the bars of the aviary and perch. She was able to fly and make her way to a spot at the top of the aviary to rest for the night.

This morning Piper showed some more behaviour. She ground her beak, stretch her wing, roused (shook her feathers out), and vocalized - all good signs that she is more comfortable. She found her way over to her food and water much to my relief.

Piper eating and drinking this morning.

Piper on her atom swing.

Piper's aviary is 40" wide by 30" deep by 60" tall. Parrotlets are active birds, and like all parrots, they require enough space to perch in different places, play, and forage. Piper also has enough room that she can fly inside the aviary. In such a short period of time I've already seen her use all of the space.

Piper in her new aviary. She is in the top left corner.

So, what behaviours am I going to teach Piper?

Take food comfortably from my hands. This will allow me to work with her in close proximity.
Target to my closed fist. In other words, orient herself towards and follow my closed fist. I consider targeting a staple behaviour because you can use targeting to teach other behaviours more easily.
Step onto my hand, known as "step up". A basic management behaviour.
Step off of my hand, or in other words, step up onto surfaces from my hand. Another basic management behaviour.

These are basic behaviours that I want to teach her before I start training anything else, since they are pre-requisites to many other behaviours that I want to train.

How a Parrot Learns its Name in the Wild

2012-02-20T10:48:00.000-05:00

Individual parrots in the wild each have names, which are a part of their complex communication systems. This video, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, show that these names are not genetically encoded but are in fact learned as chicks from their parents. Check it out!

Lesson: What is Behaviour?

2012-02-20T09:32:00.001-05:00

Introduction

The first step to understanding, predicting, and changing behaviour is to know what exactly behaviour is defined as. This lesson explains how to distinguish the difference between behaviour and labels which are commonly used to describe what people think animals are. It teaches how to describe behaviour in observable terms.

What Is Behaviour?

Behaviour is anything an animal does, under certain conditions, which can be observed. A parrot can fly, fluff feathers, and vocalize. A horse can run. A dog can bark and wag his or her tail. These are all examples of behaviours, because they are all things animals do. Thoughts are also behaviours, but they can only be observed by the individuals doing them. Our focus when it comes to teaching and changing behaviours are behaviours that can be publicly observed.

What Behaviour Is Not

Behaviour is not a label such as cute or aggressive. Labels describe what we think an animal is, not what it is doing. Friendly, dominant, playful, hormonal, tame, fearful, happy, noisy, nice, and spoiled are all examples of labels that are commonly used by companion animal guardians. None of these labels are describing what an animal is doing. None of these labels are describing an actual behaviour.

The Problems With Using Labels

As you now know, labels do not describe observable behaviour, which is a large problem in using them. Another problem with using labels is that a label can mean one thing to one person, and something completely different to another person. For example, a person may say their horse is pushy when it pulls on the lead rope, while another person might call the horse fearful. One person might may say a parrot chewing on wood is destructive, yet another person might say the parrot is cute. Similarly, when a dog is labelled aggressive, I may think of the dog jumping up on a person, while you might be thinking of the dog biting.

Image by Susan Friedman and James Fritzler.

Operationalizing Labels

To operationalize a label, means to take a label, and describe it in observable terms. When a label is described in observable terms, the label has been operationalized. This is an important skill to learn, and here is how to do it: To operationally describe a behaviour, the key is to answer the question “what does that look like?”

Take a friendly parrot for example. Friendly can be identified as a label because it doesn’t describe what the parrot is doing, only what the parrot is considered to be. Now that we’ve determined that friendly is a label, let’s operationalize it. So, what does friendly look like? What might I observe the parrot doing? The parrot may approach a person and step onto the person’s hand. Approaching a person, and stepping onto a person’s hand, are both specific behaviours which can be observed.

Why This Information Is Beneficial

You can’t teach a label, but you can teach a behaviour. You can’t teach a parrot to be friendly, but you can teach a parrot to approach people and to step up onto hands. Then, when the parrot is presenting those behaviours, we can call the parrot friendly. Observable behaviour can be tracked, therefore, the progress of behaviour change can be measured, and one can determine when they have reached their behaviour change goal.

