Lesson One - Re: Clicker Training For Beginners
Lesson 1
How clicker training works
In clicker training the click serves as a bridge between the behavior you want and the reinforcer. The click is a marker that marks the correct behavior. The reinforcer is going to be a food reward (more on that in just a minute). The click tells the animal "what you were doing when you heard the click was correct and I promise you that a food reward is on the way".
So, why not just reinforce, why do you need the clicker? The clicker allows you to mark or click behavior away from you. It gives you a moment to deliver the food after you click. It gives clearer, non emotional information to the animal. The click ALWAYS means a food reward, always, no exceptions. "Good boy", "Good girl", "Good bird" and other verbal praise or encouragement are fine, but they don't always lead to food, in fact, they may often lead to other things that the bird may or may not find reinforcing like petting or scritching. This is fine to use this in your training too because anything that the bird finds pleasant can be reinforcing but the click always equals a food reinforcer. Also, for many animals the clicker tells them it's training time and they are more likely to start working and offering behaviors.
Finding your birds reinforcers
While everyone is working on getting clickers, the first lesson will be to start testing reinforcers. The reinforcement will be food. You will need to test several different food items to figure out what works best for your bird. You want to find something the bird goes crazy for, not just eats. If your bird is not comfortable taking food from your hand, you can put a little dish in their cage or near them to drop the food into one reward at a time.
In my experience the small birds like budgies or cockatiels or bourkes like millet spray. You can use a spray of millet and just allow them a bite of millet per click. My Green Cheek Conure likes safflower seeds. This is the only time she gets them and they have proven to be her favorite. My amazon goes crazy for peanuts and sunflower seeds. To me peanuts are too large and fatty to use for training for him, so we use sunflower seeds and I save peanuts for specific training I am doing with locations.
The treat should be small enough so that the bird can eat it fairly quickly so that the training can have some momentum. The species and size of your bird will help to determine good things to test. Some ideas are millet, safflower seeds, sunflower seeds, almond slices, pine nuts, small bits of dried fruit like mango, papaya or banana. Just make sure that they are small. The seeds I use for training are not fed to my birds at any other time, they are strictly used for training and therefore limited and highly reinforcing.
Getting started
So, here is your assignment. Start trying different types of treats for your birds. Experiment and try several things. Keep notes of what they like the best. If your bird is fearful of hands, drop the treat in food cup. You can get a special little cup that signals training to the bird so that they understand to grab it and move on. This step in our training plan will actually take more time than you think because some birds will need to learn how to take the treats but that's ok, we have time
Once you have settled on your reinforcer I want you to experiment WITHOUT the bird around how you plan to hold and deliver your reinforcer. How will you hold it, how will you hand it to your bird or drop it into their cup? All of this needs to be ironed our BEFORE you bring the learner into the picture. If you don't have a clear idea of how things will go that will confuse the learner. It is our responsibility as trainers to have this worked out before we go into our training plan.
Ok, off you go! Please let me know if you have questions or need help. And, let me know when you all get clickers.
Lesson 1
How clicker training works
In clicker training the click serves as a bridge between the behavior you want and the reinforcer. The click is a marker that marks the correct behavior. The reinforcer is going to be a food reward (more on that in just a minute). The click tells the animal "what you were doing when you heard the click was correct and I promise you that a food reward is on the way".
So, why not just reinforce, why do you need the clicker? The clicker allows you to mark or click behavior away from you. It gives you a moment to deliver the food after you click. It gives clearer, non emotional information to the animal. The click ALWAYS means a food reward, always, no exceptions. "Good boy", "Good girl", "Good bird" and other verbal praise or encouragement are fine, but they don't always lead to food, in fact, they may often lead to other things that the bird may or may not find reinforcing like petting or scritching. This is fine to use this in your training too because anything that the bird finds pleasant can be reinforcing but the click always equals a food reinforcer. Also, for many animals the clicker tells them it's training time and they are more likely to start working and offering behaviors.
Finding your birds reinforcers
While everyone is working on getting clickers, the first lesson will be to start testing reinforcers. The reinforcement will be food. You will need to test several different food items to figure out what works best for your bird. You want to find something the bird goes crazy for, not just eats. If your bird is not comfortable taking food from your hand, you can put a little dish in their cage or near them to drop the food into one reward at a time.
In my experience the small birds like budgies or cockatiels or bourkes like millet spray. You can use a spray of millet and just allow them a bite of millet per click. My Green Cheek Conure likes safflower seeds. This is the only time she gets them and they have proven to be her favorite. My amazon goes crazy for peanuts and sunflower seeds. To me peanuts are too large and fatty to use for training for him, so we use sunflower seeds and I save peanuts for specific training I am doing with locations.
The treat should be small enough so that the bird can eat it fairly quickly so that the training can have some momentum. The species and size of your bird will help to determine good things to test. Some ideas are millet, safflower seeds, sunflower seeds, almond slices, pine nuts, small bits of dried fruit like mango, papaya or banana. Just make sure that they are small. The seeds I use for training are not fed to my birds at any other time, they are strictly used for training and therefore limited and highly reinforcing.
Getting started
So, here is your assignment. Start trying different types of treats for your birds. Experiment and try several things. Keep notes of what they like the best. If your bird is fearful of hands, drop the treat in food cup. You can get a special little cup that signals training to the bird so that they understand to grab it and move on. This step in our training plan will actually take more time than you think because some birds will need to learn how to take the treats but that's ok, we have time
Once you have settled on your reinforcer I want you to experiment WITHOUT the bird around how you plan to hold and deliver your reinforcer. How will you hold it, how will you hand it to your bird or drop it into their cup? All of this needs to be ironed our BEFORE you bring the learner into the picture. If you don't have a clear idea of how things will go that will confuse the learner. It is our responsibility as trainers to have this worked out before we go into our training plan.
Ok, off you go! Please let me know if you have questions or need help. And, let me know when you all get clickers.
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