Chicken Problem Solving with Beads

Beads, maaaan, beads! Fuzzy uses a baby toy to solve a problem. I taught each
of my four pet chickens to do unique things in exchange for a treat. Please
view my other videos. More vids coming soon.
She learned by trial and error that she must slide all of the beads off the
edge for a reward. Watch how she moves her beak on one side or the other of
the beads to try to move them. She also tries to tap at the whole toy with
her beak to try to shake the beads in. She wants to try other things to try
to get them in, but she learns that she must be precise with it. She's not
perfect, but she can learn. The last bead is the most difficult for her to
move. Chickens get distracted sometimes, but they have a surprisingly long
attention span which is why I'm able to teach them so many different complex
tasks. It also helps that they are highly motivated (unlike cats) to do
things for a reward. Since my chickens are so tame, they also seem to have a
little bit of a need to please, like a dog, which is why I am able to
encourage them to continue doing a task even if they start to feel bored or
distracted. This is an important trait in an animal who you expect to work
with on a somewhat mutual level in order to train it.
I think their attention spans are longer than the average house cat (I have a
cat). To get her attention, I use hand gestures and vocal cues which chickens
(my chickens anyway) are very responsive to, like dogs. In some ways,
chickens are similar to dogs, in other ways they aren't like dogs at all. But
I'd say they are much more similar to dogs than they are cats in terms of
their ability to interact with a human on a mutual and highly responsive
level.