Hello to all! I would love to introduce Ms. Lara Joseph to you.
She is an avian behavior, training, & enrichment specialist that I had the pleasure of meeting, last October during Parrot Palooza in Burlington, New Jersey.
She has some great advice. Thank you for your help, Lara!
It can be difficult to spend what we think of adequate one-on-one time with our birds, especially if we work a full time job.
You mentioned he’s starting to get a bit of an attitude. Something is causing that attitude to happen and it may not seem like a big deal at the age of 6 months, but if the things continue to exist that cause the attitude, this means the behaviors he is showing are being reinforced and that attitude can and will likely grow as time continues. This is why I like training. Every time we interact with our birds we are training them. The key is “What are we training them?” Consequences to behaviors teach the bird to do that behavior again or move onto another behavior that produces a desirable result. This is the importance in positive reinforcement training. Reinforce the behaviors you want to see increase. When your bird does something you like, reinforce it and keep in mind, the bird is always the one that determines the value of the reinforcer, not us.
When Rico, my umbrella cockatoo stays perched on the boing that hangs between the living room and dinning room while I am walking out of the room to fill foraging toys, I make sure I reward or reinforce that behavior. I like the behavior of him staying perched while I’m out of the room for a minute or two out of time because I know what he ‘isn’t’ doing. So, while I’m in the other room and I’m not hearing the bell dinging on the end of the boing, I know he’s not moving his body. I tell him “Good” from the other room and then reinforce that behavior when I get back into the kitchen. Reinforcers aren’t always treats either. I reinforce with kisses, head scratches, and nose nuzzles. As long as this interaction holds value to Rico, then he will continue to do the behavior that delivers the reinforcers.
Often times people forget to reinforce desirable behaviors because they are easy to overlook. Then we deliver the attention, etc when they are doing things we don’t want them to do. If the bird wants our attention, then they likely just learned that chewing on the arm of the chair sends us running to them. Is that a behavior we want to reinforce? We can see the behavior of them looking at the arm of the chair. This is when we ask them to do something else like step up. When they do step up, make sure you reinforce that behavior. When desired behaviors are consistently delivered when we ask them to do something, the future rate of that behavior happening again is highly likely because they learn that desired outcomes happen when we ask them to do things and they do it.
Routines are nice because we remember things easily when they are done at certain times or in certain orders. I will interact with a bird on a routine when the bird is easily stressed or new to the environment. Routines can serves as a comfort factor because they are predictable to the bird. With healthy, independent birds I try to stay away from routines because it is easy for the bird to begin training us and when those routines are broken behavior issues are likely to arise. I’m mentioning this so you may be aware of this with your interaction with JuJu. He’s so young and impressionable right now and the world is his oyster. Mix up the amount of time you interact with him. Mix up the series of events that happen when you come home from work. Instead of running straight to his cage, do a thing or two before you do and then go to his cage. Then set him down and go do a small task and come back and interact with him. He’ll get used to the consistent variables of time you are out of his sight. This will keep him used to change and not so dependent on you.
Try designing a room for him where he can be out of his cage and playing independently. This will be healthy for him in the future in so many ways. I love the fact that you are trying to integrate him with the rest of the animals. They will learn to function as a whole and this can be so healthy for all involved. Find out what causes or has caused him to fly at the dogs noses. Once you find out what that is you have identified that reinforcer for that behavior. Then you can make sure that reinforcer is not delivered again in the future since you do not want that behavior getting stronger.
With variety comes enrichment and learning potential. With routines and predictability, boredom, and potential for behavior issues when those routines are broken. Sometimes routines are necessary, as described above but they can also and often do shape behavior issues and cause them to get stronger.
If you have questions for Lara, you are welcome to put them here in the comment section.
Check out Lara’s website: larajoseph.com. Lara has online classes and consultations available.
