Bird Trainer and website

[AGreyBoy21]

I signed up for a bird training thing where i get free bird training videos every few weeks. The website is www.birdtricks.com ,the guy claims to be a pro. I was wondering if anyone knew about this guy or website and what they thought of it and the trainer? thanks a ton

[judygram]

I think you are fooling yourself if you think these videos and everything is free, this guy has been around for a while and the videos are nothing new, I wouldn't waste my time or money on them. Now that he has your email address you will receive sales pitches from him and he will pressure you to buy his stuff.

 

My opinion and not necessarily the opinion of others on this forum.

[Tari]

I have heard that the guy uses fear to train his birds. I do not have any first hand knowledge of this first hand.

But I have never heard anything good about this guy.

[Hannah_Rae]

Personally, I love Chet's stuff. I don't have my bird yet, but have received multiple 5 minute training videos and they have all been quality. Each session is built on building trust with your bird, NOT FEAR TACTICS. In fact his brother, who is a professional performer who has a macaw that is sometimes in his act, posted a video of how trusting the relationship b/w him and his macaw is. (That was horrible sentence structure)

Anywho, although I am not officially endorsing his products, I personally have been impressed by his stuff. Do more research and draw your own conclusions. He often has deals where you can sample a full training course and return it if you aren't satisfied.

[Guest briansmum]

i haven't seen any of his stuff, but with sales pitches like "gain your birds trust in >number< days" i am enclined to think his methods might be flawed as there is no quick fix for anything with a bird. i am just speculating as i said i haven't seen any of his videos, if anyone has one i would like to see it (pm me) but i'm not prepared to give him my email adress.

 

i seem to be doing pretty well training brian myself all trust excercises are done calmly with love and patience and all trick training is done useing positive reinforcement, tickles, praise and the odd sunflower seed, that's all that is needed.

[danmcq]

I personally purchased Chet's DVD etc a year ago when I got my breeder/wild Conure and the DVD was useless in helping me learn anything worth while in taming him.

 

I does show some ways of teaching a few tricks, but I would not recommend it to anyone.

 

This is just my opinion, but he and his brother are not the experts they claim to be.

 

If you find them helpful and enjoy them, then that is all that counts. :-)

[Hannah_Rae]

That is a response I can accept,CQ , because you have actually used the coarse. Like you said, people should decide for themselves, and speculation based on what the website titles are or rumors are foolish.

 

I have been looking into his stuff, so any SOLID opinions are of interest to me. I don't want to spend money on crap, but I also don't want to miss out on good material that could help me learn how to bond with my bird and help her become everything she could be.

[Guest briansmum]

i just wanted to defend my opinion here.

 

firstly he says he can "stop your parrot from biting" no amount of training will remove the prospect of a bite from your bird.

 

also he claims he can teach you tricks causing your bird to let you touch it on it's back, feet etc. this cannot be garanteed with any bird, particularly not a grey.

 

therefore it is my opinion that these miracle training websites are selling gimmics and false hope, i am entitiled to think that and it doesn't make me foolish.

 

by all means enjoy the videos and i'm sure they have some great ideas for fun tricks to teach your bird but as far a serious training and trust building goes i am reluctant to believe their methods are 100% legitimate.

[Hannah_Rae]

I didn't mean to offend. I didn't mean to call you foolish either. It just annoys me when people discount things based on hear say or that it sounds to good to be true.

 

I don't think that the brothers are claiming to work miracles or change every bird, in fact his e-mails often say that some birds need more specific help. I do think that when it comes to biting, and trust issues such as touching etc... that there are certain methods that will decrease unwanted behavior (biting) and increase trusting behavior (touching etc...)

[susie]

hi everyone

my husband and i purchased a 1 year old grey last week and scoured the net for info on them.

we came across the birdtalk videos and were impressed with what chet does.

we have purchased the videos and are just waiting for them to arrive.

as we live in england it might take a few days.

 

once we have recieved them and had a look i will let you all know what we think LOL.

 

our grey is called onslow and hes fantastic.

he goes to my husband and my sons readily but he wont let me or my daughter touch him.

 

i feed him and clean him out hoping that he will eventually trust me.

 

i have had brilliant advice from dave(mr spock)which i am truly gratweful for.

