Those folks who have been following the Salty thread know that we have been trying to get his flight harness on, for literally months. How many months? at least 6, or could be 8.
Every night, except 3 or 4 nights. So.. 180 times? Today, in the middle of the day, I said to my self " Self, lets try doing ONLY putting the hardness on, instead of combining that skill with all the others we practice every night" . And today, along with a handful of pine nut pieces, we got it all the way on Salty. No real fuss, no biting, just a little bit of protest. I tightened it up a bit, and immediately took him outside, right on to our front lawn. All of the time, i was feeding him small pine nut pieces and telling him what a good boy, what a smart birdy he was. He was amazed and amazing, just calmly looking around, chewing a bit on the harness, and taking more treats from me. We stayed out about 15 minutes, went back inside. Removing the hardness was a little bit of drama, because while we have practiced removing his head from the headstall, we have never been able to get the straps under his wings , so we have no practice getting the straps out from under there. I am going to have to try doing the complete sequence of actually getting it fully on, with tonights training, but WE DID IT once, so I know he will do it again. I feel so proud of him, like a parent whose kid got an "A" in math!! And it's encouragement to all the other owners who have been trying to get the flight harness on - it can be done!!
Good boy Salty, good boy.
Every night, except 3 or 4 nights. So.. 180 times? Today, in the middle of the day, I said to my self " Self, lets try doing ONLY putting the hardness on, instead of combining that skill with all the others we practice every night" . And today, along with a handful of pine nut pieces, we got it all the way on Salty. No real fuss, no biting, just a little bit of protest. I tightened it up a bit, and immediately took him outside, right on to our front lawn. All of the time, i was feeding him small pine nut pieces and telling him what a good boy, what a smart birdy he was. He was amazed and amazing, just calmly looking around, chewing a bit on the harness, and taking more treats from me. We stayed out about 15 minutes, went back inside. Removing the hardness was a little bit of drama, because while we have practiced removing his head from the headstall, we have never been able to get the straps under his wings , so we have no practice getting the straps out from under there. I am going to have to try doing the complete sequence of actually getting it fully on, with tonights training, but WE DID IT once, so I know he will do it again. I feel so proud of him, like a parent whose kid got an "A" in math!! And it's encouragement to all the other owners who have been trying to get the flight harness on - it can be done!!
Good boy Salty, good boy.
Way to go Salty!!
