Re: [Freeflight] Re: Aversive Stimulus.....it aint necessarily so

["Tom Beard" <tomasbeard@...>]

Hi Barb,
One of these days I hope to be able to take one of Susans classes or attend one of Steve's classes. So in the meantime I just keep 
reading and applying what I can. :-)
Tom

Hi Tom,

I "think" I was a pretty good trainer when I was just cruising along doing
what I knew worked based on experience or because someone taught me. When I
started learning the (ABA) science behind it, I got a lot better IMO. I agree it
is easy to get lost in the terminology and I even repeat to myself "punishment
decreases, reinforcement increases" at times when I get confused : ) Again a
chat type list serve may not be the best way to learn this stuff incrementally.
I think like any learning it is nice to start with one bit at a time and
build from there. And BTW, I also have not participated in Susan's class : )
although I do support her work.

So I don't think is bad to not know the science, but it sure can open the
door to a world of possibilities IMO. So I'd say find an element that intrigues
you an perhaps focus on learning more about that one thing : )
Barbara

Barbara Heidenreich
Good Bird, Inc.
http://www.goodbirdinc.com/

In a message dated 6/3/2005 5:04:02 PM Central Daylight Time,
tomasbeard@... writes:
understand where you are coming from. I was raised on a farm and have been
around animals all my life and it is much easier for
me to handle our parrots then it is for example, my wife, who has not had
that same experience. I have also not attended any of the
classes mentioned here, so I am not very knowledgeable about these scientific
and physiological terms and methods. What I do have a
problem with is the mixing of the intuitive abilities of someone and the
scientific application of the process. It becomes
confusing when we do that, especially when the application of proven
scientific principals don't match the explanation of someone's
educated guess. Then the discussion ends up being about terminology instead
of how to accomplish a given task or how to change a
parrots behavior.
Tom