Vocalization: Part III

Vocalization PART 3: No Quick Fix; Patience and planning to reduce excessive learned vocalization

By Sheila S. Blanchette, IAABC-CPBC, UW-AAB

As I park my car in the driveway, and start getting out of the car, I hear it. My lorikeet vocalizing and I am not even in the house yet. As I continue to approach the front door, my lorikeet continues, what I call,” the call of the wild” vocalization. When I finally open the door into my house, my lorikeet is in another room and that ear deafening screech continues without a breath or a pause. This repetitive vocalization goes right through me, and thus the quandary.

If I go into the room, to ask my happy lorikeet to relax or greet him to soothe the call of the wild screech, in either of these events in trying to reduce the vocalization, I will be reinforcing this deafening vocalization behavior; meaning I am training my lorikeet to learn this vocalization will cause me to enter the room.

If I ignore the vocalization, my lorikeet will continue to vocalize, and it will get louder because the vocalization is now becoming frustrating call. If my lorikeet can hear me (I am in the vicinity), the lorikeet is calling for me to greet him and the longer I delay that greet, the longer the vocalization will occur; meaning I am training my lorikeet to vocalize longer to cause me at some point to enter the room.

I am writing this, so you understand, I have been there. Vocalization can be frustrating and stressful on a human. You just want it to stop. As noted in an earlier blog Vocalization Part 1, yelling at the companion bird may stop the vocalization at the moment, but this does not stop the cause of the vocalization from occurring again.

Science Time:

Remember, the companion bird has been doing this vocal behavior several times; the behavior becomes a learned behavior. The companion bird has learned by doing this vocalization behavior, the required need to have proximity to you (see, near, hear))becomes a predicted occurrence.

Science Term #1: Functional Assessment: the process of theorizing the predictability between behavior and environmental events.

Antecedent (event before the behavior (in the environment (not the behavior of the companion bird))): The person walks through the front door.
Behavior (action the companion bird is doing (not an emotion – descriptive)): Companion bird vocalizes.
Consequence (event before the behavior (in the environment (not the behavior of the companion bird)): The person goes to the companion bird and says, “It is okay, quiet time.”

By breaking down (creating a functional assessment), the whole situation can be reviewed. If this Functional Assessment continues regularly, there is the likelihood that the companion bird will continue this behavior. Why? What is the need for the companion bird? To see the person or get head scratches, etc. The companion bird is learning when the person arrives, the companion bird vocalizes, the person visits the companion bird.

Science Term #2: Continuous reinforcement - A predictable outcome with which every occurrence of the behavior is reinforced.

In the example above, the companion bird is getting continuous reinforcement for when the person walks through the front door. Every time the companion bird vocalizes, the person goes to the companion bird (the words are added to the reinforcement to the behavior (of getting attention and proximity of the person)).[i]

Science Term #3: Differential reinforcement (for reducing problem behavior) - The process of reinforcing the behavior you want to see more while at the same time extinguishing the behavior you want to see less.[ii]

a. DRA – differential reinforcement of alternative behavior.

b. DRI – differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior[iii]

These two terms DRA and DRI are important related to addressing problem behavior. In the example what behavior could be trained to replace the undesired behavior.

a. DRA (Alternative behavior) – Replace the scream vocalization with a whistle or another more acceptable vocalization (thus an alternative behavior)

b. DRI (Incompatible behavior) – Replace the scream vocalization with chewing wood or ringing a bell with beak (i.e. if the beak is closed or busy, the companion bird cannot scream.)

Science Term #4: Shaping – With the use of shaping, the trainer shifts the criteria for reinforcement to closer and closer approximations (small improvements) toward the final behavior.[iv]

Breakdown the behavior

1) Determine when does the vocalization start?

When you leave the room?
When the doorbell rings?
When you come home (opening the garage door)
When strangers visit the house?

There may be multiple situations; Select one and focus on that scenario first.

2) Have you determined your companion bird’s favorite food item?

Millet, safflower seeds, pistachios, red pellets, etc.
If the companion bird does not have a favorite food, what about head scratches or access to shredding something?

3) What do you want the companion bird to do instead of vocalization? Quiet is a challenging behavior to train because it does tell the companion bird how to be quiet.

Could the companion bird make a different (a more tolerant) vocalization (whistle, word, laugh, grumble)?

Could the companion bird ring a bell?
Could the companion bird play with toys (being in proximity to you)?

4) Document the behavior:

Create a simple assessment of the scenario that triggers the undesired vocalization (just one to start).

Antecedent (event before the behavior (in the environment (not the behavior of the companion bird): The person leaves the room where the companion bird is located.
Behavior (action the companion bird is doing (not an emotion – descriptive): Companion bird vocalizes.

Consequence (event before the behavior (in the environment (not the behavior of the companion bird): The person returns back into the room where the companion bird is located.

