harness training

[ellieelectrons]

Hi All

I recently bought an aviator harness. I have started trying to train Janey (our blue IRN) how to wear it. I started by getting her used to having it around - leaving it near the cage, holding it near her. Janey loves pattings so I started to hold it in my other hand and put it near her beak when I was patting her.

I also worked on the other approximations the instructional video said to use: lifting up her wings, getting her to shut her eyes when I place my finger near/over them and pushing her slightly off balance. All of these were going fine... although I must admit, I was doing them when she was receiving pattings.... and she may not have noticed what was going on.

One day, I managed to slip the harness over her neck whilst I was patting her. I pulled it off again really quickly. There were no problems... I'm not sure she actually new that it was on her. I haven't done this again since as there hasn't seemed to be an appropriate moment.

However, I've started giving her treats in such a way that she has to stick her beak through the head hole to get them. She seems to enjoy this and isn't scared of the harness in any way.

Whilst I was doing this today, I thought I'd see how she went if I slipped it over her head.... I shouldn't have done this. I got it on her head... but then she got really frightened/agitated by it and was trying to get it off. It reminded me of the first time I put a collar on one of our cats when I was a kid. Our cat was rolling around doing everything he could to try to get it off. I was quite worried about Janey because she had the other parts of the harness dangling and I hadn't t fitted them properly.... I'd only intended slipping it over her head and then taking it off again... but she wasn't letting me help her take it off. After at least 10 minutes of trying to avoid getting bitten by her and trying to calm her down, my husband and I took her into a darkened room (not completely dark) and I managed to grab her in a towel and pull the harness gently off. She seemed fine after that.... but it was not how I wanted it to go.

I'm really annoyed with myself for pushing it too far too soon. I find it very distressing to see her traumatised. I'm wondering if I should give up on the harness?

The main reason I want to harness train her (and eventually Charlie, our lutino IRN) is that our house gets almost no sun and I fear that their health may be adversely affected through lack of sun exposure. I thought that if I harness train them, I could take them outside with me and find patches of sunlight for them.

I'll see how she responds to it tomorrow... I realise that I've got a lot of trust building to do if I'm going to have any hope of training her with it again. Janey is extremely strong-willed... so I will see how I go.

If anyone has any advice, please share your thoughts. Has anyone had any similar experiences when training their IRN? How did you recover?

Ellie.

[RicharddSierraa]

My IRN Jade had some trust issues with me, when i got her from a pet store she was very mean, she would attack when you went near
her, slowly i began to teach her the ''step up'' command and she began to build more trust, I find that the best thing to do is to
introduce things in baby steps, because Jade was really mean it took me about a month before she warmed up to me and began learning
things, I think you should introduce the harness as slowly as she lets you, have you clicker training her?
by putting the harness close to her until she starts moving then when she's still stopping, clicking and rewarding, this is a method I tend to find very successful.
IRN from personal experience tend to get over little things, such as falling or you sweeping and frightening them, things that they may not get over would be abuse, so try to treat them as nice as you can even if you get frustrated when they bite :l .

[Rueae]

http://www.theparrotforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1329
This is what Ink and I are going to do. :T
Hope it helps.

[ellieelectrons]

Thanks for the link. I did check it out. It was interesting.

Just thought I'd give everyone an update on harness training.

By offering food, I can get Janey to put her head through the loop in the harness... after she has eaten the food, she pulls it back out again.

I decided to see what Charlie would do using the same technique. He didn't get quite as far as Janey but he was reasonably comfortable.

I'm pleased with both their progress.

I think the next step for Janey is for her to keep it on her head a bit longer before she gets her reward. I like the fact that Janey wants to do this behaviour herself to earn the reward... I don't have to force anything.

It's interesting, I feel that with Janey she likes to learn new "tricks" because she likes the mind challenge and maybe she likes to please me (sometimes)... she seems to be very intelligent... Charlie on the other hand, just seems to like doing "tricks" to get the food!

Ellie.