is the Birdtricks stuff trust worthy and all positive?

[spiritpaw]

Hello everyone! I have seven birds I was a newbie just five or six years ago, and although I love all animals with a passion bordering on obssession, I didnt know much about birds. Now I have a whole library of media and personall experience. But I know that there is no such thing as knowing to much. I first joined a forum on the care of my first bird. I also am very passionate about training. I love positive reinforcement and clicker training. I have been a long time fan of melinda johnsons Bird-click website and recommend it to any here looking to further thier knowledge. She has a book for sale on karen pryors clicker store, but all the information is avalaible free on the group. It is just eaiser to read the book for people like me who prefer it all organized.

I was wondering about the bird tricks people? I like the things they show, but I thought I saw some flooding with one of thier meathods of training a macaw not to bite with two sticks. And also there was some food rationing ideas, but I worry about food deprivation, which is an aversive. They also seem a bit to overpriced and what makes me doubt them most of all is how pushy they are. Kinda like a sales person who came to my door trying to sell me a vacume. Makes me instantly suspicous. So I guess I would like somebodys opinion who has actually ordered from them.Are they btrust worthy? do they use ONLY positive techniques? Are the videos worth the price? thanks Spiritpaw

[pchela]

I do not trust them and have heard bad things from people who have ordered from them but I've never ordered from them myself. I do not like their pushy sales tactics and I also do not agree with food deprivation so that the bird will be hungry enough to do tricks for you. I don't think they offer anything that you can't learn on these forums or by doing some research so you'd probably be best off saving your money!

[MandyG]

I've never had a bad experience with them. I've always received the product that I purchased on time. They're definitely an honest company but I don't like their marketing methods.

The products are definitely more expensive than they're worth. I like the trick training videos because I'm a visual learner and I found it easier to watch the training than to just read it in a book. I don't follow the training diet (although I'm not against it) and they no longer advocate the flooding technique. Their videos are definintely helpful, just not worth as much money as they're sold for. Check out their youtube channel, you'll get some information there for free.

You definintely can find the information elsewhere if you look around. This forum has a lot of good information and you can always subscribe to Michael's blog, he'll have lots of training videos on there once Truman is feeling better