Ta-dah started Avain harness training

Laurasea

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Today is Ta-dah first day of harness training. Thank u Owlet for harness and videos. I am disappointed that they show large baby Macaws as training models.............
Would really like to see an adult small bird approach. :(

Ta-dah did very well, put her head halfway in several times and let the harness touch her. Then during a pause while I was looking at harness she just ran over and bit me... I believe she wanted more seeds. We took a break. Then it took a lot of effort to get her to put her head in again. After I put everything away, she once again just ran over a d bit me.... No bites during training...
What's up with this! I'm spending extra cuddles time with her now, so we can get past the bites
 

ChristaNL

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just my 2 cents ;)

You know the same thing happened with Sunny and harnesstraining?
Ask her to do something really scary (for her anyway) or focused ... and somehow that tension came out as biting or ferocious hard playing with her favorite toy (a small plastic cola-bottle).
The playing immediately after removing the harness & final rewards saved my skin!

So...find something that drains the energy as part of the training program?
 

JLHess

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I too have had a difficult time getting my Pineapple GCC to accept the Aviator despite following the video instructions closely, at least I think I did. He is great with target training, so we are taking it very slooooowly. As an aside, I also work with a bird of prey educational group in my area, and we have a very small Northern Pigmy Owl. We use small leather jesses on the legs and a lead when we show these birds. Does any have any thoughts on that type of system with pet parrots? All our our birds, even the small ones are fully flighted and are controlled safely with this set up when they "bolt."
 

wrench13

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Harness training is likely the hardest thinng anyone can under take with a parrot or bird ofprey, and the most difficult is getting the bird to comfortably put its head thru the head loop, It took Saty and I a year of nightly training to get him to do it with no fighting, no swauking and no biting or blood shed. Instead of trying to entice him with one treat held in front of the loop, on a tip, I just hold the whole bowl of trats ( pine nuts) right in front of the lop. He gladly sticks his head thru to grab a few treatsas I adjust the hearness and then remoe the bowl. So well we do it 2X every training session.
 
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Laurasea

Laurasea

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I too have had a difficult time getting my Pineapple GCC to accept the Aviator despite following the video instructions closely, at least I think I did. He is great with target training, so we are taking it very slooooowly. As an aside, I also work with a bird of prey educational group in my area, and we have a very small Northern Pigmy Owl. We use small leather jesses on the legs and a lead when we show these birds. Does any have any thoughts on that type of system with pet parrots? All our our birds, even the small ones are fully flighted and are controlled safely with this set up when they "bolt."
Don't put anytime on the legs. Parrots have much weaker legs than raptors or birds of prey that use their legs and claws to kill. Something on on a small birds legs would lead to dislocated hips or broken legs...

I hear you Wrench this training sucks. I think as babies you can do it. I would love to hear of accomplished as an adult GCC to give me hope....
 

ChristaNL

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I too have had a difficult time getting my Pineapple GCC to accept the Aviator despite following the video instructions closely, at least I think I did. He is great with target training, so we are taking it very slooooowly. As an aside, I also work with a bird of prey educational group in my area, and we have a very small Northern Pigmy Owl. We use small leather jesses on the legs and a lead when we show these birds. Does any have any thoughts on that type of system with pet parrots? All our our birds, even the small ones are fully flighted and are controlled safely with this set up when they "bolt."


Actually that one has been discussed a lot!
Short version:

Birds of prey kill with their feet and have very sturdy legs- so they can be used to anker the bird.
Parrots have nimble, delicate legs (because they use them as hands) so put a parrot in jesses and you will tear every ligament it has, dislocate knees, hips etc. and probably break its leg for good measure.

That why there are laws against keeping parrots on a legchain in a big part of the world. It always seems a great idea, but it never works out.
 

FlyBirdiesFly

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Laurasea I am confident that it can be done with an adult GCC, it just takes A LOT of patience. As you probably know I’m harness training my Kermit and it has been going very well so far. He is putting his head through a small loop now, but not quite as small as the head loop yet. He flies over as soon as he sees the harness — he knows it’s treat time! I only started this training a month and a half ago. I am hoping to take him outside by this summer, but if not then I’ll just keep taking it slowly until he’s ready. We WILL succeed! Go team GCC!!
 
