Harness training question

Pilaf · Jul 29, 2017

My 3 months old green cheek conure Echo, who's been with me now for 2.5 weeks is not afraid of his harness. He actually likes to play with it. I have been doing harness training with him. I hold a treat on one side of a bigger loop, and he reaches with his head through it to get it. This goes fine. But he doesn't keep his head in the loop. I'm not using his head loop yet, but one of the bigger loops. I try to keep the loop longer around his body while he eats the treat but he just bows and gets immediately out of the loop. I can't really get past this stage. What should my next step be? Or should I just let him reach his head through it like this for a few more days so that he gets more and more comfortable with it? Does anybody have any other ideas of how to continue?
I don't want to push him of course or make him afraid of the harness.

clark_conure · Jul 29, 2017

you got me on this one, I just use the mental leash. Never even bought a harness. I know some disagree, but if my bird would leave my shoulder for 5 minutes I might consider it.

Pilaf · Jul 29, 2017

I just really want to take him outside. I'm afraid to do that without the harness.

My lovebird Pilaf was always a bit clipped, he could still fly though but he just wouldn't. I always took Pilaf outside and he loved to go to the park and play in the grass and bath in the fountain. I would love to do that with Echo as well. I want to also keep Echo flighted. He is clipped now a bit but can still fly as well. I'm afraid to just take him outside without a harness. I had Pilaf for 18 years, Echo only for 2.5 weeks now.

LordTriggs · Jul 29, 2017

dude slow down!

You're trying to do 50 things at once. His poor little head is probably gonna overload.

Short training sessions, go at his pace. You need to leave the harness in his view for like a week for him to be comfortable around it, then you keep working at his pace. He doesn't want to go in the harness then he doesn't go in the harness. Simple as

T00tsyd · Jul 29, 2017

I agree, slow down. You are not giving this baby time to get his head straight. I have started training my Green Cheek this week. I have had him about 2 months and I am looking at next year before I risk taking him out on a harness. For one thing I don't expect him to be ready before it gets too cold here in the UK but in any case why rush it? If you do and it gets scary or he resents it you will have a huge problem later.

My guy is at the same stage as yours, he will tolerate the harness draped over his body, put his head under the bigger loop and play with it. He briefly flew with it in his beak rather than give it to me the other day but I think if I tried to put it on him as if to go out he would freak.

I beg you to be patient you have had him so little time.

wrench13 · Jul 29, 2017

We use the aviator harness. Just used it again to. It took a salty almost a year , to point where he would put his head through the head loop, and letting me deftly slip the 2 wing loops , with them open a little more the final tightness, over the rest of his body, and over the wings. Another treat. Then I had him walking with it on, from 1 end of our training table to the other. Treating all the time. The I give the OFF command, and let's me gather it up, after releasing all the tension, making the loops as wide as they can go. Salty takes it off pretty well and he does not freak out when it's just his head left. We have been taking him out side since the beginning of time I mean every night at 8:45 for his normal trick training time. It helps enormously if you parrot is one that enjoys playing a little rough and won't bite hard when he is playing. ''. Most important is that we did it every , every , every night. Now Will you are new Parrot take as long as salty did. Hopefully not. It is worth every second , minuet not doing

Pilaf · Jul 30, 2017

LordTriggs said:
dude slow down!

You're trying to do 50 things at once. His poor little head is probably gonna overload.

Short training sessions, go at his pace. You need to leave the harness in his view for like a week for him to be comfortable around it, then you keep working at his pace. He doesn't want to go in the harness then he doesn't go in the harness. Simple as

Thank you. I don't force him to go in the harness. Definitely not. He loves to play with it though. I do have very short training sessions. A minute or two at the time. I have slowed down a lot of things with him though since he started nipping so much. I'm going at his pace. But I'll slow down with the harness as well

T00tsyd said:
I agree, slow down. You are not giving this baby time to get his head straight. I have started training my Green Cheek this week. I have had him about 2 months and I am looking at next year before I risk taking him out on a harness. For one thing I don't expect him to be ready before it gets too cold here in the UK but in any case why rush it? If you do and it gets scary or he resents it you will have a huge problem later.

My guy is at the same stage as yours, he will tolerate the harness draped over his body, put his head under the bigger loop and play with it. He briefly flew with it in his beak rather than give it to me the other day but I think if I tried to put it on him as if to go out he would freak.

I beg you to be patient you have had him so little time.

