jenseits
Meeting neighbors
- Joined
- 5/13/18
- Messages
- 20
- Real Name
- jenseits
Hi everyone. I haven't had a chance to hang out here much because life has gotten in the way. But one thing I did finally get around to is restarting my interview series with professional animal trainers so we can all learn from them.
Not sure which forum is best to post this to, but I wanted to share a little bit from my interview with Lara Joseph. Lara is a professional animal behavior consultant and trainer (with a ton of parrot experience!) who runs the Animal Behavior Center.
Q: What’s the most common issue you see with companion birds, parrots in particular?
Lara Joseph: I’d like to say screaming or biting but the underlying issue in many cases is under enriched. Enrichment comes in many forms such as interacting with toys, foraging, training, exercise, and control over their environment through choice.
Q: Is there something every pet owner should do before they reach out to an animal training expert to solve their pet’s behavior issues?
Lara Joseph: Yes, I would suggest a couple of things.
First, make sure the behavior concerns are not due to a medical issue. Making sure they seek a well qualified avian veterinarian will help in ruling out any behavior issues resulting from a medical issue.
Second, I would suggest analyzing their approach to everyone’s interaction with the parrot. Does the bird want to do the behaviors requested? Many behavior issues are a result of forcing parrots to do things instead of positively reinforcing the behaviors they want to see. (Also, many people only think about positive reinforcers in terms of food, when they could also be things such as attention, play, choice, etc.)
Full interview with Lara Joseph here.
She says a lot of things that the experienced owners here say as well, including how important it is to build trust and to really pay attention to what is motivating to your bird.
Hope that was ok to post here!
Not sure which forum is best to post this to, but I wanted to share a little bit from my interview with Lara Joseph. Lara is a professional animal behavior consultant and trainer (with a ton of parrot experience!) who runs the Animal Behavior Center.
Q: What’s the most common issue you see with companion birds, parrots in particular?
Lara Joseph: I’d like to say screaming or biting but the underlying issue in many cases is under enriched. Enrichment comes in many forms such as interacting with toys, foraging, training, exercise, and control over their environment through choice.
Q: Is there something every pet owner should do before they reach out to an animal training expert to solve their pet’s behavior issues?
Lara Joseph: Yes, I would suggest a couple of things.
First, make sure the behavior concerns are not due to a medical issue. Making sure they seek a well qualified avian veterinarian will help in ruling out any behavior issues resulting from a medical issue.
Second, I would suggest analyzing their approach to everyone’s interaction with the parrot. Does the bird want to do the behaviors requested? Many behavior issues are a result of forcing parrots to do things instead of positively reinforcing the behaviors they want to see. (Also, many people only think about positive reinforcers in terms of food, when they could also be things such as attention, play, choice, etc.)
Full interview with Lara Joseph here.
She says a lot of things that the experienced owners here say as well, including how important it is to build trust and to really pay attention to what is motivating to your bird.
Hope that was ok to post here!