 

susie

[Jane08]

Hello,

 

I can recommend a course, book and DVD that we have used and we have got results.

 

http://www.goodbirdinc.com/

 

This lady really knows what she is talking about and I would not have believed it if we had not gone through the course and seen the changes in our bird. There is no quick fix but over time and patience and training your bird can do anything.

[LisaM]

Just a word on Chet Womach...here is an article from this past May with him addressing his old training technique called "flooding", which was a "scare into submission" technique (yikes!), and his acknowledgement that although it may be an "effective" method, he no longer believes in this approach and now teaches positive reinforcement:

 

http://http://www.buzzle.com/articles/flooding-bad-parrot-training-technique-macaws.html

 

So, his more recent stuff is probably better than what was available in the past (as he would say himself). I'm sure we would all love to hear what you think once you're using them!

 

I do second the recommendation of www.goodbirdinc.com also.

 

Just don't want Chet's name to be scarred forever if he has indeed educated himself and changed his approach (hey, almost everyone used to feed almost solely seed, right?) (now, in my opinion, he should have sent everyone who ever ordered one of his older videos a copy of the new, and better, way to train...but I doubt that happened. Just have to hope that parrot owners out there are trying to keep themselves educated just like everyone on this board! :-)).

 

Lisa

[Moobu]

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to argue For or Against Chet Womach in this post. I'm simply trying to offer some factual statements of what is contained in these DVDs after extensively using his product for those that have requested to know.

 

I recently purchased Chet's new material and can say that overall it is pretty impressive. Yes he makes some... exaggerated claims to sell his videos. (Make your parrot STOP biting forever!) or whatever.. but I feel he offers legitimate help to cut back on many undesired behaviors. His methods are not failproof, but I think he has a good enough success rate to at least merit a glance.

 

From my personal experience so far I would say the movies provide great ideas for gimmick tricks as well as helpful ideas to help tame your bird that some may not have as much luck with. He seems to do a decent job describing why certain steps must be taken to help make the trick successful. They also have a number to call that is usually answered by Wendy. She has been very helpful the couple times I have called and is rarely unavailable.

 

One thing I would like to touch on is what seems to be a very hot debate here on the forums. His "Training Diet". I've seen a couple people portray this method as a starvation tactic used to heartlessly coax the bird into working for its food. If you listen to his detailed description of this diet it is clearly not what Chet is instructing to do. He lays out very careful guidelines on how to safely and humanely break your birds eating habits into routines much like you yourself eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

 

He is very specific of keeping a log of how much food is consumed per day as well as a weight log to monitor bird health. as an example lets say your bird consumes an average of 30g of food per day. You find this by weighing out 50g of food every morning, and weighing what is left before bed time for a week.

He then suggests that you offer your bird 27g of food in the morning AFTER a training session, and remove the food when the bird is done eating. Repeat this during an afternoon time around 1 or 2 feeding your bird the remainder of the 27 grams from earlier. Finally, do a third training session in the evening and for dinner fill your birds dish and let it have access to an unlimited amount of food for a few hours before bed so he can fill up. Remove the food as you go through your birds bedtime routine.

 

Here is the part that many probably miss. The amount of food you DO NOT give your bird throughout the day is supplemented in treats. In my example if you take 3g away from your birds average consumption of food per day, you need to replenish that using 3g in treats. In the end the bird gets the same amount of food it would normally eat in a day on its own. This training diet is intended to allow you to supplement a small amount of this food as treats for scheduled training sessions.

 

His goal isn't to starve the bird into submission like some portray. It is to not have the bird 100% full at all times like he claims they like to keep themselves. Think of it as the classic ?is the glass half empty or half full" question. In this case is the bird 90% full (chet's view) or 10% starved (other views condoning chet's diet.) Basically in a summary of his words, he says that birds will constantly snack to keep themselves "topped off" at all times which makes training sessions for food a futile and unproductive time.

 

I hope the wall of text up there can help people understand the intentions of the diet now that any misinformation has be cleared up. I would love to read any unbiased comments for or against the diet now that I have shed some light on its intricate design.

 

On the negative side of the coin, the videos are also filled with a lot of fluff. Every video starts out with the same 5 minute segment of his brother Dave taking a vacation in what looks like the amazon, doing zip line riding, petting crocodiles, then a magic show. I have also found that, like many others report, he's very adamant about you purchasing other sections of his course. I have personally found that one trick in particular is pretty much ineffective in training my cockatiel though.

