Book Review: The Click that Does the Trick

by Robin Deutsch

 

Y.F.H. Publications, Inc. 2004 - 107 Pages

ISBN: 0-7938-0561-9

 

Deirdre Graham, Librarian for the Budgerigar and Foreign Bird Society, loaned this book to me to read, some months ago, knowing of my interest in clicker training. Having written a book review on Melinda Johnson's book, clicker Training for Birds, I was anxious to read this book too.

 

 

Robin Deutsch is a professional bird trainer and author of a book on bird nutrition, as well as having written various articles on bird training. A caregiver herself, of an assortment of parrots, she takes the reader of her book through step by step instructions on using a clicker, training tricks for fun and even building some of the required props.

 

The Click that Does the Trick is a basic do-it-yourself book aimed at the new parrot caregiver. Although the language of the book includes many constructs, it is down to earth and would be understood easily by most caregivers. And while the author makes no attempt to teach why or how clicker training works, her methodology seems firmly rooted in the science of behavior. The only scientific vocabulary that I recall having seen, are the "bridging stimulus" and "positive reinforcement".

 

Most of the book, 62 pages, is devoted to specific instructions for teaching each of about 30 tricks. Each trick is clearly titled and organized into two parts:

 

1. The specifics of the trick including the author's assessment of the level of difficulty to train, the required props and a description of the training objective.

 

2. Step by step instructions on training that trick.

 

Finally, I like the organization and clarity of this book. The author gets the would-be clicker trainer involved and busy in the very first chapter. It takes exactly six pages of reading to get positively reinforced...if one follows the directions for introducing the clicker to their parrot. I remember clearly the thrill of seeing my Cockatoo learn what the clicker means. That was positive reinforcement for me and kept me going. I also like the inclusion of a broad range of tricks from "easy" to "advanced" although I might quarrel with the author over her designation of some tricks. In conclusion though, that really is unimportant. What is important is that this book includes something for everybody and is almost sure to make clicker training a successful endeavor for even a novice parrot owner. I look forward to adding this book to my own library.

December 2008