Easy Training: Reinforcing Desirable Behaviors

One thing I find when working with clients is the emphasis on the bad and not the good. Easier said than done. Not only does this boil down to human psychology, but also because undesirable behaviors are more disruptive than desirable ones. Everyone tells me what is wrong with their bird and rarely what they do that they like. This is also contextual, as usually they are working as a behavior client and want to focus on education and modification of the undesirable behaviors.

This also happens in our everyday life. We rarely reinforce any behaviors we like seeing while we are always ready to correct, point out, or modify ones that we don't. This puts a lot of emphasis on every little thing your animal does that you don't like, whether it is a natural behavior like the dog digging up your back yard, or an unnatural one like a parrot screaming for 20 minutes straight. Emphasis on the negative will change your perspective of yourself as a caretaker, and the overall success you perceive your animal having in your environment. It can lead to someone prematurely rehoming their animal thinking that there is nothing that can be done.

Part of this is because we see desirable behaviors as the expectation, or the bare minimum. I don't reinforce myself for taking a shower, or folding laundry, or caring for the animals because it is expectation. I probably would put clothes back faster if I had a reward after besides the natural reward of having clean clothes. Desired behavior can quickly become overlooked throughout the day because it is a part of life that we like. We become desensitized to it ourselves and just don't think about it.

What I tell every client is to always reinforce behavior you like seeing when you see it. Reinforcement simply means to increase the rate of the behavior happening again. You will see an increase in behaviors you want to see and a decrease in behaviors you don't. If you walk by your ale amazon's cage who is not very social, and he doesn't lunge at you, reinforce that! Though it won't completely resolve your behavioral concerns with the bird, it will help decrease it and build your relationship.

We are quick to tell an animal what not to do, but rarely follow it with what to do. Without knowing what to do instead, the animal will find something else to do that also is probably undesirable to us, or they will continue to rehearse the initial behavior. Then you get stuck in this loop of the animal not preforming the behavior for an hour, a day, or a week and then it comes back, or another one pops up! It can be frustrating and disheartening for both animal and human.

So, don't be afraid to reinforce what you like to see either with a primary reinforcer (like food) or a secondary reinforcer (like attention, pets, dancing, or other things your animal really like). I love wearing my ​treat pouch​ filled with my birds and dogs favorite treats at all times so I am always prepared to reinforce something I like. The treat pouches I sell are so comfortable to wear, and they have a lot of storage inside of them, perfect for structured training, training on the go, and for reinforcing behaviors throughout the day.

If you are struggling with behaviors, I do have online consulting services where I work with you directly online through Zoom to come up with a written plan of action to decrease your animal's undesirable behaviors while encouraging and replacing them with more desirable ones. I work internationally with all species, exotic and domestic! Feel free to learn more about my sessions and my training process by contacting me!