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Re: Clicker Training

Posted by Cindy A on 11/28/06
(8) Comments
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    On 11/27/06, KittyJ wrote:
    > Does anyone have any good sites or advice on clicker
    > training? I wouldnt mindl earning how to do this :) Thanks

    Kitty,
    You may find more info on clicker training for dogs than for
    birds. I am not a fan of the whole concept. If you train any
    animal to obey your comand when it hears a noise (as in the
    clicker) it seems to me that you are also, even if
    unintentionally, training it to NOT obey unless they hear
    that sound. Unless you will always have the clicker in hand,
    you will not be able to have the bird do what you want. If
    you think of all of the unexpected things that may happen,
    you can imagine the possible problems with this system. I can
    only shudder at what may have happened if I had used this
    system a while back when I accidentally left the cage door
    for my Goffin's Too open when changing her water. She got out
    and went to the highest point. That was my pionus's cage. He
    likes to hang upside down from the bars on the top. She went
    up there and bit the underside of his toe! It was like a
    horror movie. The screaming (the pi and the too) the dogs
    barking, the cats yelling, the other 3 birds making all kinds
    of nioses I'd never heard before. There is no way I would
    have been able to use a clicker, or even been able to remeber
    where it was or get it in time, to have the Too step up so I
    could get her off of the other cage and back in her own so I
    could quickly tend to first aid for the poor pi that almost
    lost his toe.

    That may be an extreme case of a possible problem. That is
    the kind of question that you need to think about when
    something sounds too good to be true. I don't think you will
    find any of the negatives on any web site that is trying to
    sell this clicker system. That makes you a very wise "bird
    mom" for asking on a site that would be aware of the downside
    as well as the pluses. It doesn't matter what the item is
    that is for sale- if someone is going to make $ from you
    buying it, they will only tell you the good points and will
    down play the problems if they mention them at all.

    Cindy A