Bird losing the fear response???

Moderator: Mods

Post Reply
Sash4
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:32 am

Bird losing the fear response???

Post by Sash4 »

Ive been reading this on another forum and would like to know what you guys think of it,
Basically this guy is "training a bird to lose the fright/flight response, the end result in being him running at full speed at the bird and for the bird to sit still and not react and be grabbed....
Intially he said it was because when he wanted to put the bird away, it would fly off and he would have to chase it, to try and retrieve it, But when questioned it now turns out its for the birds own safety, when he takes it out in a harness in case a dog bites her, this person assumes he can run at the bird to grab her before the dog gets her,,Now any reasonable person would retrieve the bird "before the dog got close enough to even smell the bird" but this is the logic of this person
So in essense this is the purpose of this training,, " trained for convienance" in my opinion,

I just cant see the need for this at all, the only benefit is for the "trainer" to put the bird away as and when he requires, I pointed out this is no more than animal cruelty depending on how you think about it,

To give a scenario to make this a bit clearer,

Human takes bird outside on a harness, Danger appears in the form of a Dog, The bird does not react "like its trained to do"
Human runs as fast as he can towards the bird in a bid to grab the bird before the dog,,,DOG GETS TO THE BIRD BEFORE THE HUMAN DOES!!!!!
This bird was trained not to respond in these situations, but to sit still and wait for human to react first,,
So this training shows the bird losing its natural Fear instinct to fly off in the sight of danger..
To me and probably every other parrot owner, the reaction time of a bird is far quicker than any human, we have all tried to catch birds, and just when you think you have him, he fly's off lol.

So is it right or wrong, What ye think???
pinkdevil
Posts: 2601
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 11:35 pm
Location: Central West NSW Australia
Contact:

Re: Bird losing the fear response???

Post by pinkdevil »

OMG!!!!!!!
Can this person really be serious!!!????!!!!

I think my safest & politest response to the question is WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!!!
smallworld
Posts: 296
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:30 pm

Re: Bird losing the fear response???

Post by smallworld »

I'm with pinkdevil. What an idiot?! Thats cruel!
julie
Moderator
Posts: 2248
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:07 am
Location: nsw australia

Re: Bird losing the fear response???

Post by julie »

So what happens when the bird is in a situation that it should normally react to and it just stands there and gets eaten by a cat or something else.
Melika
Posts: 1920
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:11 am
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: Bird losing the fear response???

Post by Melika »

I can understand what he's trying to do, to some degree. I know I trained my bird to be grabbed and how to step up when I do (to get him up off the floor). But I was training him to accept that specific thing.

I'd wager that the bird would eventually accept the human running at him, but not another creature. Instinct is a difficult thing to overcome. And in an unfamiliar environment instinct would take over before training.

My bird is used to me doing all sorts of things to him, because I've trained him to let me. But I know he wouldn't let anyone else lift and check under his wings. And sure, he's used to the dogs, but when they go bolting through the house he's still startled. Come to think of it, only my sister can grab him like I do. It's fast (to prevent the whole chase game where he runs under something to get away cause he wants to stay on the floor) and sudden- anyone else tries and he freaks out.

I like that he's willing to train the bird not to be afraid without cause, though not sure what running full speed is supposed to do. A dog can clearly outrun a man. :?
Image
Image
I've been called 'birdbrained' before, but somehow I don't think this is what they meant. say:hah-nay
Larj87
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 5:45 pm
Location: Allentown, PA
Contact:

Re: Bird losing the fear response???

Post by Larj87 »

I agree with Malika, he should be working on his relationship with the bird himself, I don't think he could ever just delete an animals survival instinct, he may become immune to that guy alone running at him or whatever, but would react differently to everyone else, hopefully this is what the guy is going for and doesn't actually want to take the whole fear and flight away from this poor bird!
Post Reply