Review an Environmental Change

When the person leaves the room, review when does the companion bird begin to vocalize, can there be changes in the environment that could assist in reducing the vocalization:

a) Does the companion bird appear to be vocalizing randomly; sometimes the vocalization occurs when you leave and other times not? Try adding white noise to the room (music, turn air purifier or humidifier on) – there could be a noise you do not hear, but your companion bird hears that causes the vocalization.

b) Does the companion bird begin vocalizing when you are no longer visible? Try relocating or changing the angle of the cage for more visibility.

c) Does the companion bird begin vocalizing as soon as you leave the room? Add bird-stands in locations in the house. Depending, bring the companion bird with you into the new location and place the companion bird onto the play stand (not on you but in proximity to you).

d) Does the companion bird begin vocalizing as soon as you get up to leave? Change your behavior, when you get up to leave, place fun foraging objects in the food bowl and then wait for the companion bird to interact with the foraging objects before you leave.

Foraging Option : Prepare the foraging box (or bowl) ahead of time; have this set up (when you go to visit the companion bird) and place the foraging box when you are about to leave the room.

You start off with a small with a couple of greens (salad greens, arugula, or curly parsley) and add their favorite food (such as pistachio, almonds, millet or nutraberry/avicake) and place this combination into a shallow box or a container top or in the companion bird’s food bowl.
As the companion bird becomes more interested, you can add more greens (the greens are not really meant to be eaten (but fine if they are eaten)). The goal is to teach your companion bird to forage for the favorite item as you leave the room.
If you believe the companion bird will be nervous with the greens, then skip the lettuce greens mixed, and just start with the favorite food in the boxes (and slowly add pieces of green the next time
Need more ideas: https://www.phoenixlanding.org/enrichment.html

Environmental changes can assist in reducing the vocalization or assist you with evaluating what might be increasing the vocalization. It is important to chart date, time, and what is occurring that may have triggered the vocalization, and also denote when does it stop. You may denote the vocalization occurs all the time, what does that really mean? Does vocalization occur 7 days a week and 24 hours a day or are there specific times that this occurs? Remember by keeping a documented record of the vocalizations, patterns will appear.

Training Time: Teach Alternate Vocal Behavior

The Environment changes may assist short term or assist only on specific vocalization scenarios. With Vocalization, another option is to teach an alternate tolerable vocal behavior for those scenarios that relate to the companion bird wanting to greet you or request you to visit.

Be a 5-minute Trainer (teach an alternate behavior)

Start practicing a new alternate vocal behavior

Before you start the training session:

The human needs to be in the mood to train. If you are not in a happy go lucky mode, do not train. Companion birds can read our body language better than us. If the companion bird sees sluggish, or “Whatever” human body language, the companion bird will not train as well. Okay, you are in a good mood and ready to train.

Important note: When teaching an alternative vocal behavior, everyone in the household must agree to do the training and understand the importance of not going back to the old ways. If anyone continues to reinforce (goes into the room) the undesired vocalization, the harder it will be to train any new behavior.

Training Session: Practice Reinforcing that new desired (Acceptable) Vocalization

1) You can either start when the companion bird is in the cage or out.

2) Select new acceptable vocalization you are going to use such as the companion bird learning to make a whistle or kissing or giggling or sneezing sound. The new vocalization is a verbal sound that your companion bird can make or lower the tone of the current vocalization (anything is fine).

3) Once you have selected the acceptable vocalization, make the sound, or say the word once or twice, and wait. (This is the antecedent – the starting point of getting the behavior, the words are cuing the behavior)

4) If the companion bird says any word or anything (does not matter if the response does not match what you said), you immediately say “Good job” or “Thank you” (Or you can use clicker (click) or thumbs up). When the companion bird responds, you are saying “Good job” as a marker (same with clicking in a clicker (using sound to mark the behavior) or doing a thumbs up (as visual marker), denoting to the companion bird that is the correct behavior. Any vocalization that happens after the marker, do not worry about it this time, you marked the end of the session because you got the behavior.)

5) After saying “Good Job” or “Thank you”, give the companion bird a quick head scratch (Tactile) or a piece of the yummy item(Food) or Praise Praise (Verbal) . (The consequence (after the behavior), the companion bird earns encouragement for doing the behavior.

6) After the quick head scratch or yummy item or praise, try to do one more repetition. (Go back to step 3) NOTE: If the companion bird does not do the new behavior, remember to not give the yummy/kiss or scratches item. Take a short break and then try again.

See if you can get at least 3 sessions, where the companion bird makes a desirable noise when you initiate it.
If the companion bird just makes the undesired vocalization, end that session and try a different game to play so the companion bird gets a success to be with you.
When you finish the session and the companion bird continues saying the words, and you can say “Good job” or “Thank you” but no other items.

Remember: the point of this training is to teach your companion bird an alternative vocalization for a specific need. This is not going to change the current situational behavior until you practice and can predictably trigger this new learned vocalization. This will take some time, so have patience and keep practicing. It is important to remember training involves small steps to final outcome so be proud of each small success you see.