Summary

Behaviour is what an animal does, not what an animal is.

Labels are used to describe what we think an animal is, not what it does.

A label can mean different things to different people.

To operationalize a label, ask the question “what does that look like?”

You can’t teach a label, but you can teach a behaviour.

Say All Fast Minute Every Day Shuffle?

2012-01-30T14:58:00.003-05:00

I recently read about something called SAFMEDS, a procedure used to learn factual information, and decided to use this activity during my own studies. SAFMEDS is useful for establishing fluency (speed and accuracy together) and retention of the information. So, what is it exactly? SAFMEDS is an acronym for:

Say All Fast Minute Every Day Shuffle

It consist of a deck of cards with writing on each side. One side of the card is the front of the card and the other side is the back. One the front there is short statement such as a query with a missing word or a definition of a word, and on the back that word is written. The cards should have a similar appearance to each other to avoid a card standing out. My deck consists of 50 common terms used in applied behavior analysis. A deck can be any size, but it might be best if decks of over 200 cards are split into more manageable sizes. My cards are 3” by 5” index cards. I should mention that SAFMEDS cards shouldn’t be too large since it makes it harder to flip through them quickly. Some people even use business card sized cards. Here’s an example of one of the cards in my deck:

The front of one of my SAFMEDS cards.

The back of one of my SAFMEDS cards.

Simple enough, right? So here’s how SAFMEDS works:

Say - The learner reads the front of the card, then says their response (what should be on the back of the card) out loud.

All - They should work through the deck of cards as a whole, not take a portion of the deck to work through.

Fast - The cards should be worked through as quickly as possible, not slowly.

Minute - The cards should be worked through in brief, timed sessions such as a minute or less. (Now you see where the quickly part comes into play).

Every - See “day”.

Day - Have a brief session at least once a day.

Shuffle - Shuffle the cards well like you shuffle a regular deck of playing cards before each session.

The great thing about SAFMEDS is that you can monitor your learning progress if you record the results of each session of working through the cards. Once you read a card and say your response out loud, flip the card over to check your response. Place the cards with correct responses in one pile, and the cards with incorrect responses in another pile. Cards with no response after a certain period of time can be counted as incorrect.

Once you’re finished working through the cards, record the number of correct responses, the number of incorrect responses, the total number of cards completed in the timed session, and the timing interval you used for the session (i.e. the set minute). Now, over time, you can track your progress of how many correct versus incorrect responses you get, as well as your progress with your speed based on how many cards you can complete in the set time interval.

I just begun using the SAFMEDS procedure and create a log to keep track of my progress. Here’s what it looks like:

My SAFMEDS learning log.

For all of you animal trainers out there (whether you have a companion animal or you’re a professional) who want to become more fluent with using terminology in applied behaviour analysis, this may be worth trying to achieve your learning goals. After all, just like we can find precious moments in our days for having training sessions with animals, we can find a precious moment in our day to have a SAFMEDS session.

Happy learning!

Day 2 Of Kenyi Cichlid Training

2012-01-20T00:20:00.003-05:00

After only 2 days of training Topaz the Kenyi Cichlid has had some good progress. Mark and I have been using the feeding wand from the R2 Fish School training kit as a food delivery method and Topaz quickly learned the association between the feeding wand and food. When she was learning this association, we were careful to make sure that Topaz had the opportunity to choose to come close to the feeding wand by swimming towards it if she was comfortable, and also that she had plenty of space to swim away from it and a place to hide in order to give her the opportunity to escape from it if she wanted to.

The behaviour that we were looking to see was Topaz facing the feeding wand within approximately 1” of it. This was our first training goal. With Topaz in this position, it would be easier for her to see the food when it pops out of the feeding wand and she can reach the food quickly to eat it. To train Topaz to do this, first Mark and I only released the food from the feeding wand when she was facing it, and then we started only releasing the food once she was closer to the feeding wand until she was about 1” away from it.

