365 Days of Dog Training - what do chickens have to do with dog training?

Recently I have become all too fascinated with chickens.  My husband and I purchased a home in a small town in west central Wisconsin in March and much to my surprise the town has a flock of free range chickens.  At that time there were 2 hens and 1 rooster.  No one seems to know who owns or cares for the chickens just that they exist and wander the town each day.

Obviously being a veterinarian I found this to be quite strange but they all seemed healthy enough so I let it be.  Well then the chickens actually hatched chicks and I had to start putting some food out for them because 1 of the hens has 10 chicks.

It has become the highlight of my days when we are up north to sit outside and watch the hens with their chicks.  They are so different from each other.  One hen is not the greatest at caring for her chicks and she has lost 2 of the 3 chicks to some unknown source.  The other with 10 chicks watches them constantly moving them from here to there rapidly when there is an unfamiliar noise, passerby or bird flying overhead.  She has not lost a single chick.

The most interesting of all the birds however is the rooster.  He is protecting the white hen's last chick.  He is with that chick constantly showing it how to scratch the dirt, find food and moving it from place to place.  I did not think this was a typical rooster behavior so now I am trying to learn and read as much as I can about chicken behavior.

In this process I learned about something called chicken training camp for dog trainers.  Apparently chickens offer more behaviors in a set period of time than most other species.  They are quick and constantly offering behaviors so dog trainers have started training chickens to perfect their skills.  Previously I would have considered this a strange hobby, I mean why would anyone want or need to change chickens.  But this small town flock has definitely opened my eyes to the behaviors of chickens so I may be headed off to chicken training camp very soon!

Have a great day!  Don't worry more dog training videos will be headed your way very soon!

The 365 Days of Dog Training Continues .... today with a different dog!

I am spending the entire day with a clients 14 week old puppy.  She is sweet but barks for everything.  She barks for attention, she barks when she is frustrated, she barks when she is excited, she barks for EVERYTHING.  As a pet owner I can understand how this might be frustrating.  As Lulu's owner I fully understand how this can simply drive you nuts.  So I decided to help.

When I met the clients the first time I casually explained well first you teach your dog to bark on command and then you teach them to hush on command.  Using a luring technique I learned from Ian Dunbar and in the majority of cases this is a very effective way to teach this behavior.  However, this puppy is no ordinary dog.  She loves to bark almost as much as Lulu and her barking is extremely self rewarding so any encouragement of her barking results in hours of barking.  Needless to say I forgot my own golden rule of training - train the dog you are working with NOT the dog you expect them to be.

Today after several hours of listening to a barking puppy I remembered some clicker training I had done at a shelter years ago.  I conditioned her to the clicker quickly and then started to click the brief moments she was quiet between barks.  Worked like a charm.  Then we started playing some games focusing on not barking.  Then we started playing chase games to initiate come.  Now this puppy who had frustrated the dickens out of me just a few hours age is sleeping peacefully at my feet totally happy and utterly exhausted.

This is what a good day of dog training feels like - I am happy with her and she is happy with me.  We both learned something valuable.

I guess the moral of today's story is when the first thing you try doesn't work don't be afraid to try something new and ALWAYS TRAIN THE DOG IN FRONT OF YOU and not the one you imagine them to be in your mind!

Thanks for reading and happy training!