harness training, im a bit nervous

Hi there,


As you know Enzo and I are very close and trust each other to a ridiculously good level.



I bought an aviator harness last year in the advised CAG size but im really nervous about training Enzo in it, it looks so small.



She has put her head through the small loop several times to take a small treat, but she withdraws as soon as she has hold of the treat.

I have been getting her used to me lifting her wing up, and sometimes she will do it herself during scritch cuddle times.


Im just very nervous of the next step, i dont want to hurt her, i dont want to break our trust but she likes it outside and i am sure she would love being outside and out of her small 'outdoor/travel cage'.


Do I just man up or are there any tips you can share please?

If Enzo will put her head thru the loop, even for a second here is what I suggest. Set the harness up as if it will be in the final adjusted size, and once Enzo puts her head thru the loop keep it there with another treat while you just drape the rest of the harness over the rest of her body, over the wings. SO now she has the harness on, just not tucked under her wings. Let her walk around on your training surface for a bit, get used to having the weight of the harness on her. Use the "ON" command when you put it on, and OFF when it time to take it off. Taking it off - 2 fingers under the loop let her get used to withdrawing her head from it. I suggest you set aside 5-10 min every night , every every nite, just for harness training. Once she is comfortable with the weight of the harness , if she is a calm bird, you can try doing the above but with the wing loops all pulled out and see of she will let you slip each wing into place and tighten it all up. It is such a gradual process and most parrots it takes months and months - took me a year of every night training to get Salty pretty OK with putting his on. And we still do almost every nite harness training , just putting his head thru the loop and draping it over him. Harnesses are 180deg out from that a bird wants to do - ie: fly away, so it takes constant desensitizing to the harness, so she won't spend the whole time trying to bite thru it. Enzo sounds like she is almost there, just take your time and make it a part of your every day routine with her. So close... so close....

thanks to you, again so next stage is to get her to keep her head inside the loop, and allow her to wander around with it on? ill give it a go. she generally doesnt stay still for more than a few seconds unless roosting and ill make sure I take down all her out of cage perches etc in the room so she has less places to fly to. Cheers!

Sounds like a great start!

I just got my Aviator Harness in the mail.... petite - cockatiel size! Now that is small!

Did you watch the DVD that came with the harness? I found it very informative about how to introduce the harness to your bird -- letting them chew on it like a toy, draping it over their body after they are comfortable playing with it, getting your bird comfortable with being touched under the wings, having wings extended up for a few seconds at a time, having the loop go over the head and then back off, etc.

So far my tiel thinks its a toy and has chewed and played with it. In the meantime I've been slowly working on getting him more used to me touching under his wings, having my fingers around his head, things like that. I too don't want to rush into it, a little nervous also, but I think if you just keep working slowly, eventually you should be able to let her keep the loop on for some time and offer a treat as she does that. Then take it off and give her a break.

In the DVD he worked with a Scarlet macaw named Crayola and worked with her for a couple minutes and then let her go back to her cage for an hour. Maybe short training sessions like that with the harness would work for Enzo.

Good advice again here, mine are not fluent with the aviator (yet).

The most common "whaa, panic-attack-drama" here actually happens when they have to let the loop slide back over their heads. (Last stage of taking it of again.)
Both the greys will sometimes try to get out of it faster by walking backwards (if they are on a flat surface) and of course march their feathery butts straight to (and perhaps over) the edge!
(and I have to stop/catch them, lose controll of the loop -> no more gracefull exit)
So: a perch is a better place

They are very forgiving birds, and even if the jury will not award that perfect ten - they will still accept praise for their work, stay put for snacks and/or scritches.

I'm a little late to the party. I do however have some tips for when she will be harness trained and precautions to take as an owner:

Always attach the aviator leash handle to something. Do NOT just have it around your wrist. I highly recommend a carabiner clip and attaching it to your belt, for example.

If you want, you can buy a retractable dog leash (flexi) to let her do longer recall training when outside in the harness. I have found that the Small 8 meter long one works best for a TAG sized parrot. Sammy had no trouble with this adjustment, although some parrots may get confused (at first). This also let's you skip the carabiner clip since the retractable leashes handle par is too heavy for a bird to fly away with.

Avoid:
Dogs and other animals as they might lunge at your bird
Smokers/"Vape"rs
Leaving her without supervision

The aviator is a great way to enrich your birds life. Sammy loves standing on the railing of a bridge close to where we live and seeing the cyclists "magically appear" under him.


A good way to keep up the birds socialisation in the winter is to bring them to a (pet-friendly) shopping centre/mall.

Sammy also enjoys bike rides - NOTE: Bike rides can be very scary for some birds, so take it slow if you want to ride your bike with her. A vital thing to do is to attach the harness to your helmet strap so that if she were to loose her balance she wouldnt fall to the ground and potentially get very hurt.