Companion Parrot Foundation Skills Training with Steve Martin of Natural Encounters, Orlando, Florida
Summary: I decided that it was time to seek formal education in Parrot training. I found a companion parrot training course offered by a world class animal trainer, Steve Martin, Natural Encounters Inc., near Orlando, Florida. In addition to producing the Disney World Flights of Wonder show, NEI provides professional training and show design for zoological institutions and has a solid track record of training free flying Macaws as well as other birds such as Amazons, Cockatoos, Eagles, Hornbills, Hawks, Crows and Ravens. The six day course provided rapid paced lectures, live demonstrations, and guided training in a setting structured to provide a successful experience. It provided the opportunity to learn skills directly from Steve Martin who aims to exceed his students' expectations. The other students in the course came from all over the US, Ireland and South Africa and shared their experiences and emotional connections with their companion parrots which greatly enhanced the course. I experienced full flighted birds that were enthusiastic learners, working for sunflower seeds, grapes and peanuts. The experience included Macaws (Greenwing, Scarlet, Blue Throated, Blue & Gold), Cockatoos (Galah, Umbrella, Black Palm), Toucans, Hornbills, Keas and more. The course covered the basics of Operant Conditioning techniques with an emphasis on positive reinforcement techniques. I rate this course as an excellent experience with the right balance of science and practical knowledge that exceeded my expectations. I hope to be able to take the advanced course next year.
Why take a Parrot Training Course?
Why take a course in training birds? After a long series of parakeets since childhood followed by 17 years of living with cockatoos, a cockatiel and an eclectus you might ask "Don't I know enough about bird keeping?" The answer is that I have learned a lot but I still have a lot to learn. I want to do a better job of caring for my birds. While 20 years ago I was not aware of any opportunities for such training, I have become aware that science based animal training is available. I felt a need to go beyond the trick training to find formal education on bird training. I'm not talking about cockatoos on roller skates or bicycling on a tightrope but fundamental techniques that could be used to train any behavior. It's not that I'm opposed to training tricks, but that's not my primary motivation.
I want to be able to train the birds to cooperate for grooming and veterinary handling. Amadeus, my younger Triton Cockatoo is easy to groom; he tolerates being handled for wing feather clipping and for pedicures to blunt his nails. But my other Triton Cockatoo, Kaipo is very difficult to groom. He has to be toweled and then wrestled to trim his feathers and nails. All the time he is screaming and struggling as if he is being murdered. There's got to be a better way to handle this poor fellow! Another strong motivation that I have is my recent "adventure" where Kaipo became spooked on a hike and ended up in a tree. This incident demonstrated that I need to be able to train a recall behavior so I can retrieve him if this happens again. This is a long article as my intent is to provide the reader a comprehensive idea of what the course is about. This account is drawn from my notes and memories and as such may contain some omissions or misquotes due to lapses in my memory.
Practical uses of Training
After reading an article about the new Australia exhibit at the Baltimore National aquarium my thoughts crystallized about getting formal training in animal behavior. The article described how the birds in the exhibit were removed every night into travel crates and that the birds had been trained to crate themselves. A short time later I watched a Public Television program about the "behind the scenes" of the same exhibit showing the Umbrella and Rose Breasted Cockatoos returning to their sleeping crates on cue. I thought to myself, "Now that's something special!" This was more than training the birds to perform amusing tricks; they have been trained to allow grooming and medical procedures vital to maintaining their well being in captivity.
Watching television programs where gorillas, dolphins and even small Minke whales allow the Caretakers to take blood samples or give vaccinations convinced me that I had a lot to learn from the professionals. I had a lot of questions. I don't work for a zoo, so how could I get that kind of training? What are realistic expectations for the training? How would I make sure that the trainer was reputable, and the training techniques were effective and based on science rather than outdated or abusive practices?
The Right Kind of Training
Decades ago as a university undergraduate I performed lab work in learning theory. I had the opportunity to perform experiments which demonstrated the power of positive reinforcement to increase desired behavior and the effects of punishment to suppress (but not eliminate) undesirable behavior. I witnessed this with rats in the laboratory in "Skinner boxes". This is well established science but the old training methods have lingered. The old methods of dominance and control tell us to do such things as to squirt the bird with water when it squawks, and withhold its food to get it motivated. Approaches such as "Flooding" are designed to overwhelm the bird and force it into total compliance. In these approaches there is no respect for the bird's intelligence or emotions. These methods treat the animals as chattel, mere objects to be manipulated and forced to submit to human will based on some notion of dominance. That's not the relationship I want with my birds, we both deserve a better relationship than that. I've seen how hard the birds have tried to learn to live with us to gain our approval and their struggle to understand what we want from them. So I knew I was looking for training based on positive reinforcement and not punishment, I sought an approach that would empower both me and the birds to develop a strong cooperative relationship.
