Explaining Why Targeting is Effective?

[Michael]

Many of you may have read or checked out the new taming/training guide that I wrote http://TrainedParrot.com/Taming. What I am wondering about is if it is necessary for me to explain in the article why these methods are so effective? You see the article is already very long because there is so much to explain. I was trying to avoid getting too technical or get into detailed explanations beyond what to do.

There are so many reasons target training is like the perfect introductory training method:

-No need to touch bird
-Anyone can do
-Recognizable cue to parrot
-Automatically avoids/prevents biting
-Positive interaction makes parrot look forward to human interaction
-Reduces fear through desensitization and positive interaction
-Eliminates fear biting because of empowerment (if parrot chooses to follow stick to step up, why would it want to bite? it already made the choice to step up).

Basically by following the technique, the owner gets advantage of all these things without realizing it. What I want to know is if you think the article will be more effective or more confusing by explaining these things there.

[Kathleen]

Taming/Training Guide Part 2?

[MandyG]

What I am wondering about is if it is necessary for me to explain in the article why these methods are so effective?

Basically by following the technique, the owner gets advantage of all these things without realizing it. What I want to know is if you think the article will be more effective or more confusing by explaining these things there.

It's not necessary, but it would be beneficial for a lot of members. Many bird owners prefer to just know what to do to get results without understanding why it works. Many, like myself, prefer to learn why the methods are effective and to thoroughly understand the process so you can carry that knowledge on to other areas of training instead of simply understanding that targeting in certain situations are good.

[Michael]

I may end up writing an additional article about why it's good. The big question is if it needs to become a component of that greater taming/training guide or separate. I wonder if the training guide will become too convoluted with the explanations or more accessible?

[MandyG]

Personally I would create a seperate article. You don't want it to be too complicated that beginners lose interest in the original. But if they want to learn more they can use the links to go to the other article.

Or you can create an advanced version of the guide so if people choose they can read the entire article including the advanced information.

It really depends if the additional information will make sense if it stands alone. It's really hard to say without knowing how you're going to present the information.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I think my suggestion would be to create a sort of introductory article that covers the more detailed ones and presents some of the information in a terse, bulleted form, rather similar to what you just did above. Sort of the powerpoint pitch for the article set. It could include a pointer to a more in-depth article on the rationale behind the methods presented as well as to the detailed "taming" article. FWIW....

[rebeccaturpeinen]

i would say seperate article.

like you said, it is already a long article. it is a very interesting article and already explains everything about training a bird wich i understand is the main reason for the article. if people use a bit of common sense and they would already understand why you start out with target training.

i would definitly read the article of why its effective basicly because it would be very interesting to know and learn and because you wrote it (i like your articles ) but for the people that just simply want to learn about how to train a parrot it might not be of much interest.