By Carolyn Webb
Despite their featherbrained reputation, a common backyard chook can be trained, says animal trainer Becky Faulkner – as long as you’re not too cocky.
“They’re a very humbling animal to work with because they will leave you if you’re boring,” Faulkner said.
Becky Faulkner is teaching people to train chickens.Credit: Joe Armao
“Unlike a dog, a chicken has no obligation to be your friend and doesn’t want to please you. So if you’re slow, or you’re teaching them something that’s confusing, they will walk away.”
Now – for those who can pluck up the courage – the seasoned instructor of showbiz animals is offering “how to train your chicken” classes for the public.
Faulkner said chickens had been unfairly seen as pea-brained.
“They’re really intelligent animals that learn incredibly fast,” she said.
At her property near Daylesford, north-west of Melbourne, Faulkner will this month reveal some trade secrets in the course she’s dubbed The Fowl Play School of Eggcellence.
Faulkner has im-peck-able qualifications. For 10 years, she and business partner Peta Clarke have trained animals for movies, films and theatre via their company We Do Animals.
And not just dogs and cats: their “students” have included moths, pigeons and ants.
Faulkner and Clarke trained chihuahuas and bulldogs for the musical, Legally Blonde, and rats for the Disney TV series, The Artful Dodger.
The poster for the film The Rooster.
For the children’s TV series, The Spooky Files, Faulkner taught a hen to walk into a room and jump onto a chair next to a girl.
For the film, The Rooster, starring Hugo Weaving, a rooster was trained to play dead after a fox attack. In another scene, a rooster had to aggressively chase a man. She considers that one of her finest moments as a trainer.
Ready for their close-ups: A rooster and hens on the set of the movie The Rooster.Credit: Becky Faulkner
To coax chooks to strut their stuff on cue, Faulkner uses positive reinforcement methods, with liberal offering of foods such as seeds, fruit and mealworms.
Sight is a chicken’s most acute sense, so you can teach them to only peck a particular coloured or shaped disk, she says.
Other skills can include hopping on your arm, walking along a plank and flapping on cue. You can also teach them to walk into a crate to transport them to the vet.
Faulkner says training can enrich chickens’ lives. “It makes them more comfortable and confident around people, and in busy environments,” she said.
At her new chicken training classes, 12 students will work in pairs with one chook each.
The first classes on February 22 and 23 cost $125 per person for one day or $225 for both days and Faulkner plans to hold more throughout the year via wedoanimals.com.au
Cracking good time: Becky Faulkner has chickens eating out of her hand.Credit: Joe Armao
Faulkner said training chickens was “much more fast-paced than dogs” but required calmness and the ability to read a chooks’ body language.
Dr Caroline Thursfield, an RSPCA Victoria behaviour veterinarian, said positive reinforcement training was “great for any species, for mental enrichment and improving the human-animal bond”.
She said with any training, it was important to recognise and respond to any signs of stress or anxiety in the animals.
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