by Pajarita » Sat Jun 04, 2016 12:25 pm
Well, the anticipation of training you see as 'choosing to participate' can be nothing but operant conditioning at work so the actual 'enjoyment' would be, also, prior conditioning. It all depends on how you decide to regard something... Same with people and work. Yes, to some people, work is just a way of getting a paycheck but that is because they are not doing what they enjoy doing, right? Or it can also be the way they simply regard life... Most people think that happiness is found in a goal ("If I had this job, I would be happy", "If I made $amount, I would be happy", "If I had a baby, I would be happy") but, in my mind, happiness is in enjoying the journey and not in the goal itself so, to me, although there are activities that I like better than others, I can find joy in everything I do as long as I manage to do it to my satisfaction.
Parrots (or any other animal, for that matter) don't 'work' in the wild. They simply follow what nature determined as their life. Parrots wake up in the morning and go out looking for food not only because they are hungry but because it's part of their daily routine. It's not really work to them, not the way we, humans, regard work, in any case. They might have to put more or less effort, fly near or far, hang upside down to eat a specific fruit, fight off other species for the bounty or whatever but there is no thought process in achieving the food and it doesn't make them happy or sad, it's just something that has to be done and they do it. BUT if you keep them, say, in a preserve, where they put out food for them on plates twice a day, you will not see a single one going anywhere foraging - and that's what I meant when I said that animals don't work unless it's necessary. Now, whether this 'work' is good for them or not, is another story...
As to play.... well, if you have a link to adult individuals of any species of parrot playing in the wild, please share it with me because I've never seen a single one playing - neither have I observed a single one of mine actually playing either! They chew most anything they find, they fly, they preen, they bathe, they eat, they might even hang upside down if the situation warrants it, they also beat the crap out of a toy, they make displays and nests, etc. but these are all natural social, instinctual or breeding behaviors and not really play.
I think that when you start training a young bird (command, click, praise, treat), you are, in fact, creating a conditioned response to the whole thing with the attention given, the actual distraction of having something to do, the praise and the treat as the rewards and this is what they learn to anticipate and desire -mostly because the life of a single parrot in captivity must be a very lonely and boring one and because we can never give them as much attention as nature decreed they should get so any little thing (excuse?) for it is always welcomed.