Thank you. I take a lot of things very literally, because I'm autistic. I learned from some videos that you it's good to start as soon as possible when they are still young and let them get used to the harness as soon as possible, otherwise it will be a lot more difficult. So I probably took that a bit too literally as well. I guess I'll give up on having him ready this summer, and slow down with it

Pilaf · Jul 30, 2017

wrench13 said:
We use the aviator harness. Just used it again to. It took a salty almost a year , to point where he would put his head through the head loop, and letting me deftly slip the 2 wing loops , with them open a little more the final tightness, over the rest of his body, and over the wings. Another treat. Then I had him walking with it on, from 1 end of our training table to the other. Treating all the time. The I give the OFF command, and let's me gather it up, after releasing all the tension, making the loops as wide as they can go. Salty takes it off pretty well and he does not freak out when it's just his head left. We have been taking him out side since the beginning of time I mean every night at 8:45 for his normal trick training time. It helps enormously if you parrot is one that enjoys playing a little rough and won't bite hard when he is playing. ''. Most important is that we did it every , every , every night. Now Will you are new Parrot take as long as salty did. Hopefully not. It is worth every second , minuet not doing

Thank you. I'll give Echo more time as well then, and slow down a bit with it.

clark_conure · Jul 30, 2017

Your doing fine! I agree with the others you pack in quite a lot, but you're obviously spending a lot of time with echo and really that and giving him love is all that matters to a bird.

I THINK your bird is lucky to have someone so devoted. Just follow his pace, he's already in the gifted class as far as training goes.

Pilaf · Jul 30, 2017

clark_conure said:
Your doing fine! I agree with the others you pack in quite a lot, but you're obviously spending a lot of time with echo and really that and giving him love is all that matters to a bird.

I THINK your bird is lucky to have someone so devoted. Just follow his pace, he's already in the gifted class as far as training goes.

Thank you very much

I always watch his body language really well, and doing everything at his pace. But indeed, I'll slow down with a few things. He's often flies to my hand and sits there. And I'm not always sure what to do then, like what he wants. Does he just like to sit there to hang out with me, or does he want to play? I don't want him to get bored with me or anything.

LordTriggs · Jul 31, 2017

it is nice you're spending so much time. I think you may be a little over-excited with him (I know that feeling) but slowing down, I would say use 1 month for each "trick" you want to teach them, whilst also going over the old stuff. There's no need for him to be on a harness right now, of course if you want him to just keep doing things slowly. As hard as it is to slow down once you do it completely changes, you get to see him for himself, his own personality will come through and you get to see his quirks and own way of doing things. It's how you get the funniest stories and the tightest bond with them. He's clearly smart to have trained so much in 3 weeks but he probably has a headache from the info dump! Try to enjoy him being a clingy baby, you've got a year or so with it before he changes into a more "aloof" grown up.

As for when he flies to you, you need to work out what he wants with his body language. Luckily with your condition it should make things easier as you have to use the same tactics with people. At least it worked for me. He could want anything when he flies to you, toys, scritch, playing, treats, cuddles or even just sitting on you. Best thing to do is experiment each time and figure out what he wants. He'll let you know if you're wrong with that delightful angry squeak. Trial and error is the only way

Pilaf · Jul 31, 2017

LordTriggs said:
it is nice you're spending so much time. I think you may be a little over-excited with him (I know that feeling) but slowing down, I would say use 1 month for each "trick" you want to teach them, whilst also going over the old stuff. There's no need for him to be on a harness right now, of course if you want him to just keep doing things slowly. As hard as it is to slow down once you do it completely changes, you get to see him for himself, his own personality will come through and you get to see his quirks and own way of doing things. It's how you get the funniest stories and the tightest bond with them. He's clearly smart to have trained so much in 3 weeks but he probably has a headache from the info dump! Try to enjoy him being a clingy baby, you've got a year or so with it before he changes into a more "aloof" grown up.

As for when he flies to you, you need to work out what he wants with his body language. Luckily with your condition it should make things easier as you have to use the same tactics with people. At least it worked for me. He could want anything when he flies to you, toys, scritch, playing, treats, cuddles or even just sitting on you. Best thing to do is experiment each time and figure out what he wants. He'll let you know if you're wrong with that delightful angry squeak. Trial and error is the only way

Thank you very much. I'm taking it easier already. Yesterday and this morning we've done a lot of cuddling. He loves to have his neck scratched, and he also loves to sleep on me

LordTriggs · Jul 31, 2017

haha yep! They love a nice cuddle session! I would include training in Rio's play time as he was a bit adverse to learning things, but honestly when he was out I let him do his own thing. If he wanted to come cuddle he could, if he wanted to play I would often find out when he played his game of catch with me as I'd hear something drop followed by a disproving screech that I didn't catch the thing. Either that or he fly to the skylight to have an argument with the local birds.

You'll probably see his personality coming out a bit more. He sounds very inquisitive and potentially cheeky to me!

clark_conure · Jul 31, 2017

Birds are VERY OFTEN content just sitting and doing nothing, so long as you are there it's all they want.

Trust me if a conure wants attention they know how to get your undivided attention.

Harness training question

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