Where to start with harness training?

Flockmaster · Aug 19, 2019

I've recently purchased an aviatior harness for my B&G, ziggy. I've read a lot of guides and tutorials on harness training, but all of them start with the bird already letting its owner handle its neck and wings, but ziggy doesn't do that.
He's by no means an aggressive bird, but he can be pretty defensive. If I try to touch anywhere other than his head and outside of his wings, he'll either grab my hand with his foot and push it away or lightly beak me (not bite, just gently place my finger in his beak as a warning).
How do I get him to be more comfortable letting me handle him? He has not even seen the harness yet, since I know he wouldn't like it yet. He's also clicker trained, if that makes it any easier

wrench13 · Aug 19, 2019

Hi there. Is Ziggy tame enough to be able to give a scratch on his head? How lon have you had him, and how old ( approx) is he?

How ever you continue, its a good idea to let him see the harness around his play/cage area for awhile, so he doesn't freak out at the mere sight of it. A week? Maybe more? depends on the parrot.

If he is trained to accept a treat for the desired behavior, you are 1/2 there already. My little amazon was stubborn as hell, even with treats it took us almost 1 year of training every single night, to get his harness on with a minimum of fuss.

If you can give us the comfort level you enjoy with your BGM, some tips on going to the next step can be given.

charmedbyekkie · Aug 19, 2019

Hiya there! Our ekkie Cairo is touch-phobic like your Ziggy. We started harness training when Cairo would not let us touch him at all (seriously - no touching head and touching toes was only when he was benevolent).

A while back I created a very rough video on how we did it: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arYFRBjdDeQ"]Aviator Harness Training - How We Did It - YouTube[/ame]

You can also see the thread I made: http://www.parrotforums.com/training/80199-how-we-did-harness-training-touch-phobic-bird.html

wrench13 · Aug 19, 2019

Good videothere,nicely done. I thik this willbe very helpful to new harnessers and harnessees. For sure a general idea of ways to desensitize and start, you even state tht each parrot is different. Thanks!

Flockmaster · Aug 19, 2019

Thank you so much for that video, it's really helpful and I'll start right away with training him to accept touching.

He is tame, and I'd say he trusts me fairly well. He does let me pet his head and the back of his neck almost every time, he gets a bit grumpy once in a while but I think that's true of every bird. He's about 8 or 9 years old, and I've had him for a little more than a year. He's been pretty receptive to training with other tricks, so far I've only done wave but he picked it up pretty quick.

Where to start with harness training?

Flockmaster

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