I made a mistake

I tried to rush harness training and now I'm hurting for it and I've probably lost a lot of Lincoln's trust now. I don't know what to do other than start back at square one with everything.

I'm feeling pretty miserable about it. I've seriously f***ed up

What happened??

Hey it’s ok I did that too and just give it a break , build up the emotional trust bank for a little bit no worries , I’m determined to get April in a harness she just thinks I’m asking her to step up so it ended up being probably like you and Lincoln . When I was trimming her nails the other night she let me slip it on and remove it , so cool ,she some how knows when I’m trimming the nails she doesn’t step up so it seemed like it might work and what do you know far away from outside but sometimes you have to try . Sometimes it might not go well ,and that’s okay too !

I also screwed up about six months ago! I was able to get Jojo‘s head through the harness before he was ready and he panicked and took off flying dragging the harness and everything behind him totally freaking out all around the house Untill the cord caught in something! He now knows that that thing means death every time he sees it!

Oops lol I can picture that

Oh yeah, I screwed up too. Everything was going so well and I rushed it. I've put it aside for now and will try again sometime in the future. We got her head thru and one wing when she decided she'd had enough and tried to fly....ugh. It was a scene until I got it off.

I feel your pain. A few years ago I made the same mistakes with my GCC it took six months to earn back her trust... Threw the darn thing away. Next time it will be an avatar harness and as long as it takes..

yeah I'm just him a work on strengthening our bond and his trust in me and trash any idea about harnesses for a long while.

I made my bird angry about 3 weeks in because I was upset over the step-up situation---feeling hostage in my own home (at the time)....Anyway, I would have made a similar post, had I been a member (I was not).
Nevertheless, she did hold a grudge for about a week, but then she was over it....5-7 days..maybe...I imagine it isn't as fatalistic as you believe, but I can understand your anxiety, as I had it too.

We all do ...


so just make a note not to do that particulair thingy again and try to move on.


Don't feel too guilty about it, because your bird "aint stupid" and will milk it for all he is worth!
Just get on with the fun stuf, he can't stay mad about a little incident for ever!

he seems to be doing okay, how he acts towards me doesn't seem to have changed any. I'm glad.

We're all human, and you've been bonded to Lincoln a long while. I really believe they can differentiate between an awkward situation vs permanent malign behavior. Glad to see he understands the relationship has not changed!

I don't know what exactly happened, but I can pretty much guarantee that you didn't do anything that hurt Lincoln, or that caused him any pain, or that can't be forgotten with a little bit of time and love. I think I can safely say that pretty much everyone in the entire world who has purchased a harness for their parrot has made the exact same mistake that you just did at least once, myself included. I think the general feeling for a lot of experienced parrot owners who have a close relationship with their birds goes something like this: (After reading the step-by-step process for getting the bird to put the harness on, and then the second process for getting the bird to accept wearing the harness, and then chucking the instructions and/or the Training-DVD that came with harness into the trash)..."Well that's a waste of time; this must be for people who either have their first bird, or who have a bird that isn't tame, or for people who aren't bonded closely to their bird and can't handle them. I don't need to waste an entire month on just loop over his head and then taking it off again, that's just stupid. I'm going to take Bowie out with me later this afternoon on the harness, there's nothing to this...".

...Or some form of the above thought process, lol. We've all made this mistake, we've all found out exactly why the Aviator Harness comes with a Training-DVD, lol, and we all now-know why there are so many people posting on the forums about how impossible it's been getting their birds to wear the harness. As long as you learn from the mistake and do it the right way next time, then it will be fine.

Lincoln loves you, and this isn't going to change that. They can be ultra-sensitive and sooooo stubborn at times, but as you said, he's already acting normally towards you, so there ya go...Just "Hit the Reset-Button" right now, pretend like that little event or episode never even happened, and start-over again from step #1.