I've started taking my dogs to a trainer who is also a behaviorist. Today we got to talking about chickens and it turns out that she studied with a guy who learned from Skinner on clicker training.
Naturally, she talked about teaching chickens to do figure 8's around safety cones and distinguishing between objects. I looked at her and said, "Not to offend, but why?" She said, "To learn how to better train dogs." "That's fair", I said. "Can you help me teach them to come running from anywhere in the yard?" "That's easy!" she replied.
So this week, I'm supposed to glue a clicker to the handle of a measuring cup and start letting the hen of my choice to eat out of the cup, just one peck at a time. She said to pick a rescued hen because that's what trainers use so I'm picking one from the group of RIRs that I got last year from a farmer's culling pen. This one was a disaster and particularly attentive. I'll take her to the training facility next week and we'll start with the clicker part.
Wish me luck! This will be fun.
Naturally, she talked about teaching chickens to do figure 8's around safety cones and distinguishing between objects. I looked at her and said, "Not to offend, but why?" She said, "To learn how to better train dogs." "That's fair", I said. "Can you help me teach them to come running from anywhere in the yard?" "That's easy!" she replied.
So this week, I'm supposed to glue a clicker to the handle of a measuring cup and start letting the hen of my choice to eat out of the cup, just one peck at a time. She said to pick a rescued hen because that's what trainers use so I'm picking one from the group of RIRs that I got last year from a farmer's culling pen. This one was a disaster and particularly attentive. I'll take her to the training facility next week and we'll start with the clicker part.
Wish me luck! This will be fun.
