Pickles The Parrot Returns: My Continued Adventures with a Bird Brain (22 page)

Time-outs meant that after he climbed down,
he was immediately placed in his cage for about ten minutes so that
he started to realize that climbing down meant a bit of jail time.
He didn’t really care for this as he was not used to being locked
in his cage but on the other hand, it wasn’t punishment because he
had access to food and toys. Usually he’d just play or eat until
he’d done his time. However, the more he climbed down the more time
he was spending in his cage and he was getting less and less happy
about this so pretty soon, he stopped stepping up on our hands to
go back for a time-out. So now we had another problem.

We had to work on a bombproof step-up and
this involved practicing in intervals all day long. This was when
we started using his snack bowl and keeping it full of pine nuts.
He would do anything for this delicious treat and it didn’t take
long before he had his step-up back.

After a week or two, his climbing down
behavior almost disappeared but there was a bit of a setback at one
point. All it took was for him to climb down once and not get
caught. Consistency is so crucial here. It’s called ‘intermittent
reinforcement’. If you’re rewarded for a behavior, you will keep
trying over and over for that result. I liken it to my experience
as a Black Jack dealer in Vancouver for many years; a gambler is
playing Black Jack at my table and losing hand after hand but
suddenly wins one. That one hand rewarded him with money and he
immediately forgets about all the previous losses, so he continues
to play for the ‘rush’ of that reward. Pickles had just learned
that if he tried hard enough, and long enough, at some point he
would receive his just reward. But after a day or two of
consistency in catching him at the act, and reacting, he ceased to
climb down anymore.

But then the screaming started. He was
staying put but he wasn’t getting enough attention so we had to
work on that behavior. I already explained that in my last book so
I’m not going to go into it again. But that was resolved.

Obviously, it wasn’t quite as simple as what
I wrote above but it worked, and worked extremely well. We solved
the climbing down, the screaming and the step-up behaviors and
though it took some time and effort on our part, it was well worth
it. But here is where I will admit to something I shouldn’t have
done and I don’t recommend others do it. I mentioned the remote
controlled red car earlier in the book and we have tended to rely
on it from time to time. While working with PBAS, we were advised
against it and I believe it was termed ‘negative reinforcement’
which is something they stay away from, understandably. The concern
that was relayed to me was that just knowing that the scary red car
was below his cage at all times could stress Pickles out. But over
the years, from time to time, Pickles will try pushing his luck and
start climbing down again; always at the most inconvenient times,
when we don’t have the time to work with him. All it takes is to
show him the car and place it below his cage. Once it’s out of
sight, he forgets all about it – until he attempts to climb down at
some point. As soon as he sees it, he climbs back up the cage and
promptly forgets all about it again. There is absolutely no stress
involved for him once it is out of sight. We wouldn’t use it
otherwise. After a day or two, we remove it and he will stay aloft
for weeks or months. I know somebody out there, who is learned
about positive reinforcement and behavior is reading this going
‘tsk tsk’ and I can’t blame you. But I figure we do pretty well all
in all with Pickles, so we allow ourselves this one indulgence and
misbehavior. But please, anybody who is thinking of trying this,
make sure you know your bird and how it affects him. It could do
more harm than good.

But I’m telling you; the ABC’s have been a
Godsend. What I have found is that it’s so easy to change the
antecedent to change the behavior to alter the consequence if you
just stop and look at it in those terms. The answer is usually so
easy and was always right there under your nose but you just didn’t
stop to think. An example:

Pickles is sitting on the back of the couch
and gets bored and wants to chew on something.

Pickles chews on the window frame and if he
keeps this up, we’ll have to replace it.

Pickles will no longer be allowed on the back
of the couch if he doesn’t stop it.

So, if I think about (A), I can do a couple
of simple things. I can stop allowing him on the couch, I can move
the couch away from the window frame, or I can give him some other
wood to chew on. In this case, I chose to wedge a wooden abacus
with cool wooden beads to move up and down, between the couch and
the wall. Pickles loves this and stops chewing on the window frame.
By changing (A) the antecedent, I altered (B) the behavior, which
resulted in (C) a different consequence. It works, and it’s simple.
Keep in mind that if the antecedent is not functionally related to
the behavior, then you have not pinpointed the correct antecedent
or consequence.