Finding the Right Training at NEI
Steve Martin Teaching
When I started looking around for animal training I started with the Zoological parks and that search turned up the same name over and over again, "Natural Encounters, Inc" (NEI). Connected with that organization was the name "Steve Martin". I recognized his name from the ads I had seen for bird training in the magazines. Who was this guy and was he legitimate? No, this is not the comedian with the same name from Saturday Night Live and number of movies. Further digging on the web brought me to the NEI Web site. On that site I found their Companion Parrot Training Workshops: the "Foundation Skills", "Advanced" and "Refresher" Programs offered once a year. I found out that his birds are fully flighted, and that he flies the birds outdoors in his shows. Now that's something very special! Further digging around the web showed that many bird rescue organizations referenced these courses and Steve Martin as a creditable trainer using an approach based on Positive Reinforcement. His approach to training was described as incorporating a respect for the birds and animals. That aspect was very appealing to me. The clincher was that a number of Zoos have had their staff trained by NEI. This seemed to be just what I was looking for, they trained professionals, but this offering was not a professional zookeeper course. This is training for owners of parrots in the best training techniques and theory.
As I've mentioned above, I've had some background in learning research. As an undergraduate at the University of Waterloo, I had to had to design experiments using rats in "Skinner Boxes" over 40 years ago. However, knowing learning theory concepts such as stimulus-response, discriminate stimulus, positive reinforcement, etc., does not necessarily translate into useful animal training skills. And I have forgotten a great deal of what I studied. I remember that when I was a student I once asked my graduate student supervisor "How do we teach the rat to press the bar to get the pellets?" The grad student looked at me like I was a dunce and told me "Oh, we just leave it in the box overnight and it will figure it out. Some of them will learn to press the bar with their butt, or their head, who knows, who cares?" As you can see, that was not very useful for the practical side. This NEI course looked like the missing practical techniques that I sought and I applied immediately online for both the Basic and Advanced courses which are only offered once a year.
NEI Training Courses
The Foundation Skills course is 6 days of training offered in January at the NEI facility ("The Ranch") south of Orlando in Winter Haven, Florida. Limited to 20 participants and priced at $1,500 it is taught by Steve Martin, assisted by his staff. Two other courses are offered, an Advanced Course and a Refresher Course. In addition, a "Retreat" is also offered in concert with his colleague Susan Friedman.
Class of 2008
After submitting an application online, in which I outlined my goals and detailed my experience with bird keeping, I was notified by Email that I had been accepted for the January Foundation Skills course. They provided directions to send in a deposit, with the balance due in December. I was not accepted for the Advanced course. I hope to be accepted to that course next year. Further Emails provided the details. All I had to do was to arrange for my flight to and from Orlando and pay for my lodging at at nearby motel (a Quality Inn) where a block of rooms was reserved. I had to provide NEI my flight itinerary and they would take care of the rest; picking me up at the airport on my arrival and returning me to the airport on my departure. Another Email from Steve Martin welcomed me to the course with more details and !Wow! welcomed the use of cameras and camcorders during the course. The only restriction was not to videotape the lecture sections of the course so as not to distract from the presentation. If you have looked through the pages on Cockatooweb you know how I like to take pictures of everything. Susie had given me a new high definition camcorder for Christmas that I wanted to use to capture the training demonstrations. I thought to myself that he seemed to read my mind and this was off to a great start.
In January a two hour flight on AirTran took me from Dulles airport to Orlando. Shortly after we landed, the airport was shut down for tornado warnings. But the danger passed with nothing worse than a bit of rain. True to their word, an NEI staff member named "Wouter" was there to meet me at the baggage claim. Wouter is a friendly tall fellow with a beaming smile and a great sense of humor. He is a native of Holland but speaks English like he grew up here in the US. Wouter had been tasked with ferrying all the students coming in from the airport to the motel. He was cheerful about how he had been doing that task all day. He helped me and another student out to the NEI van, loaded up our luggage and off we drove south from Orlando to the motel. He dropped us off telling us that he would be back at 6:45 to take us to the opening dinner/icebreaker at a restaurant called "Chalet Suzanne" and drove back to the airport to fetch the next group. After settling in at the motel it was soon time to be picked up for the icebreaker at the restaurant. The course begins with the Sunday night "Icebreaker" and ends with a Saturday night dinner at the Chalet. Training begins Monday and runs through Saturday, with Saturday afternoon set aside for demonstrations by the students of what they learned and were able to train their birds.
The Motel
NEI had reserved a block of rooms in a nearby motel for the course. It was a Quality Inn which had recently been given a fresh coat of paint and had the virtue of not being too expensive. NEI also provided two vehicles for the students to use for transportation to and from the Motel as well as for going out to dinner in the evening. We did not spend very much time at the motel. It was just a place to sleep so it was tolerable even though I did not sleep very well because I came down with a bad sinus cold. The motel staff seemed overwhelmed with various problems; though responsive to requests. The first room I was given had a defective door lock so I had to relocate to another room a few doors down. The room safe was already locked so I could not use it, and never got it unlocked, but the desk staff cheerily removed the charge for it when I checked out. The hotel had a defunct restaurant though it provided a "continental breakfast", but with the breakfast provided by NEI every morning, there was no need for it. There were some other hotels not too far away, but more expensive and not on the "NEI Bus route". Staying with the other students eliminated the expense of a rental car. With the restrictions on airline carryon for jells and liquids I had to do a little shopping for shaving cream, shampoo and mouthwash. I was able to obtain what I needed in the evening at the local supermarkets when we drove out for dinner.
Next: The "Icebreaker" in Part 2 ....
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