Training chickens

POULTRY IN MOTION
Ever considered training your chickens? Well, Terry Ryans Chicken Camp aims to show you how, and Nicole Gill went along to learn the secrets

Chicken training tips

Be quick!The ideal timing for clicking is as the behaviour is being enacted; just before the birds beak hits the target. Try to avoid clicking while the chicken is standing still, or engaged in other, unwanted behaviours. If you click, you must feed to avoid confusing your chicken. Even if youve clicked a behaviour accidentally, make sure to give your bird the corresponding treat that shes been conditioned to expect. Be generous in your criteria for rewards. You want to be reinforcing good behaviour with a clickntreat at least 10-15 times a minute; thats 5-8 times per training session. If you dont feel youre able to treat this often, look at what youre choosing to reward. Are your criteria too narrow? Could you make the exercise easier for the bird in some way? Would a tastier treat be more enticing to your feathery student?
Like any sort of animal training, working with a chicken takes time. But even just a few hours spent working with coloured counters and reward treats proves the potential there is.

eady? Begin! In a urry of feathers, 40 chicken feet hit the tables running. Twenty chicken beaks hover over 20 plastic discs, which most of the chickens present have come to associate with food. Bang! The chickens beaks hit the target. Click! The trainer tags good performance with the clicker. Treat! The chicken is allowed to dip into the treats cup for a pellet or some corn; once if youre quick, twice if shes quicker! This is poultry in motion. Most people dont consider chickens to be intellectually gifted. I cant name a single chicken thats won a Nobel prize, or even thats graduated from a reputable university. But, contrary to common prejudices, chickens can learn new skills, and can be trained quite quickly they simply need a little positive reinforcement.Bang! Click! Treat!, Bang! Click! Treat! Bang!...

Keep your workspace clean. If pellets get spilt everywhere, sweep them off immediately, to stop your chicken from becoming distracted. If its a really big spill, get your coach to pick the bird up while the mess is cleared. Dont stand directly behind the target because this puts the treats in the chickens direct line of sight, and can be distracting. Instead, try to stand an arms length away and off to one side, so that you can smoothly transition between clicking and feeding without distracting the bird. Chicken stuck? Reboot her! If your chicken has frozen-up, or is distracted by something, consider picking her up and re-starting the session following a short break. Have you considered a bribe? If your bird is having a particularly hard time focussing on the snail, consider luring her there with a treat placed directly on top of it. However, avoid doing this any more than three times in any training session. Dont blame the learner. If your bird isnt performing the required behaviour, generally, its not her, its you. She wants those treats, and will do her best to get them. So make sure that while youre trying to teach her, youre not confusing her with unnecessary movements, slow reinforcements, or mixed messages.

Quick learners

Bang! The chickens beaks hit the target. Click! The trainer tags good performance with the clicker.
herself from her coachs grip to lunge at the unguarded treat cup. Pellets y everywhere. All right, you can put your chickens away. Terrys the founder of Legacy Canine, an organisation which specialises in training dogs by encouraging behavioural change through positive reinforcement, rather than punishment. Terry teaches her twoday Chicken Camp courses primarily to help people become better trainers of dogs and other animals. She uses chickens as training subjects (or teachers), for a number of important reasons. For a start, unlike your dog, your chicken probably doesnt love you. They have a more limited attention span, and their primary motivation is food; they have no interest in pleasing you for the sake of it. Also, humans have co-evolved with dogs for tens of thousands of years and, as such, were quite good at reading one another. Chickens, on the other hand, are another matter. Most people lack chicken mind-reading skills, which promotes an increased attention to detail in the average trainer. Finally, chickens are easily acquired in large numbers from local farms. In this case, our feathery teachers were supplied by a local, free-range farm. These Plymouth Rock crosses were joined by a handful of rescued, ex-battery Isa Browns, plus a trio of delightful bitzers on loan from somebodys grandmother.

Nicole Gill enjoyed Chicken Camp and the time she spent with Harrier.

