OK, this is an essential DVD. Of the several that I have watched so far, "Parrot Behavior & Training (Part 1): Introduction to Training by Barbara Heidenreich" is the best. Barbara has been a wild bird and companion bird trainer for over 15 years and understands positive training methods. She walks you through the basics of training and then shows several birds learning step-up, step-down, spin, targeting, and fly to your hand.
Barbara does not use a clicker - she states that she feels that a verbal bridge is better. Of course many trainers believe that a clicker is much more precise in terms of timing, but Barbara's reasons for not using the clicker make sense: it is difficult to hold a bird, a treat, a prop, and a clicker all at the same time. And, she has a point. It is difficult to handle all of those things when training a bird (there is another difference between birds and dogs). You can fix this problem by using the Clicker+ which has a finger loop and does let you hold other objects at the same time. I think I will try to keep the clicker for the timing benefits and manage the handful.
The second difference between what Barbara teaches and things I have learned in the past has to do with targeting. Barbara starts out by teaching the bird to target on her fist instead of a stick. It appears to work well in the video and has some apparent advantages in terms of ease of manipulation. Using the hand as a target seems to give the benefit of a food lure without the drawback of being a focus on the food. She delivers the treat from the same hand that is used as a target. As with all techniques, this is not a one-size-fits-all. There are times when you want the bird to approach the target with his beak and times when you want him to use his foot or another part of his body - you need different targets for each.
I highly recommend this video. I have other videos by Tani Robar and Chet Womach (which I will review here later), but the one by Barbara Heidenreich is by far the best if you are only getting one.
BTW, Barbara is doing a two day seminar in the Seattle area in early February, 2007 that I am planning to attend. I will let you know how that goes as well.
