We trained like 3 chicks, a rat, I think another animal too. It was a blow off class that was fun. I did not take it seriously at the time, but without noticing it during the semester I learned more in that class than any other. It had a profound impact in how I parent and how I do my job every day.

They tell you at the start of the class that there are no dumb chickens only dumb trainers. But everyone had dumb chickens the 1st time we got them. Sorry, they really were dumb. Some were smarter than others, but it took weeks to train them to do a series of tasks.

By the 3rd chicken everyone was getting really smart chickens. Within a couple of days they learned all the tasks the 1st chickens did and probably learned anther list that was three times as long as the 1st chickens.

At the end of the class you taught a group of Intro to Psych students to train a chicken. And that's when you see it. There are no dumb chickens, only dumb trainers. I could train a chick to do more in an hour with Intro Psych students messing it up than I got done in 3 weeks with my 1st chicken.

It was the best management training I have ever taken.

But the takeaway from this post is I don't believe it's the players problem if lots of them are lost. There are no dumb chickens, only dumb trainers.