Quote Originally Posted by kitana View Post
I am really keen to see the differences between your bird and Ryan's. In my (limited) experience with animals clicker trained from early on, they tend to be very well balanced in life, always knowing there is something they can do to obtain what they want instead of throwing a temper tantrum or shutting down. It's true of all clicker trained animals, but those who knew nothing but that are different usually.
Can't say I totally agree with this. I've done a lot of work training many behaviors and a lot of training out aggression problems that others have developed and reinforced in birds over long periods of time including several eagles that had shown aggression for over 20 years. Within a short amount of time of marking non-aggressive and incompatible behaviors you can get rid of most if not all of the problems. There are times when animals can get into a mode where they are offering up everything they have ever learned and more which can be useful and also at times a setback. Animals always know there is something they can do to get what they want, we just have to capture or shape those behaviors so they fit with what we want. Temper tantrums and shutting down are anthropomorphic terms that really dont amount to any more than a behavior that needs to be modified. Imprints or not, they still have instincts that will aways play a role as well. Dogs, Rats, and Chickens are domesticated and instincts play a far lesser role in their lives.

These are some of my experiences that I have had. Having a mark for behaviors is a great tool and I am very interested to find out if starting the bird out from the get go or holding off will really make a difference in the end. I suspect it will not but I've never flown an imprint coop so I'm probably setting myself up for a major shock! Sorry for the hijack Jeff.