This video shows a couple of clips of our 4th training session with Topaz, and she demonstrates that we’ve reached our first training goal.

Introducing Topaz

2012-01-17T20:01:00.004-05:00

Yesterday my boyfriend Mark and I bought a Kenyi Cichlid. I have been interested in training a fish for over a year now, and I’m finally able to do it! After first seeing the video I posted in my last post “Fish Can Learn Tricks Too!”, I bought my very own R2 Fish School Training Kit from the R2 Fish School website and waited for the right time and opportunity to have my own fish to train.

We named her Topaz because as Kenyi Cichlids mature the males turn primarily yellow and the females turn mostly light blue, and the topaz gemstone commonly comes in the colours yellow and blue. We don’t know weather she is a female or a male yet because she is just coming out of her juvenile colouration, however I’m referring to her as “she” for now since we suspected her to be a female when we bought her. Here she is:

Both yesterday and today I wanted to let her settle down in her new environment before doing much interacting with her. She definitely seems to be more comfortable in her new aquarium now that she’s had some time to get used to it than when we first put her into it. I don’t know a whole lot about fish body language yet though, so I’ll be learning more about it as I continue my research about fish behaviour and as I get to know more about Topaz as an individual through observing her while caring for her and training her.

Currently we’re housing Topaz in a 10 gallon aquarium since right now she’s only around 2” and she’s being housed alone. Kenyi Cichlids are an African species of Cichlid that will grow to be around 5” as adults. As an adult she’ll need much more space so we’ll have to purchase an aquarium of at least 40 gallons for her to live in. Right now there is a live plant and a rock in the aquarium to provide cover and hiding areas for her as well as ample space for swimming and for training.

I’m looking forward to working with her shortly!

Fish Can Learn Tricks Too!

2012-01-15T14:09:00.000-05:00

Did you know that fish can learn tricks just like parrots, dogs, cats, horses, and other animals? The principles of behaviour apply to all species of animals, and apply them appropriately to a fish and this is what you can get. Check out this amazing video of Comet a common goldfish performing several tricks. I first saw this video when I attended a workshop presented by Barbara Heidenreich and Dr. Susan Friedman in 2009, and it definitely made me think “wow!”.

The R2 Fish School Training Kit was developed by Dr. Dean Pomerleau and his son, Kyle. It includes a fish feeding wand and all of the equipment and props needed to train 9 fish tricks including swimming through a hoop, a tunnel, a vertical tunnel, do the limbo, finger feeding, play soccer, basketball, and football, do the salom, and play fetch.

Since I first saw this video I wanted to train a fish so I bought my own R2 Fish School Training Kit, and it’s ready for me to use. You can buy your own R2 Fish School Training Kit at the R2 Fish School website www.r2fishchool.com and become a fish trainer too!

Training Sophia The Kea - Training Session #1

2011-12-22T01:14:00.007-05:00

During the week I spent at Natural Encounters, Inc. (NEI) this December for the Contemporary Animal Training and Management workshop for professionals, I had the pleasure of training a Kea named Sophia. She was my "personal bird" that I worked with throughout the entire workshop. I had a training session with her every morning and every afternoon for 5 days. (You can read more about the NEI workshop by reading my blog post "My Week At Natural Encounters").

Sophia is a bird that I had no relationship with prior to this training session. The first that I wanted to do was to build trust with her based on positive interactions. There were several different things that I did to build trust with Sophia.

1. I paired myself with something positively reinforcing to her.

Two of Sophia's favourite foods were thought to be peanuts and grapes by the NEI trainers, so I used pieces of both of those two foods for this training session. By repeatedly pairing myself with Sophia's favourite foods by offering them to her, Sophia would begin to associate me with her favourite foods, which was something positively reinforcing to her. I stood outside her enclosure, held out a piece of food, and let her come to me to take the food from my hand. I repeated this several times until Sophia was taking food from my hands fluently.

