25/02/2022
It's easy to teach a chicken one or two simple tricks. ⭐⭐🐓
Just hold a treat in front of your chicken, then move it to another position. This action will tempt most chickens to follow the treat up onto a box or through a hoop. ⭕ This training technique is 'luring.'
But your chicken isn't thinking much about what they are doing; they are just following the treat. 🍪 Using only this technique will make teaching your chicken more complicated tricks harder.
There is another way. 🤩
You can teach your chicken to look to you to tell them what to do by using gestures and communication (cues). 👍 👉🏻
I call this 'active learning.' It is a stage a chicken gets to where they understand that you want them to do something, and they will try very hard to work out what that is.
Teaching your chicken how to 'actively learn' will enable you to teach your chicken just about anything! 🤩
For example, I am teaching my Pekin hen, Gerdy, to dance. (She'll look so cute with those feathered feet!!). ❤️
She will get on the dancing platform. But I need her to 'dance' (scratch on the board). Because I have taught her a few tricks, she understands that I want her to do something when I point or gesture with my hands. She needs to work out what that is. 🤔
Gerdy will try different things until she makes the correct response. Bingo! 🎉
To me, it is still truly amazing how quickly a chicken that is 'actively learning' will work out what they need to do. 😮
The next time I gesture for her to scratch on the board, she does it within seconds! She knows that is what I want her to do. 👍
You will find that teaching your chicken each new trick will get easier and easier if you teach them how to 'actively learn.'
You will develop your own special way of communicating with each other, and your chicken will become very motivated to work out what you want them to do. 🤩🐓
⭐ Coming soon... a step-by-step guide on how to teach your chickens tricks. 🐓