what can't be taught...

[ShreddedOakAviary]

Training a parrot is not terribly difficult, but teaching an owner to read and understand their bird is impossible. What I'm learning is that some people simply lack the ability to acurately understand their pets behavoir.

I retrained a Severe Macaw for some people, and they are having new behavoir problems with her now. After I went over and assessed the situation I realized that they had over done it, at certain points they failed to understand that she simply didn't want to be bothered, and because I trained her to step up, she would step up if they forced her, but she continued to get more and more hostile. Birds are not domestic (as we all know) and at certain points we have to respect their wishes.

The horse I retrained has the same problem (owners who flat out lack the ability to understand her). Sometimes she throws a fit and needs a firm forceful hand, sometimes she's insecure and needs to be reassured and made to trust and do what is asked.... Instead her owners let her get away with certain behavoirs and beat her when she was afraid.... what they made was a mess of a horses mind.

So, why are so many people incapable of understanding animals?

We see it all the time....

New puppy gets beaten when he/she pees on the floor
Horse gets beaten into submission because it's easier than actually teaching it.
Birds that learn to bite because their owners fail to know which battles to choose.

So, what do we do? How do we teach a whole society of people how to look at things from an animals perspective? Is it linked with people thinking of animals as a posession?:11:

 

[TeakwoodBirdHouse]

You're absolutely right! I've seen it time after time. People do not see animals as they are, they see what they want. And when the animal doesn't act as expected, the people either try to force it, or get rid of it. Blaming the animal. That's why shelters & sanctuaries are so full. There is a sort of "enlightenment" in understanding that these creatures are as entitled to be themselves as we are. And unfortunately, most people do not reach that. Instead of accepting them, and their ways, and using things like behavior modification, humans try to dominate and control other species. I have come to think that to put an end to that, you'd have to find a way to modify basic human nature. And that's not going to happen!

 

[melinda]

I have seen the same thing more times than i wish i had. If i am thinking about getting a animal for the first time i do lots of reading about it and if after that i still want it i meet with someone that has had them a long time. That way i can learn first hand about it. Most people see it want it and gets it without ever taking the time to learn about it. Then ends up mistreating it because it does what comes natural to it, but they don't know that. I have a lady that lives near me the same way that just got a love bird. I took her lots of book and told her to read about that type of bird. I am happy to say she did call me with a couple of questons That i was more than happy to answer but in the back of my mind i know the new will wear off of the bird and she will be sent down the road again. I wish everyone would see a pet as a life time labor of love. Instead of something to have for a month.

 

[MikeyTN]

It takes time and patience to learn a animals' behavior and one must be willing to learn! Its not complicated as people portray them to be. Just watch and learn! I can tell the calls my parrots make if its scared, happy, or whatever. My male ekkie who generally is pretty quiet and mainly talk, rarely screams. He started screaming if a stranger were to come inside the house. He's a good alarm system! LoL...He started doing the mating thing with me and I caught on right away exactly what he was doing. While we're on the subject, I don't get why people have dogs only to tie them to a leash in the backyard, why even bother having one? I hear dog crying for their owners outside in my neighborhood all the time, its very sad!!! I told my dogs, you hear that? Look at your spoiled rotten self!!!

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

Tthis whole situation frustrates me.... Maybe because animal behavoir is never a mystery to me. I've lived with HUGE quantities of animals my whole life, and because of that understanding them is second nature (like a second language). It comes from spending a great deal of time watching them interact with eachother I think.

I have 4 dogs... 2 red and white irish setters, a visla, and a tiny silkie terrier. They all sit, lay, roll over, high five, and are respectful in general. All are house broken, 3 are trained hunters, non of them jump up, they don't bark unless they are alerting me to something, and all that was taught without a single hand raised to them. My big draft horse lays on the ground on que so that I can sit on him and then he stands (necessary if you ride a draft horse bareback), again taught without pain. My pet birds are free flighted, Moe knows his colors and shapes (I can ask him to get a red circle, yellow triangle block, etc... and he gets the corect one, he plays dead and lays like a baby, etc.... again I didn't even use treats, he does it just because I laugh when he does.