2. I established clear, honest, two way communication with her while respecting her body language and personal space.

With two way communication, it's not just the training communicating to the animal what to do. The animal is also able to communicate to the trainer with their body language what they are comfortable with and the trainer responds to the animal's body language. I was attentive to what Sophia was communicating to me with her body language. If she was communicating to me that she was comfortable, I would raise my criteria and take a step forward in the training plan and then observe and assess her body language to make sure she was still comfortable. I only entered Sophia's enclosure and came closer into her personal space when she invited me to by showing she was comfortable with her body language.

3. I empowered Sophia to choose how close she wanted to come to me.

When I was in Sophia's enclosure I stood in one place and let Sophia make the choice to come closer to me to take the food from my hand. She was never forced to interact with me. Sophia had the ability to escape from me by moving away from me if at anytime she felt uncomfortable.

By taking the time to build trust with Sophia right from the first interaction we had with each other we built a good foundation to our new relationship that we will have in our next training session.

Enjoy the video below of the highlights of my training session #1 with Sophia the Kea:

This post is the first in a series of posts of my training sessions with Sophia the Kea. Please stay tuned for the next post in the series!

My Week at Natural Encounters

2011-12-14T19:31:00.004-05:00

I just recently got back from New Haven, Florida. From December 3rd to December 9th I spent a week at Natural Encounters, Inc. (NEI) ranch doing their Contemporary Animal Training and Management Workshop for Professionals. The NEI ranch is a 34 acre facility that provides permanent housing for their collection of over 200 birds representing more than 50 species. NEI produces incredible interpretive free flighted bird shows including the year long “Flights of Wonder” bird show at Disney Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida and the annual “Birds of The World” show at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, Texas. NEI also consults with zoos around the world from the art and science of animal training and animal behaviour management, to enrichment and enclosure design assistance, to staff training and interpretive programs.

The workshop began with an icebreaker event on the evening of the day that all of the participants arrived there. There were 15 participants with a wide range of backgrounds from Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia. Along with these students a few of the newer NEI staff were participants in the workshop, and other NEI staff shadowed students in the workshop on their days off. At the icebreaker everyone began to get to know each other, and then our teams that we would be broken down into for the week were revealed. There were four groups, and each group was led by a team leader, one of NEI’s senior staff. My group’s team leader was Chris Jenkins, Supervisor at the Disney Animal Kingdom bird show that is run by NEI. Chris is a skilled trainer and he was an excellent instructor. My team included Shannon and Kate, and Liz, a full time NEI trainer.

Once we were in our teams, an impressive list of animals that were available for the workshop was revealed. There were 32 species of animals available for the workshop! The birds included hornbills, toucans, seriemas, african crowned cranes, gulls, ibises, ravens, crows, a vulture, owls, hawks, amazon parrots, an african grey parrot, cockatoos, macaws, and keas. There were also donkeys and goats available to train. Each group discussed with their team leaders which species of animals they were interested in, what behaviours they might want to teach, and what they wanted to gain experience with throughout the week. Then we were assigned animals. Each person had there own “personal animal” that they would train and work on their own projects with throughout the week, and each person would also be able to watch and participate in the training of each of their group member’s personal birds. Also, each group was assigned a “challenge bird”, a bird in which the group would train behaviours together as a team that Steve Martin would assign daily.

My personal bird was Sophia the Kea. I was training her to a retrieve behaviour in which she had to distinguish between two different objects, pick up the right object with the right cue, then place it in my hand. Shannon was training Bunson the Scarlet Macaw to fly in loops, Kate was teaching Harmony the Trumpeter Hornbill to fly though a hoop, and Liz was teaching Dennis the Galah Cockatoo to do a retrieve where he would place an object in a bowl. My team also worked with Green Wing Macaws, a Yellow Naped Amazon, a White Collared Raven, and Donkeys. Every group’s challenge birds was a Red Fronted Macaw.

Training Sophia the Kea object discrimination with Chris Jenkins.

