Feather tether- should I be training him to wear it both ways?

I know the aviator harness seems to be more popular on this forum, but after watching videos of how it goes on the bird, I did not feel it was the right style of harness for Kiwi as an individual. I got him the feather tether instead. It's been almost a year since I bought the harness and some, but not a whole lot, of progress has been made. He is getting better about allowing it to be put on, though we are not to the stage where it stays on for longer than a minute or two and he is quite indignant about the whole thing.

For those of you unfamiliar with the feather tether, it buckles on instead of pulling it over the head and adjusting like the aviator. The harness can be worn buckled either in the front or back. Buckling in the front means the leash extends from the belly. Buckling in the back means the leash extends from the back, between the wings. I have been just putting it on his buckling it in the front (no particular reason beyond it feels more natural to me) but as he becomes more familiar wearing his harness, should I also be training him to wear it the other way as well?

This is a stock image of what I'm talking about the harness being able to go on the bird from the front and back:

Train him to wear it the way both you and him are comfortable with.

Sent from my Galaxy s8

With little more than an engineer's eye. The mounting point on the back would work best for walking and the point on the chest would work best for flying!

Practice with both positions.

Enjoy!

Either way and either harness, the trick is to shove his favorite treat into his little beaky as fast as you can, once the harness is on, not giving him the chance to pick or bite it. After awhile you slow down the treats. Salty has been putting his head thru the Aviator head loop for over a year now, every nite, with the rest of the harness draped over him. As you might have read, he finally let me get it on, all the way, and adjusted, and we went for a walk and into a supermarket. He was so amazed , he didnt even pick at the harness. And no treats were involved ( until we got home). Good luck with Kiwi

SailBoat said:

With little more than an engineer's eye. The mounting point on the back would work best for walking and the point on the chest would work best for flying!

Enjoy!

Click to expand...

I was thinking along these lines too, of what the different positions meant regarding his movements while on the harness. If we were going for a walk or out to a farmers market or something, he'd be riding in his pak-o-bird, not on my shoulder where the front position would seem natural. The harness is more for him to explore the outdoors again and to be out on the balcony without necessarily having to be caged and I almost feel the back facing position would be better for that. I think any kind of (intentional) flying outdoors is a long ways in the future He must first learn that you don't keep flapping your wings as hard as you can until you run into a solid object!

wrench13 said:

Either way and either harness, the trick is to shove his favorite treat into his little beaky as fast as you can, once the harness is on, not giving him the chance to pick or bite it. After awhile you slow down the treats. Salty has been putting his head thru the Aviator head loop for over a year now, every nite, with the rest of the harness draped over him. As you might have read, he finally let me get it on, all the way, and adjusted, and we went for a walk and into a supermarket. He was so amazed , he didnt even pick at the harness. And no treats were involved ( until we got home). Good luck with Kiwi

Click to expand...

Salty is a good boy though! It's awesome he's finally getting out and about on the harness. Kiwi isn't a big shoulder guy, but he loves waddling about outside. He is stubborn and resistant to a lot of the common training methods. I tried to slowly coerce him into the harness over the course of months last year with no luck. Then my husband just put it on him one day, like or not (he did not like it), and after a couple times of that, he's now he's much more tolerant of it. Joe and Kiwi seem to have some kind of 'understanding' he doesn't have with me. Now that he knows it isn't harmful, he'll let me put it on but he's still uncomfortable with it, but I'm working with him. Treats are hit or miss with Kiwi. He'll fling or flat reject them sometimes if he isn't interested in the activity. You were lucky to get Salty nice and young and not set in his ways.

Kiwibird said:

SailBoat said:

With little more than an engineer's eye. The mounting point on the back would work best for walking and the point on the chest would work best for flying!

Enjoy!

Click to expand...

I was thinking along these lines too, of what the different positions meant regarding his movements while on the harness. If we were going for a walk or out to a farmers market or something, he'd be riding in his pak-o-bird, not on my shoulder where the front position would seem natural. The harness is more for him to explore the outdoors again and to be out on the balcony without necessarily having to be caged and I almost feel the back facing position would be better for that. I think any kind of (intentional) flying outdoors is a long ways in the future He must first learn that you don't keep flapping your wings as hard as you can until you run into a solid object!

Click to expand...

Yaaa, that is a big one! Everyone of our Amazons have had to learn past the point! Its been two years since Julio was doing that. Its amazing how those stepping points tend to slip into the past!

Just remember, Amazon's have Right Away at doorways!!!