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Laurasea

Laurasea

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My Kermit role models!!! I hope you succeed.! I have Ta-dah with me reading this, shh ( it's our night time secret snuggle time , the other birds are asleep)
Edit: right now my right hand is good, but left hand is getting bites! Yes left hand held harness earlier today! Connection? You bet!!!!
Edit x 2 as the left hand received third bite that drew blood, I share my misery with you ;) ( right hand fine for cuddles and head scritchs)
laurasea-albums-keets-picture21172-img-20190216-195647463-2.jpg
 
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Laurasea

Laurasea

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As I sit here and think, I had no bites since the great hand shooing fiasco. Now after training this morning for 10 miniuts! The left hand has received five bites during the rest of the day/ night....this is my biggest fear of harness training.. tomorrow left hand will give treats till it is back in good graces, and next training session right hand will hold harness... ( No bites during training!)
 

FlyBirdiesFly

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Since this is only your first day, maybe tomorrow you should mainly just focus on getting Ta-dah to associate the harness with positive experiences. Don’t ask her to put her head through quite yet. Just show her the harness and give her lots of treats when she comes near it. That’s what I did on Kermit’s first day of harness training.
 
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Laurasea

Laurasea

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Since this is only your first day, maybe tomorrow you should mainly just focus on getting Ta-dah to associate the harness with positive experiences. Don’t ask her to put her head through quite yet. Just show her the harness and give her lots of treats when she comes near it. That’s what I did on Kermit’s first day of harness training.
Fantastic advice!!!
But my Ta-dah is safflower seeds worshiper once she knew what I wanted I couldn't get her to hardly stop sticking her head in for seeds lol it was when I stopped she.git mad. And then later the left hand became bad, it's mixed messages to me.... sigh....but I will go slow, tomorrow is all about just making the left hand good again. PS I showed the Quakers the harness and they stayed across the table from it lol! Ta-dah took one look and said if that scary thing gets me seeds I'm all in.
 
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Laurasea

Laurasea

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just my 2 cents ;)

You know the same thing happened with Sunny and harnesstraining?
Ask her to do something really scary (for her anyway) or focused ... and somehow that tension came out as biting or ferocious hard playing with her favorite toy (a small plastic cola-bottle).
The playing immediately after removing the harness & final rewards saved my skin!

So...find something that drains the energy as part of the training program?
An interesting idea. I will give it a try!
 

Flynhigh

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I agree more patience is needed , for example try putting the harness on the table and then start with other tricks near it then tomorrow teach him to touch it along with other tricks . Then the next day show him the harness and see if he will let you touch him with it. It's all baby steps but keep it slow and you may have to spread it out even more but he will get it. Is he comfortable with you touching him everywhere? being off balance? This really needs to be established before the harness training.
 
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Laurasea

Laurasea

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Yes, she let's me touch her and put her off balance, and all the stuff on the video except holding the wings. Git lots to learn, and lots of going slow to do. Tomorrow no harness just hands. Because all the bites let me know I messed up . :(
 

IndySE

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Good job Ta-dah and your first steps ! Wow that looks like a nasty bite -- she's obviously very annoyed at you for making her work so hard for those delicious safflower seeds. I'd say keep your training sessions shorter. If she's biting you at the end of each one, she's probably building up a lot of frustration/stress throughout the session. So ending earlier and rewarding with a fun game might be a good way to mitigate the bites in the future. Last thing you need to do is to teach her to bite you whenever she sees the harness....

When I was trying to teach Lady Kermit to lift her wings for the harness, I tried teaching her "eagle" (the one where parrots lift their wings on command), thinking it'd be easier. Most videos recommend gently lifting the wings with your index and pointer finger. Except Lady Kermit apparently despised this approach and would lunge at me every time. I tried different ways of approach her, I tried letting her go for the seed first, but I ultimately had to abandon this strategy because all I was teaching her was to bite me on command. LOL no thanks ! In the end, Kermit was much happier with me casually touching her wings during cuddles and allows me to handle her wings as needed in the harness.
 