Shannon training Bunson the Scarlet Macaw to fly in loops. Here Bunson flies around a pole that is used as an antecedent arrangement and reference point.

Working with Kate and her Personal bird, Harmony the Trumpeter Hornbill, on Trainer to Trainer flighted recalls. This was a pre-requisite behaviour to flying through a hoop in her training plan.

Liz training Dennis the Galah Cockatoo to do an object retrieve. This photo was taken in the beginning stages of the training plan.

Training a Red Fronted Macaw to do a behaviour on cue in one training session. The behaviour was to turn around in a circle.

Doing trainer to trainer flighted recalls with a young Green Wing Macaw.

The workshop was a great balance of classroom learning and time in the field gaining hands on experience training the animals. Our busy days began at 8 am and after breakfast we had our first 2 hour lecture of the day followed by a training demonstration by Steve Martin. Then we spent 2 hours in our teams training our assigned animals. After lunch came another 2 hour lecture, followed by another training demonstration and another 2 hour time block of animal training. At the end of the each day there was a debriefing when everyone would discuss their highlights of the day. On three of the mornings we had quizzes on the information we had learned. During one of the days the students played a game known as the "shaping game" and trainers shaped the behaviour of other trainers using bridges and positive reinforcement. It was a lot of fun and it was also another good learning experience. On two of the evenings there were guest presentations. One was a presentation by Wouter Stellaard, the vice president of NEI, and the other presentation was by Cassie Malina, the director of staff development at NEI. Cassie brought Pogo the Sulpher Crested Cockatoo from Disney Animal Kingdom in Orlando to do their routine for us. On those two days between the lectures, training demonstrations, training time, and evening presentations we were learning at NEI for 12 hours.

Dr. Susan Friedman and Steve Martin presented the daily lectures. There was overlap, but generally speaking Susan presented on the science of training and Steve presented on the art of training. Dr. Susan Friedman was brilliant as usual. The information she teaches, and the way she teaches it with her presentations including her quotes and examples is invaluable. Every time that I hear Susan speak I learn something new, even if a lot of the material is review for me. This was the first time that I heard Steve Martin present, and his presentations were fabulous as well. Steve shared a number of his experiences working with animals at Zoos worldwide including a wide variety of species of birds at his shows, and animals such as Elephants, Giraffes, Lions, and Orangutans. All of the lectures at the workshop were engaging and created a lot of laughter and brought a lot of “light bulb” moments to all of the students. During the week each student had the opportunity to have one on one time with both Susan and Steve and speak to them privately about whatever they wanted to.

On the last day of the workshop, each participant demonstrated the behaviours they taught their personal animals during the week. Some of the students worked with the same bird throughout the week while others worked with more than one bird. Similarly, some students worked on a single behaviour throughout the week while others worked on more than one behaviour. A few of the behaviours that were taught by students included a Blue Throated Macaw flying in a loop through two hoops, a Collared Raven taking a plastic hoop and sliding it onto a large peg, a Pied Crow on a perch lifting a string with his feet and beak to get foot hanging at the end of it, a Harris Hawk doing a flighted recall though two people holding their arms in a semi circle, among others. Some animals learned behaviour chains. A Kea learned to twist his head to the right then run over to a plastic chain and hang from it by his beak with his feet in the air. A Palm Cockatoo learned to place a wooden block into a dish on the bottom of his enclosure, fly to a branch and pull up the container by pulling up a plastic chain it was attached to, take the block out of the contain, then place it over a peg. Most animals performed well in front of a large crowd of people and most behaviours were finished that day.

The workshop ended with a wonderful banquet dinner on the last evening to celebrate our week together and to say goodbye to new friends. A slideshow played with some of the many photos that Steve Martin and his staff took throughout the week, and everyone shared their highlights of the week and what they loved about the workshop. It was very touching hearing everyone speak about the workshop and many of us, including myself, teared up. All of the participants got certificates for completing the workshop which topped off the evening. Everyone who participated in the workshop helped to make it a great experience for each other. There was a lot of team work throughout the week and everyone was respectful to one another and supportive of one another. My team members went out of their way to help one another, we all contributed sharing our ideas and suggestions, and we were all open to listening to everyone else’s ideas and suggestions. At NEI we all trained animals artfully with a very high ethical standard and it was refreshing to be in such a positive environment where everyone was enthusiastic about learning and working with the animals in that manner. I have nothing but good memories from my week at NEI.