 

Overall I would say the tricks contained were well worth the 30 dollars I spent for his guide alone.

 

PS. It's 2 am, I'm tired.. I'm sure I can brainstorm a better list of negatives once I skim over his DVDs tomorrow.

[JillyBeanz]

Moobu - you are clearly part of the PR team for Chet Womach.

 

His techniques are cruel, his face makes me feel ill and most of all he is conning millions of people into paying him to talk absolute crap!

 

Oh - and the email issue - I can't download this site to my desk top to alert me to emails - because the "wonderful" Chet Womach bombards me with emails every couple of hours offering me his "great training material".

 

The guy is a moron - starve your birds, flood them with material - he's not a pet lover he's a tosser!

 

Sorry, I'm ranting again - but I feel posts that are pro-Chet Womach are pure propaganda - you couldn't put your beloved pet through that rigmarole.

[judygram]

To each their own Brad, that is fine if you find some good in the material but I have no use for him and his methods are questionable and I definitely don't like his sales tactics, he gets a thumbs down from me.

[Moobu]

As I said, I'm simply trying to lay out some unbiased facts. I have no affiliation with Chet Womach, I am just trying to get opinions that may be a little more educated than previous writings.

 

Jill you know you can just unsubscribe and never hear from him again right? Open one of his emails and use the link at the VERY bottom of the page.

 

The praise I was giving him was the show trick content of his package. I think he offers great bases to start teaching your bird many tricks. A lot of parrot owners want to teach their birds the eagle trick. It is a pretty simple process through the DVD.

 

I said in my book of a post I wrote that his taming methods were sketchy but worked for enough people to at least merit being looked into.

 

Is anybody here against clicker training? That is the method taught through the DVD.

[danmcq]

The reason many of us dislike "Chet" so much. Is he claims to be a "Seasoned Expert". The reality is, he is learning just like other parrot owners and making money by selling his questionable products to unsuspecting newbies thinking he is a professional bird trainer, which he is not. He actually tries to contact and get advice from REAL "Professionals" that have been training Parrots for decades.

 

The rest of his stuff claiming to stop all the bad behaviours is a load of crap.

 

There is a ton of information on this site and others that is much more helpful than Chets stuff and live people willing to help 24/7 from countries all around the world in different time zones.

 

I got an email from him claiming he was "Nuts" but going to put his "Baby Son" at risk of being attacked by a Scarlett Macaw. Now IF that Macaw was truly that unruly, no one in their right mind would take a young child into that room. It was obvious it was just a "Ploy" to get people to go to his propaganda and coerced into buying his "super secret" Parrot training techniques.

 

Regarding clicker training, it works great and there is a ton of "Free" information on the "Web" that is good and teaches you how to do it properly. Chet probably learned his BASICs free from the web and now sells his "Secrets".

 

Sorry, I have nothing but disdain for him and his advice.....<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2009/08/29 20:27

[Moobu]

Dan your post makes much more sense to me because it seems to have educated and structured reasoning behind it. Other posts I have read seemed to be more "bandwagon" style posts. I completely respect that people have grown to hate him. I myself am not 100% convinced either way about him. I just think that it is rather ignorant to call his training diet a starvation tactic when the details and workings are relatively unknown. I can't really explain why that particular topic bothers me. You may as well be saying you're starving your human children when you tell him he's not allowed that package of pop tarts 20 minutes before dinner.

[danmcq]

All of us have opinions, like you, that we have based upon our previous life experiences. I would never discourage anyone to investigate for themselves and not just "Buy In" to others opinions.

 

I personally bought chets very early version of his training over 3 years ago and it was obvious then, to me, that he knew very little about parrots and was taping his videos while he was "Trying" to train his parrots. :-) Heck, he was even visibly nervous in a few, which I found less than encouraging of trusting his advice.

 

Regarding starvation. I believe what you described is not starvation, but is a carefully controlled diet that keeps the bird hungry, not starving. I do not agree with this method at all. But, I do know that many professional trainers of all critters use it for training. Personally, I simply use treats I know my Parrots love, but ONLY get them when training or they do something that deserves a favorite treat. I subscribe more to positive reinforcement techniques, rather than what I would consider desperation for more food, due to not being fed enough to satisfy.

