I haven't seen anything here on clicker training yet, so I thought I would add something.
Clicker training is a method of animal training based on operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is when animals learn because of consequences that happen after a behavior is performed. If an animal performs a behavior and that behavior is immediately reinforced (or followed by something rewarding) that behavior will go up in frequency.
A clicker is a small noise maker that makes a click-click sound. It is used as a reward marker. A reward marker tells the animal that whatever he was doing when he heard the click is going to be reinforced with a food reward. Each click will be immediately followed by a food treat. There are other reinforcers that you can use in training and in everyday life such as attention, scritches, access to a person, access out of the cage that will also reinforce behaviors. But, for clicker training the reward should be a high value food reward that the bird can eat fairly quickly.
Here is an example of clicker training a simple behavior. The behavior is targeting. I am going to teach the bird to open his beak onto a target stick (chopstick). I present the target stick a couple of inches from the birds face (if the bird shows any fear, I would start with it much further away). When the bird looks at the target stick, I click and then treat. While the bird is eating, the stick is behind my back. I present the stick again, and click and treat for looking at it. If the bird looks comfortable, the next time I present the stick I will hold out and see if he leans towards the stick. If he leans towards it, I click and treat. I do this a couple of times. The next time, I hold out and see if he opens his mouth on it. When he does, I click and treat that. Once he reliably opens his beak on the target stick, I will begin to move the stick a little distance away so that he has to take a step to get the click and treat. Once the bird is willing to follow the target stick, I will name the behavior by adding a cue. The cue is what makes the bird do the behavior. In this case, the presentation of the stick is the cue, but if I wanted to add a verbal cue so that the bird would target other things, I would do so by saying the word "target" or "touch" just before he touches the stick and continue to click and treat for doing that.
I have clicker trained my birds to do some behaviors including stepping onto my hand, and off of my hand, hanging upside down, following a target stick, spreading their wings, and coming to me from one play area to another.
I love clicker training because it allows the animal to try things and experiment which can be very powerful, particularly for shy or fearful individuals. It allows confident birds to problem solve and is a great form of enrichment.
Here are some videos of my birds doing clicker training.
Feather spreading her wings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD-rvrUfzXs&feature=channel
Oliver targeting a stick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O22BHSv4j6Q&feature=channel
Vicki
Clicker training is a method of animal training based on operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is when animals learn because of consequences that happen after a behavior is performed. If an animal performs a behavior and that behavior is immediately reinforced (or followed by something rewarding) that behavior will go up in frequency.
A clicker is a small noise maker that makes a click-click sound. It is used as a reward marker. A reward marker tells the animal that whatever he was doing when he heard the click is going to be reinforced with a food reward. Each click will be immediately followed by a food treat. There are other reinforcers that you can use in training and in everyday life such as attention, scritches, access to a person, access out of the cage that will also reinforce behaviors. But, for clicker training the reward should be a high value food reward that the bird can eat fairly quickly.
Here is an example of clicker training a simple behavior. The behavior is targeting. I am going to teach the bird to open his beak onto a target stick (chopstick). I present the target stick a couple of inches from the birds face (if the bird shows any fear, I would start with it much further away). When the bird looks at the target stick, I click and then treat. While the bird is eating, the stick is behind my back. I present the stick again, and click and treat for looking at it. If the bird looks comfortable, the next time I present the stick I will hold out and see if he leans towards the stick. If he leans towards it, I click and treat. I do this a couple of times. The next time, I hold out and see if he opens his mouth on it. When he does, I click and treat that. Once he reliably opens his beak on the target stick, I will begin to move the stick a little distance away so that he has to take a step to get the click and treat. Once the bird is willing to follow the target stick, I will name the behavior by adding a cue. The cue is what makes the bird do the behavior. In this case, the presentation of the stick is the cue, but if I wanted to add a verbal cue so that the bird would target other things, I would do so by saying the word "target" or "touch" just before he touches the stick and continue to click and treat for doing that.
I have clicker trained my birds to do some behaviors including stepping onto my hand, and off of my hand, hanging upside down, following a target stick, spreading their wings, and coming to me from one play area to another.
I love clicker training because it allows the animal to try things and experiment which can be very powerful, particularly for shy or fearful individuals. It allows confident birds to problem solve and is a great form of enrichment.
Here are some videos of my birds doing clicker training.
Feather spreading her wings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD-rvrUfzXs&feature=channel
Oliver targeting a stick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O22BHSv4j6Q&feature=channel
Vicki
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