Target Training

Target Training Written By Chris Biro, Copyright 2008

See short video of target training.

Most commonly "targeting" refers to touching the end of a stick but can refer to the animal going to or touching with some body part a desired object or location. Targeting is a simple behavior that has great value as a training aid and training tool. It is a behavior that has no grey areas, the animal is either doing the behavior or it is not, there are no in betweens. As such it is very useful in helping an animal learn about the rules of learning. When combined with clicker training, targeting helps the animal more quickly come to understand the meaning of the clicker. Targeting can be a good behavior to teach the concepts involved with good stimulus control. Targeting also is valuable as a useful behavior once learned. A target stick can be used to lure an animal to a location, like in or out of a cage or carrier or to a particular perch. I use targeting as part of my initial recall training for flighted birds.

To train targeting you need a target, an animal, and a reinforcer. I like to use a target stick that has no other function except being my "target stick". My animals all know that when that stick comes out, we are about to do some training. They never confuse it with a perch, a pencil or some other functional device. I use either a chop stick or a one foot long piece of 1/2 PVC pipe with an end cap on either end. One end cap is painted blue and the other red. These can be used for training the birds to distinguish between different colors. I use a clicker as it more clearly identifies the precise moment the behavior happens.

To start, I put the bird on a T perch. I will hold the target stick up to the bird and note the bird's reaction. If it recoils in fear, then I will "shorten" the target stick by hiding most of it behind my arm. By offering the target stick with most of the length hidden behind my arm I can offer what appears to the bird to be just the end cap or the end cap and a few inches of the target stick. In most cases the bird will touch the target stick without much effort. Initially it does not matter WHY the bird touched the stick, it only matters that it does. It does not matter if the bird touches the target stick out of fear, aggression, curiosity, defensive attacks, etc. At first it does not matter if it bites the stick. So long as contact with the stick is made, that is what matters.

When the bird does make contact with the target stick, I click my clicker and immediately offer the bird a desired treat. I use peanuts or sunflower seeds the most but occasionally use french fries, potato chips, or anything else I happen to have that the bird seems to desire. Timing is important especially if this is the first behavior the bird is learning. By clicking the clicker at exactly the moment the bird makes contact with the target stick the bird can tell that it is the touching of the stick that earned it the goody. Sloppy timing will make that association more difficult to make.

As with all behaviors getting the first repetition to happen so you have something to reinforce is the trick. Most often the animal will reach out to the target stick due to curiosity or defensiveness. In either case it may bite the stick or just touch it briefly. Click and treat at the moment of contact. Normally it is the goal for the animal to initiate the action that causes the physical contact to occur but in some cases I will initiate the contact myself by touching the target stick to the birds beak, click and treat. Usually this "jump starting" is only needed a couple times to give the animal the idea that something good happens when the stick touches the beak. Or you can start clicking for simply the bird looking at the target stick. Then click for head turned in the direction of the target stick. This will usually lead to the bird becoming curious enough to reach out and touch the stick, click/treat. Initially I may resort to putting the stick into the face of the bird so it has little choice but to touch the stick. Usually after only two or three reps like this the bird will become more interested in touching the stick on its own, probably because it is starting to make the connection that there is a good thing that happens after touching this stick. After each such repetition I will always try it with them having the choice (discussed in the next paragraph) to see if we are making progress. If not I repeat and then test again.

Once the bird is touching the stick when it is right in front of its face, I then change the criteria so that the stick is now positioned off to the side of the birds face. The bird then must turn its head to reach over and make contact with the target stick. This is a simple test to see if the bird does in fact understand what is going on. Once the bird will turn its head to touch the target stick we again change the criteria so that the bird must take a step to touch it. Next I work on getting them to walk across the perch to come touch the target stick. I might also work on turn 90 or 180 degrees to touch the target. Then turn 270, then 360 degrees. At this point they are usually starting to "get it" and the progress goes quickly. Then we work on them walking across a table or cage top to reach the target stick. This is a form of "luring" the bird with the target stick since the bird is now moving to the location the target stick is held.

Targeting is a great way to teach the bird the 'cause and effect' concept and how the bird can influence you to give it treats through selecting its behavior, sometimes referred to as "operating on its environment". After teaching targeting I then use my clicker to mark and then reinforce other simple behaviors the bird already knows, like step up, step down, etc. This then helps generalize the click/treat relationship and how the click marks the behavior that earned the bird the goody. From this I can move on to clicking the bird for letting me touch it on its head or back and usually within a few minutes can have the bird putting its head down to be touched. Targeting is a great first step toward such goals.

Parrots: more than pets, friends for life.

Chris Biro