Quote:
Originally Posted by MicahEspudo
The second link contradicts Carly's info about un-weaned babies, but it is still interesting :)
|
Yes, it certainly does contradict it. That trainer is extremely inexperienced with flight training, and learned from someone who is pretty much on the fringes in terms of methodology. There is an article with more info about Carly's flight training in the current issue of Barbara Heidenreich's magazine
Good Bird.
One of the Birdtricks brothers contacted me when he prematurely flew the very inexperienced grey in the videos at the beach, where a big seagull chase occurred. I told him I used a much different method and did not advocate the "throw them in and see if they can swim" approach. The method described in the videos progresses so fast and so recklessly -- even for a young bird -- that no one in the professional bird training world will endorse it. If someone has such a shallow understanding of the training process to not even know that forcing a bird into situations against their will is not an accepted method, then it's my opinion they should be on the learning end of training education, not the teaching end.
I'm not trying to interfere with anyone's personal endeavors, but when it's marketed or put before the public at the expense of birds (not just stress, but very likely losses or accidents when the "baby-bond" wears off) I think it's important to make sure there is also information out there about what professional trainers actually do. I'm not claiming to be one of them, but I
only follow methods that are in line with very reputable trainers like Barbara Heidenreich and Sid Price (who are a past president and the president-elect of an international trainers' association, among other credentials).
For clicker training there is an excellent yahoo group called
Bird-click; the group owner is the author of an equally good and inexpensive book called
Clicker Training for Birds. Karen Pryor's
Don't Shoot the Dog is another really excellent book that many people I know who free-fly have read several times over. (It's not just about dogs.) These resources are how most of us who free-fly got started.
These training methods are not new, nor secret. Trainers for zoos and shows have been doing this for decades, and scientists have been studying the principles behind it, operant conditioning, for even longer. And that makes it even more obvious when someone professing to be an expert doesn't really get it.
Here are another couple of interesting links when considering training methods:
Barbara Heidenreich's Training Talk Blog
Sid Price's Training Blog
Happy training!