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Laurasea

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We just worked on trust. My left hand is in good graces again ;)
 

EllenD

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First of all, you shouldn't EVER use any type of harness/leash/tether/chain that attaches to a parrot's legs or feet!!! As already mentioned above, Parrots are not anatomically at all the same as Raptors and other bird's of prey are, they don't have the muscle or bone structure that the Raptors do, and when they are tethered by anything around their feet/ankles/legs, they almost always end-up yanking their hip, knee, or ankle joints apart!!! So with any Parrot you always want to use a harness that goes around their body, and the Aviator Harnesses seem to be the safest and the most efficient harnesses available by-far. I've yet to see a harness that is more secure or that is safer for the bird than the Aviator Harnesses are...I know that a lot of people get impatient and frustrated because of the amount of time it takes to harness-train a parrot with a harness that goes around their body, so they just give-up and buy a leash/lead/tether that they can just put around their ankles or legs and go 'Wow, that was easy!", but I guarantee that if you do that it's going to end badly for one reason or another...

Now, as far as the harness-training goes, obviously it's more difficult to train an adult parrot to accept one than it is a young, baby parrot who starts harness-training while they are still being hand-fed...But it's absolutely possible to harness-train an adult bird, regardless of their age, and it happens all the time. I cannot tell you how many people who have adopted an adult bird from the Rescue I work at that has never, every been harness-trained or even worn a harness, bring them back in to the Rescue for a visit months later, and they bring the bird back in sitting on their shoulders and wearing an Aviator Harness!!! And I'm talking about abused, neglected birds like Cockatoos, Macaws, Amazons, etc. with huge beaks and who can snap a broomstick in half if they want to...It just takes time and a LOT of patience on yoru part...

***Sometimes I find that a lot of people skip the step of allowing the Aviator Harness to first sit near or on their bird's cage or playstand/T-stand for a few weeks before they ever start actually trying to get the bird's head through the loop. Instead they just start-out the harness-training by working every day to get their head through the loop. I really think most of the time you'll be much more successful if you start-out by allowing your bird to become accustom to their Aviator Harness being near them and actually having it sitting in/on their "territory" for a few weeks before you ever start the actual training. That way they know what it is, they know it's not going to hurt them, and their fear of the Aviator Harness is usually either completely gone, or is at least much less than it is if you just show it to them for the first time and then start touching them with it. I know I've had people who actually hang their bird's Aviator Harness inside of their cages, like it's a toy or something, and they allow them to chew on it (sometimes having to buy a second, duplicate Aviator Harness the same color as the first one to actually start training with). Not only does this help with eliminating their fear of the Harness itself, but it also helps with the other major issue with harness-training them, and that is them chewing on it constantly once you actually get them to accept putting it on the entire way...Since they've been chewing on the thing in their cages for weeks or even just looking at it and living with it inside of their cages, they don't really feel the need to start ripping it apart...

I have never had issues getting my guys to accept putting the Aviator Harnesses on, that happens pretty quickly, usually over the span of a month or two...But once they get the Harness on them, both Kane and Bowie don't even pay attention to the fact that they're outside or in the pet store or riding in the car, etc., instead they don't EVER lift their heads from chewing on the damn things...Bowie drives me insane every single time we go out, he willingly puts the Harness on, no issues at all, and he loves to go out and have people make a fuss over him, and he loves to go hiking out in the woods by the stream...HOWEVER, that little jerk is on a mission to chew through his Harness, I swear he cares more about that than anything else when he has it on...Kane has gotten over that and has no issues with wearing it at all, and he takes full-advantage of being out and about and he loves it..And Lita, my Quaker, is the same way, she will chew on it or fuss with it a bit when we're still inside of the house, but as soon as we go outside she forgets all about the Harness being on her...But Bowie just won't let it go!!! I swear I'm going to sew the thing on him...
 

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