Why Punishment Does Not Work With Parrots

why punishment does not work with parrots

It wasn’t all that long ago that people used absolutely detrimental training techniques on their puppies. When the inevitable housetraining accident occured, people were advised to rub the puppy’s nose in it. When it got too rambunctious, you rapped it on the snout with a rolled up newspaper. When it barked, you squirted it in the face with water. Ughh!

How could any dog EVER learn to stop pooping in the house with this sequence of events…

  1. puppy poops on floor (probably because the owner neglected ...

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Misunderstanding Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Hyacinth Macaw

I was talking to a lady at work who was telling me that she was beginning to train her new Boston terrier puppy.  I asked her how she intended to train it: “Oh, definitely with positive reinforcement, I would never punish a dog!”  As she continued to talk, I realized that she took punishment to be the opposite of positive reinforcement.  A lot of people make this same mistake.

The misconception seems to come from the words positive and negative and people’s misunderstanding of the word reinforcement.

First, a reinforcement is ...

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