How to Train to Pose for Judge in Cage

[gabbyscritters]

I'm sure this can be done, I am guessing using treats to train.
How do you train a chicken to strike a pose and say "hey look at me" when the judge comes to the cage?
Showing off and looking their best to the judge would be nice instead of preening feathers or scrathing shavings on the cage floor.

 

[Illia]

When the judges come around to your birds' cages, you won't be there, so. . . The bird is going to do whatever it pleases. The judge should be experienced enough to know how to evaluate a bird.

Poultry showing is a bit different from showing quadruped animals.

 

[geosheets]

Quote:
Not true at all Illia. Modern game bantams MUST be trained to pose. There may be other breeds I'm not as familiar with that are also trained but I'll let you research that...

OP, it does depend on the breed on whether training is necessary... if you are curious on how they do it with the above mentioned birds just search 'posing modern game bantams' on the internet. The MGB's are birds that you want to stand erect and tall when judged... other breeds(like silkies) would not fare as well in a show if they stood erect and tall.

 

[gabbyscritters]

It is mainly regarding Dutch bantams. The poultry judge made comment on my daughters Dutch pullet that they should have a "look at me attitude" and stand proud with tail up.
Which we know, the pullet is young and obviously she was comfortable about being moved into the show judging cages as she was preening herself and wondering the cage scratching in the shavings.

It got me thinking about training them to perk up and look pretty. I will search under games, see if I can find any ideas. If it can be done I'm sure my daughter can do it, especially using treats as rewards. Already thought of having hubby make a "show cage", daughter could me it to different locations the banties are not familar with to work with them.

 

[onehorse_2000]

I was just reading a book about raising orps and it talks about training the show birds to pose to hide the faults, which, as the author states, every bird has some, so it's is do-able and recommended. I don't remember the particulars as to what he did, though, sorry.

 

[southernsickles]

There are alot of things you can do to make birds show better.A few of the things we do is,Get you a few show pens.Rotate the birds in and out just to get them comfortable to the smaller cages.If you give them treats in the show pens always make them come to the front of the cage to get the treat.You dont want them hanging around at the back of the cage.If we are showing females I never let them see each other until they are in the showroom.I have dividers between my showpens that I use for training.This will make each female think that she is the boss hen and not cower down to the one next to her.Any time I am giving treats in the show pens at home I always wear a white long sleeve jacket.This seems to help the birds relate treats to the white jacket that the judge wears.There are alot of other little things that you can do to help but it also comes down to the birds.They either want to show or they dont.The ones that don't won't be around me very long.

 

[ofeycat123]

if im showing in the intermediate at the county fair do i need to worry about teaching my modern to pose?