Remember – there is always a reason for behavior.
Through life, all of us – including our non-human friends are continually learning from our past experiences associations that impact our emotions, our thoughts and our behaviors.
Steve Martin, president of Orlando-based Natural Encounters, is a phenomenal trainer of animals and teacher of people. I was fortunate to have traveled to Florida several years back for a weekend course taught by him and my mentor, Dr. Susan Friedman. Steve was also president of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators, of which I’m a member.
Dear Barnaby, I appreciate that you want to be my helper in training Chester to wave. But please remember, training with positive reinforcement means only rewarding the CORRECT behavior.