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What is really going on when I say "no"?

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What is really going on when I say "no"?

Postby charlieandkiwi » Fri Nov 23, 2012 12:36 pm

I've seen a lot of advice to just completely ignore undesirable behavior in birds, but my training policy has been to not do this entirely. There are times when I want my birds to stop doing something because it could be dangerous (like running down my arm into a sink of sudsy water after landing on my shoulder while I was doing the dishes) or because it could set their training back (like biting).

But after reading a lot of stuff, I've concluded that what I'm really doing when I train them to listen to "no" is not training them not to do a behavior, I'm actually training them to pause. When I say "no" they generally stop moving or go back and sit quietly on my shoulder. I can even use this to have my green cheek stop defensively trying to bite through the cage bars while he's cage cover is being put on and he's feeling extremely territorial about his hide-a-hut. I always praise my birds profusely for stopping whatever they're doing after I say "no" or for not doing something that I can see they're thinking about when I say "no".

So my thought is that teaching "no" is actually teaching a pause in whatever they're doing and is a good thing for all birds to know. What do you think?
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Re: What is really going on when I say "no"?

Postby liz » Fri Nov 23, 2012 6:34 pm

There is a saying that a bad kid will take any attention even if it is bad.

Negative reinforcment is always bad. It teaches the bird that doing it gets your attention.

My Amazons (Rambo and Myrtle) are different little critters. They understand my words and use most of them back at me. They both know what no means so I can use it. To them it means if they don't stop then Mom is coming after them. But then they are able to tell me no when they don't want something or want to do something.
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Re: What is really going on when I say "no"?

Postby terri » Fri Nov 23, 2012 9:04 pm

Everyone has different training methods .I take note of what everyones doing and try to incorperate what I like into my birds.I dont think one way is cut in dry for my 8 birds .There not all the same and I try whats right at the moment.I use the word no [and it does work for me].I have a screaming rescue 2 do I ignore her NO[shes an insecure bird] i praise her when she makes pretty sounds.I clap when she does her Im happy to be alive screams and flaps her wings.My advice read it all and do what ever works.
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Re: What is really going on when I say "no"?

Postby marie83 » Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:36 am

I find the ignore approach works best for me, there is zero chance of the message being confused as something else.

My logic is that by using the word "no" then rewarding the break in behaviour with positive attention may mean the bird associates the word no with a positive ending. Basically click and treat.
Bird repeats behaviour to get the bridge (the no or click) where it then stops the behaviour to recieve its reward. It wont understand that the no is different to the click if there is a positive experience immediately after both so it may encourage it to misbehave more to get the final outcome, it will link behaviour= "no"= good experience.

I prefer distraction as a method to stop something potentially dangerous from happening, and then a recall or i'll go and get him. I tend to avoid allowing the birds into areas when there is sudsy water present etc in the first place though, so that if it ever did happen by accident I know I could do anything unexpected like use the word "no" to distract from the behaviour for a few seconds whilst I removed the bird from the situation.

Hope that made sense, I know what I'm trying to say but not sure its come across right lol.
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Re: What is really going on when I say "no"?

Postby charlieandkiwi » Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:41 pm

liz wrote:There is a saying that a bad kid will take any attention even if it is bad.

Negative reinforcment is always bad. It teaches the bird that doing it gets your attention.

My Amazons (Rambo and Myrtle) are different little critters. They understand my words and use most of them back at me. They both know what no means so I can use it. To them it means if they don't stop then Mom is coming after them. But then they are able to tell me no when they don't want something or want to do something.


lol that's really cute. I wish you had a video of them telling you no.
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Re: What is really going on when I say "no"?

Postby liz » Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:20 am

Every day they do funny or new things. I always wish I could share them with you all. My hope is that some day I will have time to consentrate on how to do it. These kids really break me up.
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Re: What is really going on when I say "no"?

Postby crackofdawn » Thu Dec 27, 2012 8:10 pm

I don't use the word no very often but when my Quaker nips me (usually while trying to grab a mole on my skin or something like that) I've always told him "Be nice" in a low/stern voice and now he just stops doing what hes doing whenever I use that phrase. It really comes in handy.
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Re: What is really going on when I say "no"?

Postby Dave & Karen » Fri Dec 28, 2012 12:39 am

Blue our parrotlet seems to know what "no" means but as mentioned before, the word no usually gets me a pause in his behavior where I can distract him with something else. I also tell him to "behave" if he's doing something undesirable or "play nice" which will also effectively snap him out of his misbehaving. Once he's distracted onto something else we can get him to do something (even a simple trick) that we told him to do and give him a reward which will usually pull his mind away from whatever he was doing. So in effect, the word "no" is the pause until we can come up with a quick distraction.
For instance, when he was a baby, he loved to bite us, not out of fear but more out of curiosity or just because he knew he would get a reaction out of us. I read in another forum to teach him the "gentle beak" command where we wold gently touch his beak, in turn he learns this and when he hears us say it, he touches us with his beak, there's more to it than that but you get the idea... So if he bites you and you say it, it's too late, you just got bit.. but if you see him going for a bite, you can say it and divert his attention long enough to stop the bite and turn it into a touch with his beak... but if you're not quick enough saying it, you just got bit... again. So, next time ya see him going for a bite, say "no" quickly and he pauses, then you have time to say the "gentle beak" command and didn't get bit...
Does he know what No means... I strongly doubt it, but he does stop long enough for us to divert his attention.
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Re: What is really going on when I say "no"?

Postby Utoomom » Mon Jan 21, 2013 2:42 pm

To a U2, no simply means try again later.... :lol: ~~ seriously...I can tell split seconds
before when he is gonna nip me, I softly but sternly say ...be niccccceeee...it usually
gives me a another split second to dart.... :arrow:
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Re: What is really going on when I say "no"?

Postby Dave & Karen » Wed Feb 13, 2013 2:34 pm

With our sun conure Koolaid, we got him at 2 1/2 months old and he's just now 3 months old and lost his shyness toward us. He loves to fly around the room as fast as he can and he gets a thrill out of buzzing us a few times before landing on one of us.
With that, he's also getting more confident and more curious so he likes to explore with his beak a lot but he knows not to bite down... most the time.
I've found the best way to avoid a nip from him is to start gently playing with his beak to diffuse the situation and I tend to use the word "behave" with him just in a calm but in control tone, that's usually all it takes to get him to back off but same thing... he probably don't know what it means but he definitely chills out quickly and stops trying to bite down harder and harder. I do let him play with my fingers and my ears etc so he can tell the difference between "behave" and "no" with "no" meaning to stop whatever you're doing and "behave" to just calm down a bit but he can still keep doing what he's doing, just a whole lot gentler.
I know it's risky to put a baby bird on my shoulders, but since he already obeys so well he's definitely trustworthy. The key is to not raise your voice even if you do get bit etc, but stay calm but in control and they'll rescpect yor commands much better.
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