Course I - Discrimination - Day 2

The second day started with more chicken training. First we started again without chicken. We had to handle the cup towards target that was on the table. The timer was on and we had to try how many times we could present the cup at the target. I did not too that good but when we got the chickens out I could really see the benefits of practicing without chicken. Although my other chicken was very fast, presenting the cup for the chicken to feed, was not too hard. I could do it in time! Training is a mechanical skill.

When we had practiced presenting the cup for chicken Mr. Bailey told us how to use two black targets. There was smaller and bigger round black target that had a dot in it. Those are on the table in the picture in front of Mr. Bailey. The chicken was supposed to get pecking the white dot.



We started to use the clicker right away and did not reinforce for the clicker. In the bellow picture is the food cup and the first bigger target.



We had to choose which chicken we wanted to first use for target. We worked each chicken 30 second periods. I chose the bottom chicken nro 47 for the task because my top chicken was not eating properly. She was really slow and did not take food really eagerly from the left side of her. And my bottom chicken turned out to be really good at pecking the dot. We progressed well and soon were able to move to smaller target.

Here is me working with the chicken nro 47 and smaller black target.



In the picture is my coach Candy that came late for the class. Her hometown was hit by the hurricane Ike and the airport was closed for any flights. So she did not make it for the first day. Ana took the picture.

The whole day was a big run against the timer. 30 seconds was not much to train one chicken, but it was still enough to make progress. But I was always late, my timing was wrong and I kept presenting the cup in the wrong place. Mr. Bailey kept yelling: "Faster, faster, your late!"



On the table in front of Mr. Bailey you can see two shapes triangle and round. Those are for our discrimination task. Chickens must learn to which one is the hot target that they are supposed to keep pecking. Eventually on day five the chickens are supposed to pick the right target among four shapes. Today we only started with one shape although there was some really good and fast trainers that already had two target shapes on the table.



I chose the bottom nro 47 chicken for this task too because the top chicken 13 would not just eat. Because the chickens have been on other chicken camps we had to first find out which shape had been "the hot target" in the other camps. We had to test which shapes the chicken is interested the least and our hot shape target became polygon. That did not interest my chicken at all. I did draw it to the chickens pen's name tag so I would not forget it.



I told to Mr. Bailey and Mrs. Ryan (who is organizing this course) that I'm bit worried about my bird. They told that these chicken are rescue chicken from a large chicken farm where they lived in small cages. And some of their beaks are cut that they would not peck other chicken in their small cages. My top chicken's beak was very much cut and supposedly very sensitive. We added more food for her cup so that she could eat more easily but she still would not eat from the left side. There was also a small cut in her beak that side and it made it hard for her to eat. Poor chicken! No wonder she looked really stressed and not interested of me presenting the food.

My chicken nro 13 retired from the course and I got a new top chicken nro 52. Here she is:



I handled my new chicken between lessons and she got used to me very fast and well. She was a really alert and devoted student. She would peck really well not only ones but she just kept pecking over and over again. We progressed from feeding and clicker reinforcing to pecking a large black target with a dot. And I was late again. Since she was a fast pecker she started to peck twice before I was clicking and feeding. Ou nou, tomorrow I've got to figure out how to get rid of the extra peck.

I'm going to use my chicken nro 52 for the other discrimination task in this course: color discrimination. We get started with that tomorrow.



Here is one more picture of Mr. Bailey telling that the bird is going to hit the target in right place if we keep presenting the food so that is economical for the chicken - that's behavioral economics!



Mr Bailey was really encouraging trough out the day and was saying: "You are bigger, stronger and smarter than the chicken!"

Today's theory lectures included reinforcement and more animal training basics. The reinforcement lecture was really good for me. Somehow understood the value of reinforcement part now more clearly when I saw it's laws used in real training.

I won the today's raffle and got this neat sticker.