Chicken Clicken

So last Wednesday Amanda sent me an e-mail asking if I'd like to learn how to clicker train a chicken. At first I thought she was totally pulling my leg, however she also provided a link to to an article that explained the basis of this type of operant training. After reading about Bob Bailey and the work he has done training over 140 different species I was hooked.

I haven't done a lot of clicker training with my own dog, I am not exactly the most graceful person (thanks Mom! Love you!) and the thought of holding a clicker, treats, a leash, a toy (or two or three) and remembering what to do with all that stuff at the right time is pretty overwhelming. Not that I don't think it works...just haven't done a lot of it.

On Saturday we were essentially given a crash course in chicken clicken...we started out with some dry runs where we just tried to get the clicking and rewarding movement smoothed out. It looks easier than it is! We then tried to get our chickens to associate the click with a reward (the grain) and once they were understanding that you could attempt to shape their behavior. The idea was that eventually they would offer a behavior (to peck a circle on the table) for the reward. If you are interested, here is a video that might explain this all a little better.

Do you see the death grip I have on this gal, she was desperate to escape and I had NO desire to try to catch her!

I was glad to be invited and spending time training chickens got me thinking about ways I can better train Neena. Like I said I haven't done much clicker training with Neena but tonight I dug out our clicker and starting re-familiarizing ourselves. My goal is to have Neena weaving 3 poles by the time the gals get back from Nationals and I'm hoping I can use what I learned to help.

(P.S. Thanks to Amanda for taking the photo's and sending me the links!)