My certificate of excellence for completing the workshop at Natural Encounters.

Participating in the Contemporary Animal Training and Management Workshop for Professionals at Natural Encounters was one of the best experiences in my life. All of the workshop leaders and staff worked very hard to make the workshop an enjoyable experience and to meet the goals of the students. I found it to be highly reinforcing and enriching experience. I learned a lot throughout the week, gained the experience that I wanted to, and I accomplished the goals that I wanted to. Natural Encounters hosts workshops for both professionals and companion parrot caregivers and I highly recommend them. Steve Martin and his team of trainers are truly world class professional animal trainers. For more information please visit Natural Encounter’s website at www.naturalencounters.com.

Dr. Susan Friedman offers two courses: Living and Learning with Animals (LLA) for professionals, and Living and Learning with Parrots (LLP) for companion parrot caregivers. I highly recommend them. They are excellent. Even if the animals you live with or work with aren't parrots, I still recommend her courses because the information that Susan teaches applies to all species of animals. Also, if you simply have an interest in animal behaviour and haven’t heard Susan speak yet, I recommend you attend any event where she is a speaker. She blew me away the first time I heard her speak and I’ve heard the same from many other people. For more information please visit Dr. Susan Friedman’s website at www.behaviorworks.org.

Training Myth: You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

2011-11-25T04:19:00.005-05:00

In my daily conversations with people I come across the many common misconceptions and common questions that people have about animal behaviour and training. The other day I was talking to a woman in an office building who told me that a German Shepherd that she used to have had behaviour issues (I think the behaviour was biting). She said that the trainer that she took him to a dog trainer at the time who said the he was to old to learn and he couldn’t modify the dog’s behaviour. This is just one of many moments where I think to myself that it’s really unfortunate that this person had or has inaccurate information.

You know how the old saying goes, that you “can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. This conventional wisdom has been around for quite a while and many people have heard this statement. It suggests that as animals age, or once they reach a certain age, it becomes too late to teach them new behaviours. It can also suggest that once animals have been producing a behaviour for a long period of time, that they are “set in their ways” and that their behaviour can’t be changed. Nothing can be further from the truth, however.

Animals, no matter what species they are, continue to learn throughout their lives. In the beginning of my blog post “We Are All Trainers All The Time”, I explained that we learn through every contact that we have with our environment, and what our environment consists of. (By saying we, I am referring to all species of animals). Since our behavioural interactions with our environment never ends until we are dead, we are continuously learning throughout our entire lives. Dr. Susan Friedman explains this well: “Without the environment there is no behavior, and therefore no biology. It’s our biology to behave otherwise we would be dead”. So, the first thing that is important to understand is that we never stop behaving throughout our lives.

The second thing that is important to understand is why we behave. In applied behaviour analysis, the law of effect states that behaviour is a function of its consequences. Basically, this means that behaviour is produced because of its effect on the environment. Behaviours that produce desired outcomes to the individual will be repeated, and the behaviours that do not produce desired outcomes will be modified or suppressed. If an individual has been producing a specific behaviour repeatedly over a long period of time, it is because that behaviour is being reinforced by something, not because they are “set in their ways”. The behaviour has a function for the individual, and if the behaviour stops being reinforced and loses its function for the animal, then the behaviour will decrease.

Now let's piece this information together. Simply put, our environment effects our behaviour and since we never stop interacting with our environment, we never lose the ability to change our behaviour based on their outcomes. Therefore, even if it is perceived that an animal is “set in their ways” because of their age or the fact that they have been behaving in a certain way over a long period of time, it is never too late to modify their existing behaviours. Similarly, it is never too late to teach them new behaviours, since those new behaviours will be repeated if they have a function for the animal. You most certainly can teach an old dog new tricks.