Its early afternoon on the rst day of Chicken Camp, and some of the chickens have already worked out what it takes to extract the tasty tidbits from their trainers cups. Stoooooopppp, and pick up your chickens! Orchestrating the 30-second shaping session is a compact woman in her sixties, with a halo of soft, white hair and keen brown eyes that miss nothing. Terry Ryan, legendary dog trainer, is visiting Australia from Washington State, to educate us in the art of chickenwhispering. From the front of the shed, she holds the attention of about 30 students; a mixed bag of dog trainers, zoo keepers, vets and common-or-garden animal lovers. Shes a master at breaking down her lessons into bite-sized chunks, generously interspersed with entertaining anecdotes, and the occasional treat to encourage participation. Not all of the other teachers are so gracious. One squawks irritably at her coach, and starts apping her wings like a bird possessed. Another struggles to free

Clear vision

Chickens have a keen eye for detail, and see in a similar colour spectrum to humans. Theyre also great edge discriminators; they clearly perceive boundaries between objects, helping them spot tiny insects lurking under leaves, or predators hovering overhead. These traits, coupled with their unquenchable desire to peck at things, leads Terry to focus her introductory training exercises on teaching her students to teach the

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Practical Poultry November 2013

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Training chickens
The skills taught on the chicken training course offer many opportunities for the chicken fancier.

were rewarded for any previously dened movements that seemed to bring them closer to the target. This could mean a step towards the plastic counter, a glance in the general direction of the target, or a dip of the head below a certain height on the table. These sessions were purposely kept short no more than 30 seconds and interspersed with short breaks to discuss tactics with your coach.A small cluster of short sessions, followed by long breaks, prevented learning fatigue in the chickens, and also stopped them from stufng themselves to the point of indifference.

Natural aptitude

Terry Ryan teaches her two-day Chicken Camp courses primarily to help people become better trainers of dogs and other animals.

Chickens have a keen eye for detail, and see in a similar colour spectrum to humans.

chickens to peck at colourful plastic counters. Terry uses clicker training to reinforce positive behaviours when observed. Clickers are small, handheld devices which you operate with your thumb to produce a distinct click. When training hens, the click is closely followed by a treat. In this case, birds were rewarded by being allowed a peck into a cup of chicken pellets, cracked corn or, for the especially unmotivated bird, live meal worms. Before the course, all the birds had been

handled extensively, to condition them to be comfortable with humans. Any that didnt want to be picked up, hang out with people, or be otherwise involved in the training process, werent made to participate. The rst day of the course introduced the concept of shaping a behaviour. Trainers worked in pairs, where one person was the coach and chicken-wrangler, and the other took the role of active trainer. Chickens were given 30 seconds on the table, and

Harrier, my assigned chicken, proved an excellent pupil. Hungry for pellets, she quickly discovered that the yellow counter on the table paid out a steady supply of treats when pecked. By the second day, she was discriminating between four different colours of counters (only the yellow one paid), which we moved around to make the exercise trickier. Harrier would not be swayed. Even largely hidden under another counter, she unerringly struck at the yellow disc to claim her pellet prize. The skills taught on this course offer many opportunities for the chicken fancier. Interested in experimenting with your birds? Why not try out the example method described in the panel here, on your birds at home? All of the basic methods detailed in this

Chickens need to be comfortable and relaxed around humans, otherwise theyre never going to learn anything.

article can be adapted to train chickens to learn just about any new behaviour you fancy, but this comes with a caveat. Training is only likely to succeed in the longer term if the behaviour becomes its own reward. For example, chickens trained to eat snails are likely to continue this behaviour in absence of an additional treat as the snails are an actual food that will provide them with nutrition. Theyre unlikely to continue a behaviour thats not inherently rewarding for them.

C  onsult

the experts

Of course, theres nothing like learning from the experts themselves. For more information about Terry Ryans fantastic training courses, check out her website at: legacycanine.com.

