Parrot training is going through some tough times right now

Parrot training is having some tough times right now.  I missed the transition during the revolution with dog training, but it may have been like this, but probably on a larger scale.

There are a few differences between dogs and parrots that make the outcome of the revolution and the transition period critical: even though there are a lot more dogs than parrots, you can live with an ill-behaved dog - you cannot live with an ill-behaved parrot.  Some of my other blog entries have disccused the problem of abandoned parrots as have articles by Karen Prior on this web site.

So, there is a war going on.  There aren't that many parrot trainers (compared with the number of dog trainers) and coming up with a list of those that have written books and prepared training methods wouldn't take very long.  Here's a short, but probably fairly complete list:

• Karen Prior
• Barbara Heidenreich
• Melinda Johnston
• Steve Martin
• Susan Friedman
• Robin Deutsch
• Sally Blanchard
• Chet Womach
• Tani Robar (and Diane Grindol)

There are others who may be well known but these are the ones currently publishing and teaching.

In this group, you have two kinds of authors: those who are scientists and those who are people who have been working with pet birds for a while.  You also have three kinds of trainers: clicker trainers, non-clicker trainers, and those making the transition to clicker training.  Of the clicker trainers, you actually have two kinds as well: those who use a clicker and those who don't (what you use for a marker isn't the issue).

Most of this list is clearly clicker trainers - and most of those are scientists. 

Regardless of what I think of his marketing methods, Chet Womach appears to be in transition.  His own materials (which I have and have read in their entirety) say that you should read the manual before you watch the videos because he has changed camps and would do things differently (he would do more pure clicker training) if he did things today instead of three years ago.  [Chet has also taken a lot of heat for his use of a taming technique which would be categoirized as "flooding" on the videos - I wonder if he would do the same if he made the videos now?  I really want to give Chet the benefit of the doubt - I have met Dave Womach, the one demonstrating the dreaded flooding technique and I like him.  He is a great young magician and I think both he and Chet are probably pretty nice guys once you get to know them.]

But, here is a weird one in my opinion: a parrot trainer who uses positive reinforcement but ridicules clicker training and the use of a bridging stimulus!  Tani Robar and Diane Grindol have a new book, published in 2006, titled "Parrot Tricks: Teaching Parrots with Positive Reinforcement".  It has a very promising title - but here are some quotes from the section on clicker training:

"It is an extra step that really slows down your training." 

 "I have tested it and I know it slows you down."

"No bridge is needed because no time gap exists between the correct action and the reward."

"Clicker training enthusiasts like to say that the conventional way of using a praise word, in my case "good" or some form of it, makes that method the same as the clicker method, just substituting the click.  It is not the same at all!  My "good" or similar words of praise do not stop the action but merely tell the bird he is doing what I want."

"True clicker trainers say that they prefer to add the cues after the trick is learned.  Again, that is just adding an extra step."

"A bridge signal to mark a correct response and to "fill in the gap" between a behavior and a reward is unimportant, which was illustrated when I attended a week long clicker training class given by Bob and Marion Bailey (prior to her death) at their chicken training camp in Arkansas.  I found that it didn't make a bit of difference whether we clicked or not.  Whether you clicked or not made absolutely no difference."

If it weren't for those statements, I would probably have labeled the methods in the book as "clicker training", but the author explicitly states that they are not.  The book talks about operant conditioning and positive reinforcement but specifically discounts bridging stimulus.  I suspect that the scientists would be able to explain where the misunderstanding lies.  This one is not in transition - she has proven to herself that clickers are poppycock and that her methods are faster and more accurate.  It's funny in a way because the author also states that clicker training works fine for other animals like dolphins and dogs, it is just useless for birds like parrots and chickens.  Parrots are different than dogs, but I don't think this is one of the ways they are different.

There is a war going on for the hearts and minds of amateur parrot trainers like me.  And it isn't good for the parrots.  I live in exciting times.