Staff members of the Seattle Animal Shelter took part in a team-building workshop in early September with a unique goal – to train a chicken.
Jocelyn Bouchard, SAS Deputy Director, chose the chicken training workshop after she learned about it from animal control officer Bobbi Soper. Soper attended a six-day chicken training camp in May and found it incredibly useful in teaching dog trainers new skills. Both thought it would make a great team-bonding exercise. “It was animal related, and the training could be beneficial to all of us, plus how fun would it be to train chickens?” Jocelyn said. Most importantly Jocelyn felt the SAS staff needed a fun reason to come together after the COVID pandemic. “It’s been a rough few years. It’s important to support the staff and have these opportunities to work with other team members and get rejuvenated.”
Diane Canafax, the co-founder and lead trainer of the non-profit Kitsap Animal Rescue and Education (KARE), provided the hens and leads chicken training camps throughout the Puget Sound area. She said the purpose of the workshop is to help trainers break down tasks and communicate properly so the trainee understands what they are being asked to do.
Chickens make excellent trainees because they are not interested in pleasing their handlers like dogs and only respond to positive reinforcement techniques, like clicker training. Clickers are small hand-held devices that make, you guessed it, a clicking sound. The trainer clicks the clicker and gives the hen a peck of feed out of a cup every time the hen performs a desirable behavior. The chicken soon learns to associate the sound of the click with a specific action and a reward and is more inclined to repeat the behavior.
The technique may sound simple, but with clicker training, timing is everything and chickens add an element of difficulty. “Chickens are fast, so if the timing isn’t good, you may get what you click,” said Diane. In other words, not the behavior you want. If the feed cup isn’t pulled away quickly, the chicken will keep eating and the feed will no longer be viewed as a treat, she said.
For the workshop, Diane deliberately teamed people up who didn’t work together on a day-to-day basis. “That way there is no hierarchy, no overshadowing. It’s also a great way to meet others in the organization and establish a rapport,” she added.
Not everyone was initially enthusiastic about working with chickens. Arlene Ehrlich, an account technician at SAS and workshop participant had some hesitation at first about handling a hen. “I was afraid maybe I’d drop it or it would try to get away and I’d lose my chicken.”
Hens provided by KARE are well-mannered and used to being handled, said Diane, which can reassure people who may be a bit fearful of chickens. The first part of the workshop was a demonstration on how to properly get the hens out of their cages and handle them. Participants then watched a video on clicker training and broke up into groups to teach the chicken to consistently peck a red poker chip in the middle of the table. Once the hen mastered that task, the poker chip was moved to see if she would peck the chip when it was in a different place. The ultimate training task was to incorporate a second poker chip of a different color and train the hen to differentiate between the two.
Jocelyn said the feedback from the six-hour workshop was positive and most people really enjoyed working with the chickens. Bobbi Soper, who also attended the workshop, said it was nice to see co-workers having a good time and laughing while getting comfortable with offering suggestions and observations to their teammates.
Arlene echoed that. In addition to conquering her fear of mishandling her chicken, she said enjoyed the training more than she thought she would and was disappointed she didn’t have enough time with her chicken. However, a few hours of training were more than enough for the hens. “Towards the end of the session, our chickens were pretty spent,” said Arlene. She also got to know people in her organization she didn’t have much daily contact with and found the clicker training motivating. “I went home and taught my dog a couple of new tricks.”
Wiola Ruka, a SAS customer service representative, was curious about how chickens could be trained and a bit anxious about handling them. By the end of the session, she found the close contact with the hen calming. “It was almost like an emotional support animal,” she said. She encourages others to attend a chicken training workshop if they have the chance and see for themselves how smart chickens are. “They are so cute and fun to work with. It was a really amazing experience.”
Jocelyn Bouchard said the workshops not only foster team collaboration, but participants walk away with skills they can apply to other species and life in general. Training a chicken requires great task analysis and timing as well as excellent communication techniques and an abundance of patience.
The Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation funds grants for team-building workshops like this. Your contributions directly help shelter staff connect, collaborate, and learn new skills.