PBAS taught me that if I wanted to change
Pickles’ behavior, I had to change my own. I learned that by
offering PR, it allowed Pickles the power to be a bird and make his
own choices or act in such a way that would produce an outcome that
was desirable to him. I started focusing on what we ‘did’ want
Pickles to do instead of what we ‘didn’t’ want him to do. I also
learned Pickles’ body language and to respect what he was
indicating to me.

The problem of Pickles’ refusing to go back
in his cage when we were leaving for work was also resolved. First,
we gave him the choice of staying home or coming to work with us.
Since he was no longer climbing down, it was safe to start taking
him to the shop again. We would ask him “Do you want to step up and
go to work?” and he would either step up and go into his travel
cage, or he would refuse and we would leave him home. If he didn’t
want to step up and go in the cage, we left him out. The livingroom
was basically bird proofed and the screen door kept him from flying
elsewhere in the house. The arrangement suited everyone and
everybody was happy. (I spoke about the screen door in the last
book – we erected one between the livingroom and kitchen. This way,
Pickles can be left out of his cage if we need to go out, or just
to keep him from walking around to look for us if we’re busy.)

I don’t know how smart Pickles is, as far as
Greys go. I have nothing to compare it with except maybe Dr. Irene
Pepper’s Alex, her other birds and what I’ve read about them. I
don’t train Pickles (yet) so it’s hard to judge many aspects.
Pickles is basically untrained while Alex was highly trained. Is he
as intelligent as Alex was? Perhaps not, but then, I’m not as
intelligent as Dr. Pepperberg with a science background to find
out. I do know that Pickles is smart enough to train
me
.

Since I didn’t really have much in the way of
humorous stories for this chapter, I’m just going to insert
something Pickles did today while I was working on this
chapter.

I’ve been ignoring the poor guy most of the
day while trying to get some writing done. It’s mid May and Neil is
out on the road visiting Park managers for his new position of
Operations Manager for several Provincial Parks in the BC Interior.
He does a lot of administration so that means he’s home working
about half of the time so he’s able to entertain Pickles while I’m
writing, but not today. I picked him up for a short walk around the
house and a romp on the bed then set him on his kitchen ropes. They
hang between the kitchen and diningroom, right next to the computer
room. I could hear sounds of boredom – the odd squawk in-between
happy sounds – and knew I should get up and appease him soon, but I
wanted to finish what I was doing first.

At some point, I realized he was quiet and
all I could hear was some activity noise, so I kept writing.
Suddenly I heard “I see you” and turned around expecting to see him
on the floor. He wasn’t there. Okay, I thought, he’s thrown his
voice again. He does that sometimes, he talks and it sounds like
it’s coming from the opposite side of a room. I turned back to the
computer. “I seeeee you” I hear again. I figured I’d better go
check on Pickles so I get up and I’m almost to the doorway when I
hear “Peek-a-boo” and look up to see Pickles upside down head
looking at me from under the doorframe. I asked him how the heck he
managed to get up there and he said “Eh?” I repeated my question
and he said, “Walk”. I’m not sure if he wanted me to take him for a
walk or if he considered somehow managing to swing a boing close
enough to the wall to climb a door frame and traverse the molding a
couple of feet down the hall to my room, a walk. Either way, he
decided he wanted on my hand so he grabbed the molding with his
beak, let go with his feet and hung there by his beak with his
talons waving in the air in search of my hand to step on. I helped
him out, took him back to his ropes and immediately moved the boing
further away from the wall while he helped me by initiating a game
of tug-a-war.

“
Mom planted more perches
this year - other than the garden that's all we grow. Now that the
leaves have fallen off, I see they're coming along quite nicely.
Until we harvest them, I’ll let all the wild baby butt birdies use
them and they can pick off all the icky bugs.”

