Pickles The Parrot Returns: My Continued Adventures with a Bird Brain

by Abbott, Georgi

  You can join the PBAS group and learn more about all of the above (and more) by just signing up and watching the threads as they deal with specific people and issues, or you can sign up for help with your own bird, or you can even sign up for Susan Friedman’s LLP classes.

  www.behaviorworks.org/

  So, we joined the PBAS group to get help with Pickles climbing down as it was getting ridiculous and at the time, we were afraid of him getting hurt in the flyshop. I remember one time when I was at the shop, working on the computer and a guy had walked in the back door. I didn’t know he was there until he said, “Well, hello there.” I said hello back as I finished up my work. “Who are you?” he asked. I told him who I was and he said, “What are you doing???” “Just finishing something on the computer” I said then finally looked up to see him staring at the floor. I stood up, looked over the counter and there was Pickles, climbing up the guy’s pant leg. He’s looking a little freaked and Pickles was kinda stuck, halfway up, saying “Step up bugger”, in an attempt to get this guy to help him out.

  I walked over, picked up Pickles, set him back on his stand and went back out on the floor to talk to my customer. A couple of minutes later, in the middle of conversation, I noticed the guy looking down at the floor again and there was Pickles, trying to walk away with his shoe lace. When I tried to pick him up, he refused. Instead, he walked around backwards going “Oh, oh, oh, oh” then dropped a nice load on the floor. I tried getting Pickles to step up again but he kept walking backwards in circles, away from my hand until he managed to walk right through his poop pile. I finally got him up but now the poop was mashed into the carpet and all over my hand. I glanced back at the guy as I took Pickles back and the poor guy was looking as green as Pickles poop. I’m glad I don’t own a restaurant, I thought as I placed Pickles on his stand and grabbed a Kleenex to clean up my hand and the floor. The next time Pickles climbed down, a couple of minutes later, I intercepted him and he went straight into his travel cage where he spent the rest of his time hollering “WANT OUT!” and carrying on with his annoying squawk, which made for a very uncomfortable conversation between the customer and myself.

  I don’t know how many times he managed to sneak down when I wasn’t looking and he seemed to have a sixth sense for the times he knew he could get away with it. Sometimes he’d get lost in the shop and I’d have to hunt him down until I’d find him on a clothes rack that he managed to climb, or chewing on some product that he could reach from the floor. And, of course, no way could he sit on a clothes rack without pooping on the clothing. We had a strict policy in the store, ‘You poop on it, you bought it’.

  Then there was the time he climbed up the drawers of my desk and managed to snap off most of the computer keys, chew up some invoices and knock my coffee onto everything else. It was quite the fight trying to remove him from the desk because it was just too much darn fun for a little birdie. He saw me coming and there was just so many things he needed to grab at, knowing he didn’t have long on the desk. He was half flying, half running, grabbing and throwing everything in sight and scattering all my paperwork with his flapping wings as I tried to stop him. “Ohhh crap” he said as I finally nabbed him, and got a hard bite for my efforts.

  We were trying everything we could think of to get him to stay put but it was too easy for him to get down from his stand to his cage and onto the floor. After a few days of this, we tried keeping him in his cage but he was miserable. We started leaving him at home, in his cage, but we hated doing this and wanted him at work with us. It was heartbreaking to leave the house with him whining, “Wanna go to work? Wanna make some money?”

  After awhile, Pickles would refuse to go in his cage when we left – which I talked a bit about in my last book – and every morning, it was a struggle. His favorite trick was to fall upside down on our hand when we tried to place him on a cage perch. You can’t get a bird to step down when he’s hanging on to your finger with his feet. We tried to kind of roll him on but he’d just go limp and lay on his chest on the perch, still clinging to a finger. Laying him on his back on the bottom of the cage didn’t work, he could out last you every time. And prying his feet off just earned you a good nip. We hated forcing him but we had no choice.

  We always got him up with us in the morning and it was a couple of hours before we’d leave for work so we didn’t feel it was fair to leave him in the cage all morning before we left. We couldn’t get him back in the cage but we couldn’t leave him out either. Bribing him into his cage with his favorite foods worked but he caught on after a couple of days and stopped falling for that. Every day, one of us had to stay home until Pickles could be caged. We were at a loss and it was time to get help.

  When we turned to PBAS, they helped us with keeping Pickles aloft but we also worked with a couple of other problems – mostly because he was developing them as a result of training him to stay put. Pickles started screaming for attention and refusing to step up on our hands as well as his refusal to step down onto a perch.

  It was at this point in the book that I had intended to elaborate, as promised from the last book, more on how we solved this problem. But, after looking over all my notes and exchanges with the people instructing me, I realized that would take pages and pages and pages so instead, I’m going to give a quick run down and hope that if any of you are having the same problems, you will join the PBAS group for help. After all, I didn’t intend this book to be a book on advice; it’s just a story about Pickles and his daily life.

  After learning the ABC’s and discussing some options we began some courses of action. First and foremost, we built playstands for Pickles and provided him with lots of toys and foraging opportunities to enrich his environment. Playstands were situated around the house to allow him a change of scenery. We learned to watch for signs of boredom and preempted his screaming or climbing down by taking him to another room or window to give him something different to look at. And all day long, no matter how busy we were, we took the time to walk up to Pickles when he was behaving well and chat for a few moments or hand him a toy or snack.

  Without enrichment, he was not going to be happy just staying put. But even with all of that, there were still times he preferred being with us. Of course he did. He likes playing or chatting with us; parrots are social and enjoy company the same as people. It wasn’t always convenient for us though. Sometimes we were busy and couldn’t always give him what he wanted. That’s when we started using time-outs. We use this to show him that there were consequences for climbing to the floor and that he wasn’t going to be able to access reinforcement. This meant making sure we were aware and on top of it at all times because if he reached the floor and had time to find anything interesting, it just taught him to be more persistent. At first we just picked him up immediately and plunked him back on his cage or playstand but this just taught him that he not only found a way to access our attention but there was no consequence to keep him from turning around and getting right back down on the floor. If we were paying attention, tapping on the top of the cage or giving him something to eat or play with sometimes distracted him but only for a while. But once again, his climbing down succeeded in gaining attention from us.

  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 delic
ious 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.

  Chapter 18

  Wanna Go Outside

  “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.”