12/06/2026
One of the things I love about my client WhatsApp groups is the incidental learning opportunities that take place.
Sue inadvertently began teaching one of her chickens ‘go to bed’ while working with her dog Spud.
We’re not worried about Spud taking himself off, can anyone tell me why?
If you’ll allow me a ‘geeky’ moment here’s some more information on why chickens are a useful training tool.
“Chicken Camp” (officially Operant Conditioning Workshops), is where dog trainers learned the mechanics of training by training chickens. The purpose was to teach trainers, not dogs, because chickens are extremely precise learners and expose flaws in human timing, criteria setting, reinforcement delivery, and observation skills.
The key lessons demonstrated were:
* Precise marker timing
* Clear training criteria
* Reinforcement rate
* Shaping complex behaviours
* Avoiding accidental reinforcement
* Maintaining consistency between repetitions
Because chickens learn very quickly and do not “forgive” poor training mechanics the way many dogs do, they became an excellent teaching tool for trainers.
A related piece of research that is often cited in dog-training courses is the Brelands’ paper:
Breland, K. & Breland, M. (1961). The Misbehavior of Organisms. American Psychologist, 16(11), 681–684.
This famous paper described instinctive drift. The tendency for innate species-specific behaviours to interfere with trained behaviours. The Brelands observed this while training a variety of species, including chickens and raccoons. Their findings challenged the idea that any behaviour could be conditioned equally well.
