Last week I wrote about positive reinforcement, giving a reward to increase a behavior, as the most important tool in training our raptors. But every good trainer will have other tools in their back pocket to try when one method doesn’t seem to be working.
You have probably heard an incessant beeping in a car if you pull out of the garage without your seat belt fastened. After a few annoying beeps, you reach over and click the seat belt into the buckle. The beeping stops. You may not have realized it, but the car just trained you to wear your seat belt by using negative reinforcement.
Aldo dislikes having his feet touched, but with training, he usually allows me to check his foot health.
Negative reinforcement removes something unwanted (the annoying beeping stops) to increase the behavior (wearing your seat belt). Next time you get in the car, you are more likely to buckle up to avoid the noise.
I occasionally use this method during health checks with our birds. We need to look at their feet to make sure no sores develop, but Aldo dislikes having his feet touched. My hand must look big and scary to a bird that weighs less than a quarter of a pound. When I move my hand close, he pulls his foot away or steps to the side. I hold my hand in place until he stands still, then I remove my hand. He learns, “if I stand still, the scary hand goes away.” Eventually, he will let me lift a foot with my finger or a pencil.
It is not the most positive way to train the behavior since my hand is still making him uncomfortable. But he learns how to make my hand go away and has control of the situation. I also use positive reinforcement during the session with tasty mouse tidbits when he does a good job.
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