Chicken-training to try at home

My Pekin frizzle bantams are fussy little creatures, who turn up their beaks at anything slimy. However, I like to have them in the garden, and would appreciate it if they would pull their weight a little more as pest controllers. Below is a simplied, step-by-step plan to convince them that snails are tasty or, at least, worth considering as a foodstuff.
1. Prepare your chickens Condition your chickens to enjoy, or at least tolerate, being handled. An animal that is worried about your presence isnt an animal thats ready to learn. If youre going to teach the chicken on a garden bench, get the bird used to sitting on the bench without ying off. Training birds works best with two people; one to coach and wrangle the bird, and one to actively train with the clicker cup. Work with the willing, and choose a bird who wants to be involved. If you have a pliable cockerel, consider training him to enjoy the snails; its in his interests to show his hens whats good to eat, so they may copy this behaviour from him. However, recent studies suggest that your ladies may learn better from a dominant hen (refer to Cute and clever, PP114). 2. Learn which treats your bird enjoys Some are content with pellets, others nd corn, sunower seeds or live meal worms more motivating. It can be good to have a range of treats to hand, so that if mere pellets become uninteresting, the birds attention can be recaptured by something a little tastier. 3. Prepare your training apparatus You can make a simple clickntreat cup by attaching a clicker (available cheaply

online) to the handle of a measuring cup with a piece of double-sided tape. Also, acquire some snails and chop them into pieces small enough for your chickens to swallow without problems. 4. Prepare your training area A garden table, with a sheet or similar draped over it for ease of cleaning, is ideal. Consider distractions that may keep your bird from effective learning. Are there predators present (birds of prey, dogs etc.)? Bits of washing apping alarmingly in the breeze? Other things on the table to distract their attention? Place a snail shell at one end of the table with a small piece of snail in it. This will be the target which you will encourage your chicken to peck at. 5. Check your posture You should hold your clicker/feed cup close to your chest, shielding it with your free hand, to avoid the chicken becoming xated on the food. This is your home position, and you should return to it as soon as youve treated your chicken for good behaviour. While actively training

your bird, nothing should move apart from the hand holding the clickntreat bucket. 6. Hone your skills Before bringing your bird in, get your coach to pretend to be the chicken. Get them to mimic the desired behaviour by pecking at the snail shell with their nger. Click from the home position, then treat at the target. Try to time your click to correspond with their nger hitting the shell, move the food to the target so they can have one peck, then immediately return the container to the home position. Practice this a few times until you can do it smoothly. 7. Dene your reward criteria Decide what behaviours you are going to reward. Will it be any movement towards the target, the head dipping below a certain height on the table, pecking anywhere on the table or a combination of these things? Decide this before the chicken arrives, so that you can be consistent and not confuse your bird. 8. Put your chicken on the table! Get your coach to place the bird gently on the

table so that they are easily able to see the target, in this case, the snail shell. I like to start a training session with a clickntreat as soon as the birds feet hit the table. This engages their attention from the outset. Remember, click at your chest, reward at the target, then return your cup to the home position. Short, timed bursts of training are good to avoid tiring the chicken out (or lling her up too quickly!); 30 seconds is ideal. 9. Pick up your chicken! Once 30 seconds has elapsed, the coach needs to pick up your chicken. Dont be tempted to overtrain; your bird may be close to getting the desired behaviour, but its good for both of you to take breaks to avoid learning and training fatigue. 10. Repeat the exercise, but dont overdo it If youre training on a daily basis, keep these sessions to an hour or less. Even this may prove too much for your bird, so be sensitive to her needs. Has she lost interest in the game? Perhaps shes eaten too much, or is just over it for now. If she needs a rest, let her have it, and come

back later when shes more motivated. However, if shes still raring to go 11. Step up your requirements - but be prepared to be exible Have you been clicking and treating for movement towards the target, and is your bird doing this consistently? Reduce the rewards given for only movement, and start to reward pecking towards the snail shell. Is your bird consistently pecking the shell? Start to focus rewards on pecking the snail meat. Is she going straight to the shell and eating the meat? Bring in a full snail. If your chicken begins to falter at any stage, its ok to relax your requirements, and reward a partial behaviour until she can solidly demonstrate that skill, before continuing to a more complex task. 12. Test the skill in different environments Once your bird is condently slaying snails on the training table, see if she will transfer this to the garden. She may require some additional training and reinforcements to do this. Then, once shes got the hang of it, sit back and reap the benets!

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Practical Poultry November 2013

November 2013 Practical Poultry

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