orloffer
Crowing
I have decided to try some basic clicker training with my chickens! This is a thread where I will post questions and updates on how it is coming along. If you have any experience with clicker training chickens (or dogs, for that matter), or training chickens using any other methods, please share your experiences and advice! Or perhaps you would like to try clicker training with your own chickens? Either way, come join in!
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Training tools I am starting off with:
-Clicker (I happened to have one that was very suitably disguised as a chicken). Link to chicken clicker. The clicker is used not to issue commands, but as a marker for desirable behaviors. When the chicken displays the desired behavior, the clicker is immediately used to "mark" that behavior. One click = one reward.
-Target (the item the chicken is pecks to get a reward). I am simply using a 2x2'' piece of origami paper I laminated, but this could be any number of suitable objects. I made two targets, one green (pictured here) and one red.
-Rewards. I am using Tasty Grubs Black Soldier Fly Larvae (freeze dried), as I have large quantities of it on hand and my chooks love it!
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Today was my third day clicker training with Whitey, my CA White. On Day 1 I trained her to associate the click with a reward, by repeatedly clicking and then offering a small cup of grubs for her to take one or two pecks at. Yesterday I introduced the concept of pecking at my green target by placing a grub on the target and clicking and rewarding when she pecked at it to eat the grub. Before long she caught on, and I no longer had to place a grub on the target to get her to peck it.
Today I continued working on targeting, and tried to teach her to peck only at a green target and not at a red one (by only clicking and rewarding pecks at the green). She consistently pecks the green target when both a green and a red one are placed in front of her, even if I switch them around. I will have to keep working on having her not peck when there is only a red target present.
I will update tomorrow if I get a chance!
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Training tools I am starting off with:
-Clicker (I happened to have one that was very suitably disguised as a chicken). Link to chicken clicker. The clicker is used not to issue commands, but as a marker for desirable behaviors. When the chicken displays the desired behavior, the clicker is immediately used to "mark" that behavior. One click = one reward.
-Target (the item the chicken is pecks to get a reward). I am simply using a 2x2'' piece of origami paper I laminated, but this could be any number of suitable objects. I made two targets, one green (pictured here) and one red.
-Rewards. I am using Tasty Grubs Black Soldier Fly Larvae (freeze dried), as I have large quantities of it on hand and my chooks love it!
---
Today was my third day clicker training with Whitey, my CA White. On Day 1 I trained her to associate the click with a reward, by repeatedly clicking and then offering a small cup of grubs for her to take one or two pecks at. Yesterday I introduced the concept of pecking at my green target by placing a grub on the target and clicking and rewarding when she pecked at it to eat the grub. Before long she caught on, and I no longer had to place a grub on the target to get her to peck it.
Today I continued working on targeting, and tried to teach her to peck only at a green target and not at a red one (by only clicking and rewarding pecks at the green). She consistently pecks the green target when both a green and a red one are placed in front of her, even if I switch them around. I will have to keep working on having her not peck when there is only a red target present. I will update tomorrow if I get a chance!
