I've used some of the concepts the author describes in this very clearly written tutorial book to train our former pet rats. I don't know why it never occurred to me to use the same principles on our chickens. There are a lot of reasons to train one's chickens: bonding, interaction, the ability to get them to come when called (for example for veterinarian checks, medication, etc), and because it's a very fun thing to be able to do.
This book is clearly written and the author has an encouraging and positive voice in her writing. I liked that she not only elaborated on what worked for her, but discusses what didn't work and also some alternative methods. The introductory chapters cover the theoretical aspects of training, how chickens learn, and some background information about different poultry behaviors. There is quite a lot of emphasis properly placed on building trust and bonding.
The following chapters introduce the concepts involved in clicker training, preparing yourself and your chicken(s) for clicker training, and progresses through tricks and step by step tutorials for getting the desired results. Alternative tricks and refinements as well as extra information is provided in sidebars in the relevant sections.
Like most of Fox Chapel's book offerings, this book is beautifully typeset and formatted with very clear colorful photography that enhances and illustrates the tutorials perfectly. Kudos to the graphics department. The chapter headings and splash pages are full of really cute and colorful cartoon drawings of stylized chicken tracks, roosters, hens, and margin art.
This book does not include instruction about chicken keeping, medical or behavioral problems, building coops, feeding or management, or associated topics. The author states that those are exhaustively covered in other books on chicken husbandry and online. The author also has very definite philosophies on inter-species respect and what constitutes humane treatment. I found these opinions reasonable and attainable. Having grown up in a farming community on a smallholding myself, I believe that some readers will likely disagree with her assessments of humane.
To my knowledge this is the only book of its type currently in print in English. There are some chicken husbandry books which include a little on training with chickens; the converse is not available. This is a good and well thought out book.
Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
No comments:
Post a Comment