[Dave007]

I'm so very glad that I remembered and found this post in this thread going all the way back to 2007. It makes it much easier for me to state a fact that I remembered about from a few years ago.

 

From Lisa M

 

Re:Bird Trainer and website - 2007/10/22 20:24

Just a word on Chet Womach...here is an article from this past May with him addressing his old training technique called "flooding", which was a "scare into submission" technique (yikes!), and his acknowledgement that although it may be an "effective" method, he no longer believes in this approach and now teaches positive reinforcement:

======================================================

He recorded this type of method on DVDs and sold them even though they didn't work. He never knew they didn't work but sold the DVDs as though they worked. He never offered any refunds or exchanges.

======================================================

 

Now for what I wanna say. Normally, when I make a statement I try to cover all sources before posting but in this particular situation I can only provide part of it but the ability to find out if I'm telling the truth will be here.

 

There's a well known board located in NY which is unmoderated and has some very extremist views on many animals besides birds,

Once in a great while, Bobbi Brinker or Maggie Wright or Dr. Metz will add a post to a thread. Not all the time but they can be found.

A couple of years ago, Chet Womach was obligated to put in a long post apologising to all customers that had purchased his DVDs because there was information in them that really didn't work although he said that he didn't realize it at the time. There was more to his apology in the post but it's been quite a while and I can't remember it all but I can give you this information to further check it out in case you don't believe me. By the way, no refunds or exchanges were offered.

The name of the place is called THE NEW YORK BIRD CLUB and the Site owner's name is LUCIEDOVE. She can remember about that post.

 

Now on to Parrots/ Food Training/ Amounts of meals.

Parrots are not domestic creatures. Open your window, let your parrot fly away and he's gone.

In the wild, there is no breakfast, lunch and dinner. Parrots need to have basic food by them 24/7. It's the way they live and eat. They're scavengers. They'll eat just about everything they can digest and they do it all day. When a person comes around and says that he/she is gonna change it's methods of eating habits, that person has a problem. A bird's internal organs aren't made to work in the breakfast, lunch, supper mode. If a person can't accept a wild animal and it's instincts, it'sneeds and ingrained modes of personality then they shouldn't have a bird.

 

 

NOW!!!!!!-----This was just said and the reasoning you gave was just to sell videos

 

""""Yes he makes some... Exaggerated claims to sell his videos. (Make your parrot STOP biting forever!) or whatever"""""

 

Do you have the slightest idea what happens when a person sees those magic words**Stop biting forever**???? Do you have the slightest idea how many parrots are in their second, third and fourth homes because they're biters and no good method was used in order to curb it????[/b]

 

A statement like that said in order to sell videos???

Well, it's irisponsible, it's unthinking, it's uncaring, it's only worrying about the almighty dollar, with no real concern about parrot owners! Luckily, a person's thought processes won't be strained when thinking about what the answer is.

 

Just ask yourself if you wanna take a chance and buy something that just may be wrong especially when it's done by a repeat offender??

 

Hey listen, There's a huge difference between getting ripped off by the guy on TV that sells Shamwow and the guy who pretends to know how to deal with an animal's way of living, thinking and changing it and also tries to convince the owners that they're in for a treat.

Matter of fact, I trust the Shamwow guy a lot more cause at least he says "we can't be doing this all day long"

Womach's real site name should be TricktheOwners .com

 

Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2009/08/30 06:28<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2009/08/30 06:35

[judygram]

Thank you so much Dave for that informing post on Chet Womach, yes I agree on the name change or maybe one like www.thereisoneborneveryminute .com or www.sucker .com

[Mitchjr]

As a new Grey owner, I was very close to buying the training videos from Chet. A good friend of mine has a Grey and bought a copy of Chet's tricks video from a a bird class that his mother attends. I converted this video so I can watch it on my ipod. They claimed that the birds they used were never trained before. That seemed a little unreal, but they did show some neat tricks. They do however offer a full refund if you are unhappy. I was wondering if anybody here did buy and get a refund from them. I see some random made videos on ebay for sale, but they seem homemade. What are some better video sources for training and teaching your bird to talk ?