Legacy, Day 2: Uncooperative Chickens

If there were a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Sequim, I suspect it would be very crowded about now.

After the second day of chicken training, a lot of the participants in this week's Discrimination workshop are thinking wicked thoughts about the Colonel's secret recipe and mashed potatoes. (And, because we're sick and twisted people... note the materials container on the table in the picture at right.)

I have one chicken who is very gentle and cooperative, but apparently narcoleptic -- she's nearly asleep every time I bring her out -- and another who is extremely fear-aggressive and attacks me every time I try to open her cage. (This is the one I'm training for shape discrimination.) I'm still considering names for each of them, and will entertain any suggestions from the peanut gallery...

The workshop so far has been fun, but intense. Bob Bailey is a great teacher, and keeps things moving, but -- as I've learned after several years attending ClickerExpo -- there is only so much behavior science one can cram into one's brain in a single day. I haven't reached my limit yet, but that's primarily because a certain amount of the information is review (overlapping with Kathy Sdao's Advanced Clicker Training seminar and the aforementioned ClickerExpos). The homework text reads like a college textbook on silica gel, but I think part of that can be attributed to mental fatigue at the end of the day. (I did not post yesterday because my brain was FRIED by the time I finished my reading assignment, and I was really longing to go to bed and dump information.)

Speaking of reading assignments... I still have one to do tonight, so this will be an abbreviated post.

Laura, the B. F. Skinner shirt you gave me last year was a big hit. I've had about six people ask me where they could get one. :)

At left: Bob uses a dog target stick (because Terry was still looking for a laser pointer) to explain a diagram of applied behavioral economics.