Clicking Continued

Had I continued for very long with clicking every time Sophia turned around, I may have ended up with a bird that only turned in circles on her perch, hoping for a bite of millet.  But at the same time, at other training sessions, I was also teaching other behaviors with the clicker.  And I was using the perch for other things as well, not just training time, but also fun and foraging time, and for potty training.  Birds are very smart and can easily learn that a certain behavior is always expected in a certain place in the environment.  I didn’t want that to happen.  But I kept the different behaviors I worked on separate for now.  She is just a baby and doesn’t know the behaviors well enough yet to ask for them together during the same session.

I began to add a cue “turn around” to Sophia’s circle trick, as well as a hand signal.  While she was offering the behavior over and over, I would inject the cue right before she would turn around, so it appeared as if she was doing it in response to my cue.  At this stage, she was not, but the cue needs to be given immediately before the bird offers the behavior in order for her to learn that they belong together.  I only clicked for the circles that were after my cue “turn around” or my hand signal.  The other circles were fine, they just did not earn a click and a bite of millet.
 

Very quickly she learned to wait for my cue and then she would turn in a circle to the right.  At the same time that I was teaching her this cue, at other lessons I was teaching her to spin in a circle the other way.  This was harder because she had already learned that turning in one direction got the treat, so she wanted to turn in that same direction each time.  I knew this was going to be harder for her, but also knew it’s important not to let your bird get one-sided and always turn in one direction.

By feeding her very slowly to her left side, I was able to get her to take one step at a time in the other direction, clicking and feeding for each step.  Soon I had her spinning in the other direction and I was ready to begin adding the new cue for going to her left, “spin” along with a hand signal in the other direction.  The next step was to only reward the spins that were done after my cue. 
 

Then I began helping Sophia learn to generalize her tricks.  I was still doing them during separate lessons to help her keep them clear in her head.  But I began to ask her to do them on other perches, on my knee, on my hand, on a flat surface, and in different rooms.  I want her to really know the cue and the behavior in all sorts of environments.  I continue to do this daily, and I am even beginning to add distractions such as a toy near her perch or a person walking through the room. 

At this point, I have begun to practice “turn around” and “spin” during the same training session.  If she makes a mistake, that is ok.  We all make mistakes when we are learning something new.  I know she is trying to figure it out, so there is never a correction.  She just doesn’t get a reward.  I tell her to try again and we go on with the lesson.  After the first initial confusion, she is really beginning to respond well to me mixing up the direction I ask her to turn.  I don’t want her to learn a pattern of turning one way and then the other, so sometimes I ask for two or three turns in the same direction before going the other way.  I also practice more of “spin” at this point, because “turn around” was the first one she learned, making spin the weaker direction.  By practicing it more, it will become stronger.  
 

I don’t think there is anything wrong with clicker training a young bird or any other baby animal.  But I am being careful not to stay at one stage of training too long.  While I want Sophia to be creative and be able to offer behaviors during training sessions, I’m not allowing her to get stuck on only knowing and offering one behavior.  If I had allowed her to just turn in a circle in one direction over many lessons, yes, it would probably be difficult to get her to offer me anything else.  But I knew that going into this process.
 

Teaching behaviors with props is much easier if you always want the bird to do the same behavior with that particular prop.  The prop then becomes the cue for that behavior and as soon as the bird sees that prop, it wants to do that behavior.  I am also beginning some prop behaviors at separate lessons during this time.  In addition, I am teaching other behaviors without the clicker and just using praise and scratching as rewards. 

Do I need to use a clicker to teach Sophia new things and tricks?  No.  But I enjoy using a clicker and watching my animals think and figure out what causes the click to happen.  I also enjoy the quickness and precision with which they can learn new things by using a conditioned reinforcer, like the clicker.  But I also teach new behaviors with other training methods.  I think each trainer needs to figure out what works best for him/her and that particular animal.  Giving blanket statements about not using clicker training (or other methods) with baby animals can be very discouraging and off-putting.  Not every method should be used in every situation, with every animal, or by every trainer.  That’s why it’s best to have many training tools in your toolbox.
 

Sophia says - Happy Clicking - Squawk!