Does anyone have an opinion on....

[CoCo1]

Does anyone have an opinion on the Womack brothers and their DVD's for training parrots?

 

[CoCo1]

I hope I didn't not ask a taboo question.... I just am not sure if it is another gimmick or it is worth the couple hundred dollars.

 

[weco]

I hesitated to reply because it's been over 8 years since I've seen any of their products but I was not impressed with what I saw then. The early package I saw appeared to be homemade & definitely was not polished or appear to be professionally done.....what is available now I do not know.

Their training methods were basically modified flooding techniques. I will say that I have seen several reviews, purportedly from happy purchasers, but then, I guess it can be questionable about the validity of reviews that sound like they came from a script writer. I also had to change my email address in order to stop their spam.....they were very good at sending junk mail.

To be fair, I know someone who had good things to say about their vendor support services.....she got paid quickly & they were quick to refund...to vendors - her at least...refunds for returned merchandise.....never thought to inquire about what her return percentage was. The conversation was not about them or their birdtricks merchandise, but, on reflecting back on it, my impression was that she had more than a few dissatisfied customers and a good return service to your vendors is the best way to be able to keep your link on their websites.

Would I buy their products.....no.

 

[Boysmom]

My son uses their videos to trick train our birds, and he has had alot of success. I can't say if they are the best on the market or not, because it's the only ones he has used. He saved his modeling money and purchased them last year, and has used Ruby and Marshmallow in live shows performing their tricks he taught using these DVD's. Their customer support is great and we werent flooded by emails as some have said happened to them. We also subscribe to their monthly toy program and are very pleased with the toys that arrive each month.

 

[MonicaMc]

There's been threads about them in the past.

http://www.parrotforums.com/off-topic/23376-birdtricks.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/macaws/25656-has-anyone-used-birdtricks-dot-com.html


My personal opinion more or less follows Weco's... what I did see, I was not impressed with. One ad had them "barreling over cliffs" and "swimming with sharks". Sounded enthralling. The video? They were in a helicopter going over cliffs towards the ocean. The sharks? Black tipped reef sharks. Danger to humans? About the same as nurse sharks. That is, hardly dangerous, and there's rarely ever been many reports of these sharks attacking humans. Yes, it can happen, but rare.


The Womach brothers do not have any certification as animal trainers or behaviorists. They simply piggyback off of what they've learned from other trainers, then sell it as their own. They are *GREAT* sales people and have been known to change stories to suit their needs. They have a lot of passion for what they do, and they admit that flooding was wrong. I have not seen their latest videos, but what I heard was that they are replacing all their old videos on flooding with positive reinforcement.

In short, they have changed their ways and I've heard good things about their new DVD's. Still, I would recommend trainers who are well respected and actually do have certifications in training and/or as behaviorists and understand ABA. The information from these trainers can actually be cheaper than what BirdTricks sells, and for the same information, if not better.

Karen Pryor is the one that started it all. (or so it's said) Her book, "Don't Shoot The Dog" has been touted as the "Bible" of positive reinforcement.

Melinda Johnson has a great book on Clicker Training Birds.

Barbara Heidenreich is a certified animal trainer and a great one at that! She's also got a great blog!

Susan Friedman is another certified trainer and she has some great, free articles on her website.

I occasionally forget about Steve Martin, but he's also an excellent trainer. He often works with Susan Friedman to give online training courses.



As far as e-mails go from BirdTricks... apparently, they are no longer doing that, but they do have a blog of their own now. They also have a 'care package' for parrots that you can buy, and they'll send you toys every month. Some people may find this convenient, but it's kind of expensive, for what little that you get.

 

[CoCo1]

I understand about them flooding the email with junk. I get stuff everyday, 2 and 3 times somedays. I would have to say they have not matured much since you first learned of them- I watch the videos (freebees they send me)- and I find myself getting annoyed. But with my CAG i am pretty much willing to try anything (rescue). I just wasn't sure if spending the 200+ was actually proven to be worth it. Thank you for the honesty!