Dip.ABT Has Begun!

2011-11-23T22:20:00.001-05:00

I have just begun the Animal Behavior Technology diploma program (Dip.ABT) through the Companion Animal Sciences Institute (CASI) that I will be a student of for the next 12 months. It’s a quality distance oriented professional development program of study that’s advanced and designed to be intense and challenging. The first course that I am taking is an elective I chose called Consulting with People and Parrots, and I am thrilled that my instructors are my mentor Susan Friedman (www.behaviorworks.org) and well-known parrot behaviour consultant Pamela Clark (www.pamelaclarkonline.com)!

My first assignment: Write a critical essay on a chapter of the book “Manuel of Parrot Behavior” edited by Andrew U. Luescher. My chosen chapter is chapter 6 called “Captive Parrot Nutrition: Interactions with Anatomy, Physiology, and Behavior”. After that I’ll be writing critical essays on 5 more chapters, so it looks like I’m off to a busy start!

One of my goals during the program (and through keeping this blog for that matter): Become a stronger writer since during my career as an animal behaviour technologist I’ll be writing various articles, papers, and perhaps even books to further disseminate quality information about animal behaviour and training and best practices of the care of animals in captivity.

We Are All Trainers All The Time

2011-11-03T03:29:00.006-04:00

We are all trainers all the time. This is something that all animal caregivers can benefit from understanding and remembering.

“We grow through contact with the environment” said Dr. Susan Friedman during one of our weekly classes in Living and Learning with Animals for Professionals (LLA) 2010. Every individual learns from every interaction that they have with their environment. Environment can be defined as every aspect of an individual’s surroundings, and this can include other individuals both animals and people. Therefore, every time we come into contact with another person or animal in any way we are teaching them something weather we mean to or not. Just the same we are learning something from each of these encounters as well. Thus we are also all teachers and learners at the same time.

Two attentive students during a planned training session.

The lesson here is that you don’t have to purposely train an animal to train it. It’s important to keep this in mind since animal caregivers often inadvertently teach and reinforce undesired behaviours that their companion animals present. A perfect example of this is the parrot that learns that if it screams then it will receive attention from its caregiver. A typical situation is when a parrot screams and it’s caregiver may then simply make eye contact with the parrot. If this type of attention is reinforcing to the parrot then we can predict that the parrot will present the screaming behaviour again in order to produce the same consequence (the eye contact). The parrot has been unintentionally been taught to scream for attention by its caregiver.

Other examples of behaviours that have been inadvertently reinforced include:

Dogs that learn that if they pull on a leash that their caregivers are holding then they will move forward in the direction that they are pulling.

Children that learn that if they whine to their parents for something then their parents will give them the object that they are whining for. (Even if the parents only choose to give their children the objects that they whine for only some of the time, it’s enough to maintain the whining behaviour. It’s called intermittent reinforcement when only some instances of a behaviour are reinforced).

Parents that learn that if they give their children an object that they are whining for then their children will stop whining.

It’s not just undesired behaviours that can be inadvertently reinforced. Desired behaviours that individuals present can also be reinforced through interactions with those individuals. Let’s say that the parrot that has learned to scream in order to receive eye contact from it’s caregiver says a word such as “hello” and the caregiver then speaks in a really upbeat tone to the parrot. If the parrot finds the speaking more reinforcing than the eye contact, then it can be predicted that the parrot will say “hello” more than it screams because it values the speaking more than the eye contact. The caregiver now has a parrot that says “hello” more often and screams less often! (The principle that an individual, given the choice of more than one behaviour, will present the behaviour that produces the most or the most preferred reinforcement is called the matching law).

All animals are “built to behave” as Susan says. They are designed to learn, and as you know, they learn from every interaction that they have with their environment. Since we are apart of our companion animal’s environment they learn from our behaviours. Our awareness of the influence that our behaviour have on others, people and animals included, allows us to be thoughtful about what behaviours we might be reinforcing when we behave.

