I'm caught up with posts, but wanted to ask @Faraday40 about this darling photo of teacher and pupil! I know that in animal training, it's important to immediatelygive the reward (that's about all I know). What did your DD tell Bubbles to do? "Peck at the red chip." ? Is this part of a series of tasks or what? Just curious and wanting to try something like that.
I've mentioned many times before that I sing (out of tune) the lullaby, "Hush little baby" to my hens when they are ready for bed because it decreases "arguments" and settles them down. They watch for my signals of slowly closing my eyes off and on and then they close their eyes. (If any new people on the thread are reading this, I hope I am not scaring them away! Haha) Tonight, I softly sang it to my new Lacy who's in quarantine in a bedroom. She started closing her eyes and going to sleep! (She might have been closing her eyes to pretend I wasn't there!) So as far as training, I've done some unplanned training (one night I was humming which led to the lullaby, etc.), but I'd like teach my hens some tricks!
Reptiles do that. If there's something they're unsure about, they will "zone out" in defense. It's their way of hiding from the stress.
Of course, Lacy is probably more comforted by the sound of your voice, so it's a good thing.
Right now Bubbles is quite an expert & very quick to pick up on new tricks.
DD started out by tapping the red chip with her finger. When Bubbles pecked at it, DD used a clicker to make a sound & placed a cup of mealworms in front of the hen. A few seconds later, Bubbles pecked at the chip again, heard the clicker, & got another mealworm reward. What chicken wouldn't want a cup of mealworms to magically appear? Bubbles learned to associate the red chip, the click sound, & the mealworms as a very good thing. Once the hen caught on, DD added a white chip (no reward given). Oh you could see her little brain try to figure out why the white chip did not cause the mealworms to appear. She kept pecking at it then got frustrated & walked away. DD called her back & showed her the red chip next to the white one. When she hit the red one, the mealworms came back!! Oh Joy! She went to town pecking at the red chip & getting her mealworms. When it was moved, she searched for & found it.
The next day, Bubbles remembered the lovely red chip & mostly ignored the white chip. More colors were added, Bubbles tested some of them, but we could see her looking for the red chip. Because the clicker is also associated with the reward, DD can immediately click when the action is done to tell Bubbles she did well. When DD tried to reward every 3rd click, Bubbles changed her behavior to peck 3xs in a row then stopped to wait for her mealworm. Since then, DD has moved on to cards in the more recent training sessions. She starts off with the card that will be connected with the treat. Once it's in the the hen's memory, she adds the distraction cards. I used the same methods to train Cuddles, but I'm very impressed with how quickly Bubbles makes connections.
We're also training our Sebright, Trouble. (Not for fun. We just need to) That bird is so fast (not to mention an expert flyer), I would never be able to catch her. I've been saying, "UP" and putting out my hand or arm for her to climb on to. When she does, I allow her to dip her beak into the cup of scratch grains I'm holding. Then I say down & put my arm near a roost or chair or coop roof, etc. so she can hop off. When I say "UP" again she jumps back onto my arm & can grab a little more scratch. Too many times, Trouble has tried to land on my head or shoulder. Although I'm glad she thinks I'm a safe place to land, it freaks me out a little. My goal is to get her to come on command - or at least when I hold the treat cup. DD also works with Trouble, but Bubbles will be her primary pupil. There are times when you need to grab a chicken, & Trouble's the only one that doesn't like to be picked up. If we can train her to come to us, that's just as good.
