Monday, September 06, 2010

How to see a chicken peck

One of my favorite past times is learning how to train my dogs. I've always tried to learn behavior and learning theory as much as I could for the past 23 years. I'm fascinated with the subject. I learn about the nature vs. nurture and how it intertwines with each other and conflicts with each other. In 1992, I was exposed to the concept of clicker training. Unfortunately the concept of "Clicker Training" has really been distorted. It has many meanings for people where if you were to ask a different people their take, you would get a variety of inconsistent answers. For some it is also an emotional topic. One side that is religiously for it, while another camp that is harshly against it. Then you have all the folks in-between on the spectrum. I wanted to perfect my training skills in clicker training. It is positive reinforcement, where you give something to increase a behavior. It was brought to the public many decades ago by B.F. Skinner. It is amazing how many people in academia who have the concept of B. F. Skinner's work confused and never took the time to really understand what it means. There are Master's degrees and Ph.D.s that can be obtained in this field, most commonly called Behavior Analysis. But I got to work with some folks that brought this concept to the animal training world. Bob and Marian Bailey. Their subject of choice to train these concepts is a chicken. Why on earth would anyone train a chicken to be a better dog trainer? They are a non-emotional subject like a dog. You give a dog a cross look and they respond. You do that to a chicken and because they are not getting reinforced, will go wandering off. The idea is how to you keep the attention of a chicken and teach it to do some behaviors. If you can do that, then you know you will be able to train the most difficult of dogs.

In 1999, I decided to attend chicken camp. I went to two one-week camps. My concept and mechanical skills in training improved like no other speaker has been able to do. This put me light years ahead of the game and the concept. I then had a deep understanding on clicker training beyond anyone who hasn't been to chicken camp in the pet dog world. Of course I'm a nobody, but I certainly had a deeper understanding. This is not pompous because everyone else i talked to who has been to chicken camp felt the same thing. It's like other folks went to high school and we got our Master's Degree. Figure of speech. It doesn't mean we are over all better trainers, or over all better behaviorist, just that we have this insight that no words other than "wow" can explain.

How does someone with limited vision tackle capturing (seeing) a behavior? You observe behavior and you take this little clicker box and click at that exact instant the subject or animal does the behavior you want. This box is a THAT'S IT! Now, how do they connect that the noise of a clicker is a THAT'S IT!" The trainer follows it up instantly with some chicken feed. Then after a few repetitions, they start realizing that when they do a particular behavior, they get payday. Done correctly, it is well conditioned. Done poorly, it becomes bribing with food and you don't succeed very well. The latter is what the nay sayers see and start to say how clicker training doesn't work. it is then food oriented, not conditioned oriented.

Clicker Training is mostly visual. Chickens are very fast. If you click too late, then you are accidentally clicking a different behavior and it could be something you don't want. For example, the chicken pecks a red square, but you accident click after the peck and when the chicken walks away from the red square. You actually reinforcing the walk away behavior to occur more often rather than the behavior of pecking the red square. Timing is crucial in this method of training.

When I went to the first week of chicken camp, it was a challenge. The lighting was poor and I was having such a hard time training my chicken. Bob was unsure how to get around this. I felt like a real idiot and felt like a bad trainer. Bob was doubtful that I would get the knack of training a chicken. I also couldn't see the fast movements under the lighting. Florescent lighting makes patches in my vision and trying to see a fast moving chicken was difficult. My low vision was really becoming a handicap in this session. 

I was going to come back in a month for the second session, I was problem solving what could I do to succeed? I brought a full spectrum light bulb and full determination I was going to train my chicken well. In the workshop, we trained chickens on a table, we used a one cup measuring cup with a clicker glued to the handle. When we clicked, we offered the cup and we only gave the chicken one peck of food that was in the cup. I had a lamp on my table where I put in the full spectrum light bulb and voila, visibility for me was better. It counteract the florescent lighting and gave me a better full view of my chicken's movements.



I'm that in-between person.

I got through chicken camp. Then to be with a hearing loss on top of that, the speakers to wear an assistive listening device. So I had other accommodations as well. I was determined to get through. The summer of 1999 will always be cherished in my learning of training for the rest of my life. It has helped me in my public speaking skills, teaching young children, working with a special education boy who had only a vocabulary of three words, training my dogs and how to train myself. Definitely a pivotal learning experience in my life. Bob and Marian Bailey are two of the people that have been most influential to me in my life. I cherish what they taught me and ever so grateful I had the prevledge to work with them. May Marian rest in peace and Bob keep going on strong.

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