“
Somebody told me how
frightening it is these days with pollution and water contamination
and global warming and everything but last summer we were camping
and I told that story around the campfire and nobody got
scared.”

“
I don't like
squirrels.  They run around the yard acting so happy and
innocent but I know they're secretly watching me and planning to
chew through the walls to steal my seeds and sleep in my
tent.  I'm like, NO WAY little squirrels, not on MY
watch.”

“
I was staring at all the
snow today, wishing it would hurry up and melt.  But then I
thought - Oh no! Cuz then it will reveal all my dead
bodies!”

“
One day, when I was in my
backpack on mom's back at the grocery market, the produce lady
asked me what I’d like cuz she would give me something. 
"Apple, grape, banana?" she asked.  "Poop" I answered. 
She looked at me for a moment then walked away.  I guess she
went to find some for me.”

“
When summer comes, so do
the mosquitoes.  To keep them away from me, I think it would
be a good idea to hang a big bag of blood in my aviary.  Like,
to distract them.”

“
I love to sit in my aviary
outside and stare up at the beautiful blue sky and fluffy white
clouds.  I contemplate the beauty of it all and I am at
peace.  I am in wonder of it all, especially when
flying birds blow up for no apparent reason.”

“
People are drawn to me,
fascinated by me, want to touch me or talk to me.  Sometimes
I imagine myself a candle, just to see if the
people I attract will ignite and pop like moths drawn to the
flame.”

“
Sometimes I go to the
grocery store with mom - I go in a birdie backpack. When we get to
the produce section, I yell "Wanna buy some beans!" but sometimes,
when there's other people around, I ask them "Wanna buy some poop?"
Cuz, like, you never know.”

“
I kept bugging mom because
I wanted to go in my backpack and I wanted to go NOW! Mom told me I
could really use some patience. I agreed and said, “Fine, then give
me some of that patience and give it to me NOW!”

I don’t know what Pickles loves best – going
to his aviary or going for a walk in his backpack. Either way, it’s
almost always embarrassing for Neil and me.

His aviary is next to the house and overlooks
the yard and trout pond. It is screened all the way around and the
roof is made of clear Plexiglas. There are Arbutus branches
spanning most of the area and a shelf in front for flatfooting. He
has toys and boings inside, a couple of small trees and vines of
beans and peas growing along the back. I never seem to think of
getting a picture when the beans and peas grow up along the screen
but it makes great foraging for Pickles and he can eat all the
veggies he wants. Usually though, it’s grab, chomp, fling, grab,
chomp, fling. Sometimes we get the scraps for dinner, we’ll rescue
the better stuff off the ground and have it for supper. The two
front corners of the aviary have Hop vines growing up into the
screen and although Pickles doesn’t eat them (they are safe), he
does like to pick off the heads and toss them or, at the very
least, prune the vines.

Neil just built a birdbath inside, with a
drizzle of water coming out a bamboo shoot above, and it’s resting
on a pile of sod which will quickly fill in with grass and blend
into the aviary. There are some stumps and logs and the floor of
the aviary is grass. Dandelions grow inside and Pickles likes to
chew the heads off and eat them, and the leaves. The aviary used to
be twice the size, made from an old greenhouse we had, but Pickles
never utilized the back part so we chopped it in half and reclaimed
some more of our yard.

The trees and shrubbery in the yard allow
Pickles to see out into the neighborhood but make it difficult for
people to see him as they’re passing by. This is why it can be so
embarrassing when he’s out there. Pickles is always whistling or
hollering something and people can usually spot us in the yard, but
not him, so we always get the blame for everything Pickles does.
Sometimes we get the chance to explain but sometimes people have
gone past before we’re able to talk to them.

I’ll never forget the first time we put him
outside, in the aviary. He was only about a year old at the time
and the minute we set him inside the aviary, he went nuts whistling
at the top of his lungs. He’s loud,
very
loud. And he prefers the wolf whistle so everyone in the
neighborhood thought we were coming on to them or something, until
we were able to let most of them know that we had a parrot.