The Facts About Punishing Birds

Using punishment as a teaching aid is still all too common these days, especially when the subject being taught is a bird! Birds do not think or function like humans do or dogs or even as a horse does. Birds are prey animals and we should study their nature and how they live in the wild to hopefully understand better how to work with them and enjoy their companionship.

The topic of "punishment" is a great source of confusion and guilt that is plaguing many people, and not just an unchallenged method of changing unwanted behaviour.

Susan Friedman Ph.D. explains why, and gives sound strategies for reducing undesirable behaviours in parrots.

The Facts About Punishment S.G. Friedman, PhD, Utah, and Bobbi Brinker, Ohio Published in Original Flying Machine, Issue 4: Jan/Feb 2001

Nowadays, the issue of punishment has become an emotional minefield of misconceptions, good intentions, and general confusion. And this is the good news. We would be loath to return to a time when the use of punishment was unquestioned and was the most common, if not sole, strategy for changing undesirable behavior. A large part of the present confusion results from the perennial gap between research and practice. However, the negative effects of some forms of punishment have been studied scientifically and are well documented. These studies reveal compelling information about the detriments of punishment that no parrot guardian should be without.

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