For those of you who donāt know, I have been working at a raptor center for the last four years, and this is where I learned everything I know about animal training. We use a contemporary, stress-free and force-free method of training that is used by many other professional animal trainers, which follows an āA-B-Cā guideline. Iāve gone on to use this method on the lab chickens and turkeys I study as a poultry welfare and behaviour researcher, and I also spend nearly all of my spare time at home training my personal backyard chickens to perform a lot of the same behaviours Iāve trained on other groups like falcons and hawks. This is a very short clip of me training Arty, one of the hens I adopted from my lab to do āhopsā, or short, horizontal flights. Hereās how the A-B-C method is broken down:
Antecedents: This is anything and everything that precedes a behaviour. The most obvious example in here is the double-tap I do on my forearm, which I shaped Arty to respond to in less than a day. Before she learned this ācueā, however, the antecedent was me waving a treat, or reinforcer, above my forearm. Eventually, I was able to incorporate the double-tap, and fade out having the reinforcer in plain view. There are many other different types of antecedents, though, and some may cause a behaviour that you donāt desire/intend to train. For example, any disturbance like a loud noise or a more dominant hen pushing Arty out of the way would have been antecedents for a different behaviour, such as walking or flying away from me. When training an animal, itās important to be aware of all possible antecedents, and āarrangeā them in a way that sets the animal up for success.
Bridge: This is a signal, such as a click, whistle, āgood boy/girlā, etc., that acts as a line of communication with the animal, letting it know that he/she has successfully done the behaviour you asked for, and that a nice treat is coming. Timing is very important here, as you want to make sure that you are reinforcing the specific behaviour that you want, and nothing else. Bridge immediately, but only once the behaviour is completed (e.g. I only click as soon as both Artyās feet are in contact with my arm or the perch), and deliver the reinforcer as soon as you can afterward. Note: Some facilities/trainers say that the B stands for Behaviour, which is anything that an animal does - whether itās a desired (flying to the trainer) behaviour, or undesired.
Consequence: At its simplest, this is what happens after the behaviour. The most successful (and ethical) type of training is through operant conditioning with positive reinforcement. Here, Arty gets rewarded, or positively reinforced, as soon as both feet land on my arm, after Iāve given the cue. Use reinforcers that you know the individual youāre training loves (I literally share my meals with my chickens, but here Iām just using whole-wheat tortilla bits), and the process becomes much easier for both the trainer and the animal, and trust is built up quickly! What are the consequences of āundesiredā behaviours, for example, if Arty became startled and took off? This means she gets to avoid and escape from whatever threats she perceives, whether it was the loud noise or punishment from a dominant hen. In any case, it is important for the animalās welfare that they have the choice to do so. Whether she comes to my arm or not is up to her, and if at any point she decides she is no longer interested, or feels unsafe, she is free to go. This also helps develop trust between the trainer and the animal, and almost guarantees positive sessions.
It honestly hurts me a bit when I see or hear about chicken owners chasing their birds into their coop at the end of the day. This is totally not necessary. All it takes is just a few minutes every day building trust with them. This is usually done with food - again, take the time to figure out which reinforcer works best with each individual. Some of my hens love (whole-wheat) pasta, some donāt, my rooster would inhale blackberries whole, half of the hens donāt care for it at all, and (unfortunately) cuddles/petting donāt work as well with chickens as they do with dogs, parrots, etc., as primary reinforcers. Bridge every time before you present a reinforcer, and youāll be surprised how quickly they learn to pay attention to it, even when they canāt see any treats. In a pinch, I get my flock to recall (come to me from wherever they are) or follow me around when I click, because they know for sure that Iāll give them the good stuff soon. Ideally, there should be a separate cue for calling them over, then bridging and reinforcing once theyāre where you want them to be, but this way still works. I start clicking as soon as I get out of the car after a long day at school/work, and I canāt tell you how wonderful it feels to see them literally fly and run to me from an acre away just to greet me. I havenāt had to chase them anywhere in years, and doing so does not give them a choice and causes fear. This way is so much easier, and entertaining!