Example:

1) Undesired Vocalization - https://youtu.be/h-AYxubcdBs

2) Starting to teach new desired vocalization - https://youtu.be/GPe5aTwblr8

3) Companion bird initiates new vocalization - https://youtu.be/RPuIKB8vuBI

Test the new alternate vocal behavior

When you start getting a consistent new vocalization behavior, the next step is to try the new vocalization with a simple scenario.

Before you start the training session:

Training Session: Practice Reinforcing that new Vocalization

1) You can either start when the companion bird is in the cage or out, and you are not in the visible to the companion bird. (You might be outside the companion bird’s room or in another room).

2) Before you become visible, start to make the new vocalization sound.

a. Just make the sound once or twice, if there is no response, wait for few seconds, then ask again. (This is the antecedent – the starting point of getting the behavior, the words are cuing the behavior)

3) If the companion bird says any word or repeats the requested vocalization (does not matter if the response does not match what you said), you say “Good job” or “thank you”.

(You are saying “Good job” is a marker, denoting to the companion bird that is the behavior. Any vocalization that happens after the marker, do not worry about at this time, you marked the end of the session because you got the behavior)

4) Once you say, “good job”, you enter into the room, and you can either give more food or take moment for a head scratch or praise. Remember once you say, “Good job”, you have to enter even the undesired vocalization occurs. (The consequence (after the behavior), the companion bird earns encouragement for doing the behavior.

5) Test: Try to leave the area, and if the companion bird makes the undesired vocalization as you leave, you still leave, but only get out of visual range, and go to step 2.

NOTE: If the companion bird does not do the new behavior, remember to not give the yummy/kiss or scratches item. Take a short break and then try again.

See if you can get at least 3 sessions, where the companion bird makes a desirable noise when you leave the visible area.
If the companion bird just makes the undesired vocalization, end that session and try a different game to play so the companion bird gets a success to be with you.
When you finish the session and the companion bird continues saying the words, and you can say “Good job” or “Thank you” but no other items.

Remember: The point of this training is to teach your companion bird an alternative vocalization for a specific need. You will need to continue practicing the new vocalization and do this test scenario as these are small steps to assisting the bigger issue.

Start practicing a new alternate behavior

In some cases, teaching an alternate vocalization behavior may seem futile (as you are not seeing success, even a small ones). In this training, you will teach a companion bird to do an alternate behavior like ring a bell.

Before you start the training session:

· The human needs to be in the mood to train. If you are not in a happy go lucky mode, do not train. Companion Birds can read our body language better than us. If the companion bird sees sluggish, or “Whatever” human body language, the companion bird will not train as well. Okay, you are in a good mood and ready to train.

Training Session: Practice Reinforcing that new desired (Acceptable) Behavior

1) You can either start when the companion bird is in the cage or out.

2) Add a bell near the location of the food bowl to start (to make the training steps more successful)

3) Just touch the bell (but do not make it ring, you do not want to scare the companion bird). (This is the antecedent – the starting point of getting the behavior, the words are cuing the behavior)

4) When the companion bird moves a tad closer to the bell (to start, the companion bird does not have to touch the bell just come one step close) you immediately say “Good job” or “Thank you” (Or you can use clicker (click) or thumbs up). (When the companion bird responds, you are saying “Good job” as a marker (same with clicking in a clicker (using sound to mark the behavior) or doing a thumbs up (as visual marker), denoting to the companion bird that is the correct behavior. Any vocalization that happens after the marker, do not worry about it this time, you marked the end of the session because you got the behavior.)

5) After saying “Good Job” or “Thank you”, give the companion bird a quick head scratch (Tactile) or a piece of the yummy item(Food) or Praise Praise (Verbal). (The consequence (after the behavior), the companion bird earns encouragement for doing the behavior.

6) After the quick head scratch or yummy item or praise, try to do one more repetition. (Go back to step 3)

NOTE: If the companion bird does not do the new behavior, remember to not give the yummy/kiss or scratches item. Take a short break and then try again.

See if you can get at least 3 sessions, where the companion bird moves closer to the bell or at least investigates the bell.
If the companion bird is nervous about the bell, you can take it out after each training session.
When you finish the session, and the companion bird starts to play with the bell and you can say “Good job” or “Thank you” but no other items.

Remember: the point of this training is to teach your companion bird an alternative behavior. This is not going to change the current situational behavior until you practice and can predictably trigger this new behavior. This will take some time, so have patience and keep practicing and be consistent.

In next month’s blog, Vocalization Part 4 – the importance of duration to assist in reducing vocalization, and the next steps on increasing the bell and vocalization behavior using duration. It is important to teach duration between the marker and the consequence.

References:

[1] 50 Word Learning and Behavior Glossary (LLA 50 Word Glossary), S.G. Friedman, Ph.D, LLA Course, 9-2010

[1] Empowering Parrots ,S.G. Friedman, Ph.D, BirdTalk Magazine,2005, 30 -34

Copyrighted. Blog posts may be used as guidelines for the proper care of your parrot. Not intended for medical or legal advice. Please consult with a licensed avian veterinarian regarding the medical care and wellbeing of your exotic pets.

BehaviorVictoria CatherineDecember 9, 2024