Point is, if I can do that and I've had animals my whole life, why can't a new pet owner just understand what mood their pet is in?

I am having some trouble teaching our Friesian to respect electric fence, and after 3 escapes yesterday I decided to put her in the coral and call it a day...lol

I don't know why people get dogs just to tie them on a chain, and that makes me so angry I can't see straight!

We live in a quick fix or throw it away society.... People want me to give them the magic answer to solve a behavoir, how do I politely say "you're the problem"?

Ugh! Horse owners are comming out tomorrow to pick up their mare.... I offered to buy her, so hopefully after they get her home and she acts up again they'll bring her back.

 

[JensFlock]

Believe me, I live with this every day.
I'm a dog trainer at petsmart, and sometimes all I can do is shake my head. The worst part is, I have no control what the owners do at home.
Most of my students are absolutely wonderful, but every now and then I get a know-it-all.
I had to tell one person, "I can't control what you do at home, but if you hit your dog in my class, you will be banned from class, and detained at the front door of the store until the police get here."
(Not true, but it scared the bejesus out of him)

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

On the brighter side, we now have things like "the dog whispererr", "natural horsemanship" (altthough personally I don't agree with it, it is too far the other direction in horse training, but it is a step in the right direction in some ways), and "avian behavoirists". all these professions didn't really exist 20 years ago like they do today, so maybe that means that we're moving in the right direction in some ways. *fingers crossed*

 

[xreinx]

The Key shredded and everyone on this link, is you LIVED with the animals, probily from a young age, and you do what everyone HERE understands to do, you sit, watch and learn.

If you watch most familys that have "problems" with their animals, its probily the first time they had a dog, Or that kind of animal, and they think of them as Objects.. I ran across that time and again the the shelter, and not one ever asked.. what does it think? all they ask is " what kind of home would it fit in?" I mean thats all well and good but.. their mentality is " we could always bring it back" not something Id allow my kid into, and when you put it in those terms they look at me like I am in sane. as in " would you tie your kid in the back yard with a spiked collar?" Or " would you do a compleatly cosmetic degloving of their fingers to get the nail out, just so they wont pick at something with them?"

its hard to understand the human race.. a small number knows how to run the show but the entire herd just stampeds when they try to get them to cross the right bridges.

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

I can understand "new" owners being lost, but I also see quite a few "rescuers", "breeders", and "trainers" who are equally as lost. I don't even know how people in those professions don't get mangled or killed by certain animals....

When I started working with this horse I just finished, a "cowboy" friend of mine (I use the term loosely) told me to tie her right leg up to her head to teach her to give to pressure on the right.... I told him thanks but I have some other ideas in mind. I personally know that when this guy was training his black mare that he got her so angry that she would buck him off and then immediately spin around to try and stomp him to death out of anger.... He trains horses regularly.... I've trained only 5... a WILD mustang, a shire, a hot tempered pinto, a screwed up paint, and a high headed little friesian.... never been bucked off, horses ride nicely, they do good in parades, and don't go insane at the sight of anything. He and I argue all the time about whose horses are better trained.

Birds are even more complex because each species differs from the next, and then each individual in a species can differ.

Enough of my horror stories, I'd love to hear someone elses experience with an owner who was dangerously at a loss with an animal, were you able to help? Did they ever learn or change their ways?

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

When I was in College I remember getting into a fairly heated arguement with my Philosophy professor about anthropomorphism (thinking of animals too much in human terms and instilling human explanations and emotions as descriptions of animal behavoir). He said that I suffered from this point of view, and I pointed out that I am simply stuck using human terminology to describe an animalistic reaction, and therefor it wasn't anything more than a simple language barrier. It's one thing to be anthropomorphic, it's another entirely to acknowledge that animals are capable of certain feelings, of having their own wants, and I told him he was far more in danger with an animal because he would never register that the animal may have an understandable agenda of it's own.