Can you train chickens to do tricks?

Yes - many dog trainers attend "chicken camp" which is a training course using clickers to train chickens as a way to hone dog training skills. It is easier for many people to learn to use a clicker on a chicken than it is on a dog:

https://www.legacycanine.com/chicken-workshops
http://www.greenacreskennel.com/blog/tag/chicken-camp-marian-and-bob-bailey/

If you want some background, this short on B.F. Skinner (the video is about training pigeons, but applies to chickens and other animals):


There are even chicken arcade games based on this:
https://www3.uca.edu/iqzoo/Media/Pics/chickclerk4.JPG

 
I guess in a strange sort of way we see "chicken training" on here everyday. Check the posts for "My chickens won't go into the coop" and see how many people have trained their chickens to wait in the dark until their human comes and puts them inside. Or "When I turn off the lights my chickens freak out" to see how they've been trained to perform their tantrum until their human brings them back in the house or turns on a light for them. Then there's the ever popular "How do I get my chickens to roost" where again the chickens obediently do a sit/stay in one place until their human comes in and puts them on the roost.

Hmmmm. come to think of it, kinda hard to tell who's training who, isn't it? :idunno That's a bit "tongue in cheek" of course....out of the three things I've mentioned, I've done two! Not telling which ones, though! :gig

I saw a video of two little girls training a chicken to do an "obstacle course". That was really cute.
 
You don't need treats to train a dog .A dog will learn by just positive reinforcement (patting it on head sayings good dog ) or negative reinforcement ( forcefully telling no).I don't believe chicken is capable of that knd of thought process. Chickens are by no means stupid I just think there though process is instinctual not emotional.
 
You don't need treats to train a dog .A dog will learn by just positive reinforcement (patting it on head sayings good dog ) or negative reinforcement ( forcefully telling no).I don't believe chicken is capable of that knd of thought process. Chickens are by no means stupid I just think there though process is instinctual not emotional.

Yes, they can learn from positive reinforcements. I've heard that chickens can learn in the same way. You don't HAVE to use food.
 
Not exactly... Large animals need larger brains to monitor and run their large organs and higher number of nerve endings. Any measure of brain size must take into account the size of the body. For example, dolphins have MUCH larger brains than us, but we are still more intelligent than them, right?

The current thinking is that number of neurons is related to overall intelligence and the number of neurons is not directly related to the size of the brain or body size:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...cats-dogs-or-raccoons/?utm_term=.39abb703a42b
 
You don't need treats to train a dog .A dog will learn by just positive reinforcement (patting it on head sayings good dog ) or negative reinforcement ( forcefully telling no).I don't believe chicken is capable of that knd of thought process. Chickens are by no means stupid I just think there though process is instinctual not emotional.

Treats are positive reinforcement - anything that the subject finds pleasant is positive reinforcement. For dogs that may be food, toys, play or human interaction. Chickens probably aren't into human interaction they way dogs are but that doesn't mean they can't be trained by positive reinforcement.
 

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