I agree with dominant behavior but the rest of that article was beyond freaky....chickens on the bed and in cages, socks on their heads, strings on the legs, fighting their beaks, throwing them in the air...sounds like Gitmo! You can train a rooster much like you train a dog on undesirable behaviors. If you can train a dog to stop barking upon your order, you can train a rooster the same way if you put in the time and technique to get him there.
One thing he said was accurate...top roo crows, lesser roos rarely crow if they are all kept in the same flock structure. That's because there has been a dominance ritual at some point that let the lesser roo know that he is not the one that gets to sound off. Crowing is not about alerting the flock to danger...that call is entirely different and is a desirable sound for the bird to be making.
I've been blessed with roosters that are smart enough to learn the dominance structure in my flocks and so I get to enjoy very quiet days. Early morning crows are all I get. Occasionally one of my roosters will crow in the day but I can curtail that by making an appearance outside and telling him to shut it and move along. And he does. Bigger roo has spoken, lesser roo must keep quiet. Most of the time I don't ever hear crows in the day...no need for it. Everyone knows who is dominant in the flock and so they wait for the dominant rooster to crow....but I don't crow either, nor do I shout or flap my wings. I expect the same from those in my flock...quiet, mannerly, normal behavior of secure chickens in a secure world. And I get it.
Establishing dominance is pretty easy and if you are consistent, doesn't take much time and the birds pick up on it pretty quickly. They also pick up on it pretty quickly if someone is not dominant and then you have no hope of establishing dominance...they will not be fooled by sticks, yells, holding them down or any other such maneuver. Either you are dominant or you are not....I've not often seen people who are not learn how to be so unless they are very determined and consistent in their body language and mindset to affect a change.
A lot of people think they are dominant...if you watch the Dog Whisperer, those are the people who yank on the leash all the time and speak in stern tones to their dogs, while the dogs keep right on doing what they want to do. This is not dominance. That is a weak person pretending to be dominant...the animal is not fooled.
Dominance is a state of mind more than a list of actions. You decide what you want and you determine how to get it, then you just get it. No words are necessary unless you want to add them as cues for training. My last roo was trained to his name and hand signals. The name to let him know it was he that was being addressed, the hand signals to let him know what I wanted him to do.
For unsolicited or daytime crowing, I would just say his name and move in his direction and keep moving there, separating him from his flock...until he stops crowing. That's all it took. Pressure the animal, make sure he knows he is the one being pressured and then stop pressuring when he gives the desired result. Just like in training horses or dogs. It doesn't take long and it doesn't take repeating it over and over, day in and day out...just consistency of behavior from you for the undesirable behavior from him. Soon he learns what you want. Soon he learns that he will get the same behavior from you(a bad thing to a rooster to be separate from the flock) every time he does the crowing behavior, so he just stops doing the crowing behavior.
It works! Play around with it and see what happens, what works, what doesn't...but be consistent and dependable. Not wishy washy or indecisive. A certain trust will develop over time wherein he can expect a certain behavior from you when he does a certain behavior. This works on other things as well, like dominance at the feeder, for both hens and roo.
You can train your flock on a number of things and have a better, more peaceful and quiet flock all the way around.....and none of it involves cages, strings, socks, cuddling, throwing birds up in the air or fighting their beaks. It can all be done with slow and steady movement, a word here or there, a nudge or tap or even just moving in their direction.
One thing he said was accurate...top roo crows, lesser roos rarely crow if they are all kept in the same flock structure. That's because there has been a dominance ritual at some point that let the lesser roo know that he is not the one that gets to sound off. Crowing is not about alerting the flock to danger...that call is entirely different and is a desirable sound for the bird to be making.
I've been blessed with roosters that are smart enough to learn the dominance structure in my flocks and so I get to enjoy very quiet days. Early morning crows are all I get. Occasionally one of my roosters will crow in the day but I can curtail that by making an appearance outside and telling him to shut it and move along. And he does. Bigger roo has spoken, lesser roo must keep quiet. Most of the time I don't ever hear crows in the day...no need for it. Everyone knows who is dominant in the flock and so they wait for the dominant rooster to crow....but I don't crow either, nor do I shout or flap my wings. I expect the same from those in my flock...quiet, mannerly, normal behavior of secure chickens in a secure world. And I get it.
Establishing dominance is pretty easy and if you are consistent, doesn't take much time and the birds pick up on it pretty quickly. They also pick up on it pretty quickly if someone is not dominant and then you have no hope of establishing dominance...they will not be fooled by sticks, yells, holding them down or any other such maneuver. Either you are dominant or you are not....I've not often seen people who are not learn how to be so unless they are very determined and consistent in their body language and mindset to affect a change.
A lot of people think they are dominant...if you watch the Dog Whisperer, those are the people who yank on the leash all the time and speak in stern tones to their dogs, while the dogs keep right on doing what they want to do. This is not dominance. That is a weak person pretending to be dominant...the animal is not fooled.
Dominance is a state of mind more than a list of actions. You decide what you want and you determine how to get it, then you just get it. No words are necessary unless you want to add them as cues for training. My last roo was trained to his name and hand signals. The name to let him know it was he that was being addressed, the hand signals to let him know what I wanted him to do.
For unsolicited or daytime crowing, I would just say his name and move in his direction and keep moving there, separating him from his flock...until he stops crowing. That's all it took. Pressure the animal, make sure he knows he is the one being pressured and then stop pressuring when he gives the desired result. Just like in training horses or dogs. It doesn't take long and it doesn't take repeating it over and over, day in and day out...just consistency of behavior from you for the undesirable behavior from him. Soon he learns what you want. Soon he learns that he will get the same behavior from you(a bad thing to a rooster to be separate from the flock) every time he does the crowing behavior, so he just stops doing the crowing behavior.
It works! Play around with it and see what happens, what works, what doesn't...but be consistent and dependable. Not wishy washy or indecisive. A certain trust will develop over time wherein he can expect a certain behavior from you when he does a certain behavior. This works on other things as well, like dominance at the feeder, for both hens and roo.
You can train your flock on a number of things and have a better, more peaceful and quiet flock all the way around.....and none of it involves cages, strings, socks, cuddling, throwing birds up in the air or fighting their beaks. It can all be done with slow and steady movement, a word here or there, a nudge or tap or even just moving in their direction.
