Has anyone here successfully harness trained your parrot?
I’ve been working on harness training Ona with an Aviator harness since about September. We have made a lot of progress but the problem is I feel we are at a roadblock and I’m having a hard time getting us over the hump. Here’s what she will do now:
Here’s what I’ve started trying this week: Instead of making her treat seeds easy to snatch from my hand, I bury them in some of her dried veggie treats. She digs through the veggies to get to the seeds, therefore leaving her head through the loop longer. I’ve been doing this with the wing loop only so far for the past six days, everyday. It is helping, and maybe eventually it will be enough to progress more, but I still can’t let go of the harness at all or leave her head through without me holding it up.
She also HATES either loop rubbing against her head as she take her head out. She normally does a grumpy squeal with the smaller head loop. Maybe I need to try a treat for both putting her head in and taking it out?
Anyone have any tips to help us progress?
Edit: I should also add I’ve watched countless YouTube videos on harness training but most them focus on getting your bird to put their head through the loop. I can do that - it’s the next steps we are struggling with.
I’ve been working on harness training Ona with an Aviator harness since about September. We have made a lot of progress but the problem is I feel we are at a roadblock and I’m having a hard time getting us over the hump. Here’s what she will do now:
- She is not fearful while in the presence of the harness
- She will put her head through the wing loop - and most of the time the head loop as well - for a treat.
- She will allow me to gently lift her wings while not wearing the harness
Here’s what I’ve started trying this week: Instead of making her treat seeds easy to snatch from my hand, I bury them in some of her dried veggie treats. She digs through the veggies to get to the seeds, therefore leaving her head through the loop longer. I’ve been doing this with the wing loop only so far for the past six days, everyday. It is helping, and maybe eventually it will be enough to progress more, but I still can’t let go of the harness at all or leave her head through without me holding it up.
She also HATES either loop rubbing against her head as she take her head out. She normally does a grumpy squeal with the smaller head loop. Maybe I need to try a treat for both putting her head in and taking it out?
Anyone have any tips to help us progress?
Edit: I should also add I’ve watched countless YouTube videos on harness training but most them focus on getting your bird to put their head through the loop. I can do that - it’s the next steps we are struggling with.