Training Logs

Hey there! It is Melanie Canatella with Fluff and Feathers here to wish you a wonderful week full of animal loving and behavioral growth! Behavior logs are valuable tools to track behavior. It is easier to find trends in behavior to continue or modify our approach. It is helpful when you are not the only trainer, like for rescues, families, or facilities. It helps keep trainers in the loop, as well as finding trends of maybe trainers not being a good fit for that individual. It is a standard practice in the professional animal care world.

Behavior logs can be as detailed as you want them to be. Some logs I put “great training session, engaged, successful trials, new skill learned ____.” Others I go into detail like “when the target stick was presented, the bird flew to the training perch, puffed up and put their wings out while making a screeching noise, then attacked the target stick by lunging, trying to grab it from my hands, but then instantly dropping it when I let the bird have the target.”

The more detailed you can get without using label behaviors like “aggressive,” “fearful,” “anxious,” etc. the better you will be able to track behavior and recall events. Sometimes I will use the training log as a referral to the training video. Sometimes if I do not have the time, I will write quick bulleted notes down to remind myself later, then write my notes on the session down by watching the recording and including time stamps, which is another valuable tool to consider when assessing behavior.

My behavior logs will likely look different than yours because of my background and profession. I do not want this to sound intimidating to people. Some people even just use their training videos as the behavior log and refer to them if they are seeing behavioral regression or other concerns during a training session. This can be useful and helpful, but may be time consuming when you find that you are having issues and need to reassess behavior and training plan, or reach out to your trainer for help. I think that at least a few bullet points for each day to remind yourself the good or the possible bad can help when going through videos where you can see the pattern starting.

Some behavior logs also includes a color system. Some people like to have a red, yellow, green system that describes how they think the bird preformed, how they feel the session went, maybe how you trained, and how successful it was. Red means not good, yellow means okay, and green means it was a great session! This can also help when referring to your training videos to rewatch sessions you did not feel as confident on.

Each animal should have their own log. It is easy to make them yourself in Excel or through Word. Here is some information that is good to include in a training log:

·         Animals name

·         Species

·         Age (or estimated age range)

·         If the animal is disabled and describe the disabilities (what they can, what needs to be modified for them to do, and cannot do)

·         Color system if desired (I personally do not)

·         Date

·         Training session time

·         Goals (what behavior were you working on like “stay” or “step up” or what approximation of the training plan are you working on like “bird putting one foot on my arm” when working on step up)

·         Description of the behaviors seen (this can include the time stamps from recordings, your description of behaviors in the training plan that were significant either good or bad, trainer mistakes and how to improve them for the next session, shortcomings, etc.)

·         Evaluation (what could you have done better to make the training more successful?)

Not all this information needs to be included in your training plan. I will share my training log sheet with you guys so you can see, as well as use it for yourselves! Again, make it as simply or complex as you would like because doing something is better than nothing!

Also, see at the end how I say there is an evaluation on how to improve? I would recommend always having that in your training log. This is because we always can improve. By looking back at the training, we did, we can see the shortcomings. Sometimes, we only focus on the animals’ mistakes. But we forget to also look at our part in it and setting up the environment for success. We have a huge part in training the animal in arranging the environment in a way that makes the desired behavior easy for the animal to complete to have more success and faster behavioral growth! Even if the session was perfect, we can always write something down to keep in mind for the next time! Maybe the bird does successful targets when the target stick is held a specific way. You had a successful target session but in the evaluation part you can say “the success today was because I remembered to hold the target stick in ____ way. Continuing this will aid in success in the future.”

Similar to recording your training sessions, it also allows for us to see behavioral growth to keep us motivated. Since behavior can change slowly in small approximations, sometimes we do not recognize all the behavioral success and growth we have had with the animal because that big behavior we are working towards has not been completed yet. Looking back at the behavior log can help remind us where we started to compare it to where the animal is now. For example, you are teaching your bird to step up. They were afraid of your hand so you desensitized that, then you teach target training, then you worked on approaching the hand, and now you are to the point of one foot on your hand for the step up. You may become less motivated because the bird has not stepped up yet, but by looking back at how the bird used to fly frantically away from your hand, you can see the big changes happening!

Anyway, behavior logs are something easy to implement! It only takes a couple of minutes, or you can be more detailed about it! They are flexible training tools that help give us information so we are as successful with the animal as possible. Remember to check out the free training log I have included in this email so you too can get started on training and documenting it! If you need me, feel free to contact me!

Feel free to save and use!