Oh, fear responses. I am often asked what are the consequences if we do indeed evoke a fear response. For example, if we have trained for restraint but then hold for longer than planned for a medical procedure. Will the animal refuse to cooperate in the future? The answer is…it depends. It depends on things like how unpleasant the aversive experience was, how much reinforcement history the animal has with the behavior, etc. The good news is usually we can get back on track by going back a few steps in our shaping plans and rebuilding the behavior. Additionally, having hundreds of great experiences with the behavior can help prevent a behavior from breaking down from one aversive experience on occasion. And once we have the information that a procedure could be challenging, we can plan on training for more than what the animal will need to experience in the future to prevent set-backs. Needless to say, my macaw flew right back over to continue her bath moments after the dryer buzzer (fortunately, a minor aversive) startled her. #fearresponses #animalbehavior #animalbehaviour #animaltraining #macaws #bluethroatedmacaw #parrots #parrottraining #parrotbath #macawbath