I’ll leave you with a little bit food for thought:

“One’s quality of life can be measured by the amount of positive reinforcement they receive.” - Susan Friedman

Positive reinforcement is defined as anything that is added to the environment that maintains or increases a behaviour it immediately follows. (For example smiling or giving a compliment can be positively reinforcing for people, just as giving a valued item can be positively reinforcing to animals). So, in our daily lives, let’s practice positively reinforcing all of the behaviours of others that we find reinforcing and want to see again in order to improve the quality of our lives, and by doing so improve the quality of life of others. We have the power to behave.

My Introduction

2011-10-26T22:16:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my new blog, a place that will become a gathering of great readings and information about learning and behaviour and the animals that we share our lives with and love. My name is Cory Cordes and I am a technologist of animal behaviour. That is, I am someone who applies the scientific principles of behaviour to practical situations with animals to shape new behaviours and modify existing ones. I believe that it is important to know about the author of the materials from which you read and learn from, so I will begin by sharing with you my background with animals and behaviour change.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am extremely passionate about animals and I am fascinated by the science of behaviour. I have always surrounded myself with animals for as long as I can remember and over the years I have worked with countless species of animals including parrots, birds of prey, horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, reptiles, other exotic animals, and native Ontario wildlife in a variety of professional settings and I have personally lived with many. It was in 2007 when I acquired my first parrot Kiwi, a Pacific Parrotlet, and I began immersing myself in information regarding the behaviour, care and management, and enrichment of parrots in captivity. I have since lived with many parrots that have had needed rehabilitation in the forms of proper care and enrichment, behaviour modification, and training.

As part of my continuous search for new learning opportunities, I attended a workshop presented by Barbara Heidenreich and Dr. Susan Friedman in 2009 that introduced me to applied behaviour analysis and positive reinforcement based training. It was at that conference that I got completely hooked with the ‘behaviour bug’ so to speak. After gaining a new understanding of behaviour I begun practicing applied behaviour analysis in my daily life with animals and I was very eager to learn more. I began reading the writings of Dr. Susan Friedman and Steve Martin and his team of trainers, as well as reading some recommended books.

In 2010 I took Dr. Susan Friedman’s Living and Learning with Animals (LLA) course for professionals and graduated. Learning alongside me in LLA 2010 were professionals from 11 different countries including doctorates from University of Georgia and Western Illinois, bird show trainers, staff from the Phoenix Zoo, San Diego Zoo, and Zoo Atlanta, pet dog trainers and behaviour consultants, trainers and handlers of bomb detection dogs working in airport security, guide dog raisers and trainers for the vision impaired, veterinarians and veterinarian technologists, faculty from Karen Pryor Academy and graduates of the Karen Prior Academy, pet store staff, rescue and sanctuary organization people, animal rehabbers, and animal behaviour book and article authors. I also became a professional member of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators (IAATE).

At the time of this writing I have just become a student of the Diploma of Parrot Behaviour Science and Technology (Dip.PBST) program through the Companion Animal Sciences Institute (CASI). I am also in the process of completing a shaping program to become a Parrots Behavior Analysis Solutions (BAS) Yahoo Group Tutor and Thread Leader. Coming up is the Contemporary Animal Training and Management workshop for professionals at the Natural Encounters, inc. ranch in Florida I will be attending this December with enthusiasm. There I will receive a week long of guided hands-on training from highly skilled professional trainers with a variety of over 50 species of birds and other animals.

As I continue on my path of learning I will be sharing information along the way as well as my experiences and personal thoughts. If you are interested in learning more about the science of behaviour and using the least intrusive, most effective ways to change the behaviour of the animals you share your life with, you have come to the right place to read and learn! My philosophy is that we are all learners and teachers at the same time, so please feel free to post your comments and questions. As time permits I will select questions and answer them in my blog.

Once again welcome to Diary of An Animal Trainer, and thank you for taking the time to stop by!