Guess who finally got her harness on!

I'd re-committed to getting my ekkies harness trained over the past month, and yesterday all my work, and Maya's tolerance, finally paid off!

She was a complete angel about letting me put the harness on. Getting it off was a little less pleasant, but hardly traumatic. Overall? A great start!

And now, a few pics:


I love this one! This was taken when I first took her outside in my backyard. First time without a travel cage. You can see clearly her thought, here. "Dude! WTH?!?" Hahaha!


Started to get her bearings a bit, but if you look at the talon imprints on my fist, she was extremely nervous.


After a reassuring hug session, we took a stroll around to the front of the house.


Once she'd calmed enough, she started to enjoy the sunlight.


Getting into her photoshoot.

That is so cool. The look in her eyes says it all.

Oh wow that is so cute! great job for getting the harness on her! how do you harness train them?

I really have to work with BB on his. I finally can lift up both is wings and rub him all over . I envy you so much being able to take him outside !

She is so beautiful!

AWESOMENESS!!!! WOW, well done, Stephen! And holy smokes, look at her GLOWING in the sunlight! :32: She looks spectacular, she truly does. :smile015:

Awesome pics, beautiful bird!

She's absolutely stunning and so adorable! I do love that initial face of panic though, like "I'm not supposed to be here!!"

Congrats on the good work!

Excellent progress, Doc and Maya!!! That must have been a strange experience for your beautiful girl! I LOVE the photos! In the first three pics, she's a little bug-eyed like, Hey, little help please, and the last two she looks like she's enjoying the rays.

She's gorgeous, Doc! Im glad her first field trip in a harness went so well!

What exciting news! Maya looks like she absolutely LOVED being out in the fresh air and sunshine!

How did you go about getting her trained for the harness? I've been working with Baxter but it is very slow going!

:jumping40::rollingba::worship2::emoticonc:

Dopey said:

That is so cool. The look in her eyes says it all.

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Thanks, Mary-Lynne! Yeah, her eyes were VERY expressive! First the crazed panic, and then the relaxed enjoyment. Lol!

friendcaique said:

Oh wow that is so cute! great job for getting the harness on her! how do you harness train them?

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Thank you! For the harness training, I made the process gradual so as not to overwhelm them. (I'm still in the process of working with Jolly, but it's been going more slowly with him.)

To start, I got them used to something passing over their heads and against their faces using my hands. Then, once they became used to that, I began offering treats on the other side of the harness loop. Not the freakishly small one through which they eventually needed to put their heads, but rather one of the adjustable loops through which they fit their wings. (Using the small one first freaks them out!)

That loop can be made as big or small as you like, so once they got the idea that they would get tasty treats for sticking their heads through the harness loop, I gradually decreased its size. Once the opening was small enough, I had them stick their heads through the actual loop instead.

Jolly is still unnerved by the smaller loop size, only keeping his head in for as long as it takes to grab the treat and hurriedly pull back out. So I concentrate on increasing the amount of time he will wear it around his neck without freaking out.

Maya, on the other hand, proved very comfortable with the harness around her neck. Enough so that I worked both wings through yesterday and took her for a little stroll.

Of course, getting the harness off was a bit more problematic. She was good through the process of removing her wings from the loop, but by the time I got to her head you could tell she was pretty much done. Hahaha!

But as she gets more used to it and I get faster at working the loops, even that will be better.

Hope that helps.

Christinenc2000 said:

I really have to work with BB on his. I finally can lift up both is wings and rub him all over . I envy you so much being able to take him outside !

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Sounds like you're most of the way there, Christine. If you can lift up his wings and touch him everywhere, you just need to get him used to the harness itself.

And yes, I envied quite a few other forum members with their harness-trained birds before yesterday! Lol! But at least I've gotten Maya harness-trained just in time for... Winter? Sigh...

Newbsi said:

She is so beautiful!

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Awww, thank you!

Yeah, removing the harness is never fun, lol

JerseyWendy said:

AWESOMENESS!!!! WOW, well done, Stephen! And holy smokes, look at her GLOWING in the sunlight! :32: She looks spectacular, she truly does. :smile015:

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Thank you, Wendy! I can't tell you how happy I am to finally have her harness-trained! And yes, I love seeing her basking in the sunlight.

ToMang07 said:

Awesome pics, beautiful bird!

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Thank you!

Aquila said:

She's absolutely stunning and so adorable! I do love that initial face of panic though, like "I'm not supposed to be here!!"

Congrats on the good work!

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Thank you!

Hahahahahaha! Yes, that look cracked me up as well!

Very beautiful!!

Ah man that's so awesome. Harness training kind of petered off a tad with the end of summer. Our GCC wasn't having any of it. (It does say on the insert that smaller birds take more time to get used to it..) Great pix!

Allee said:

Excellent progress, Doc and Maya!!! That must have been a strange experience for your beautiful girl! I LOVE the photos! In the first three pics, she's a little bug-eyed like, Hey, little help please, and the last two she looks like she's enjoying the rays.

She's gorgeous, Doc! Im glad her first field trip in a harness went so well!

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Thank you, Huckleberry! Yeah, she was completely freaked out, initially. Poor thing. But I couldn't be happier that it worked out so well!

GreatBlue320 said:

What exciting news! Maya looks like she absolutely LOVED being out in the fresh air and sunshine!

How did you go about getting her trained for the harness? I've been working with Baxter but it is very slow going!

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Thanks, Shawna! Maya definitely loved it!

I posted my process one or two replies ago. I hope it helps with Baxter. And don't worry about it taking a while with him. Some birds take to it more slowly than others. Jolly is far from being ready right now.

chris-md said:

:jumping40::rollingba::worship2::emoticonc:

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Hahahahahaha! Thanks, Chris!

Mariar said:

Very beautiful!!

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Thank you, Maria!

dhraiden said:

Ah man that's so awesome. Harness training kind of petered off a tad with the end of summer. Our GCC wasn't having any of it. (It does say on the insert that smaller birds take more time to get used to it..) Great pix!

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Thank you!

I know just what you mean with the harness training petering off. That was the deal over here for quite some time. It was just a month ago that I decided to get really consistent with it.

It definitely pays off.

Maya is stunning. I especially love the blue "eyeshadow" around her eyes. I would love to harness train Dexter, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. He's not in a very patient phase right now, so I would not start right away. But it would be great to do the initial introductory steps over the winter and hope to be able to bring him for an outside adventure by spring. Can you share your sources on training info?

Well done!! Oh that's really inspiring, I have to get working on this. Any suggestions on what to look for in a harness, recommendations, or are they all pretty much made the same?

I chuckled when I saw the dents in your hand, I can always tell if Pebbles is nervous, by how tight she holds on.

Cheers,

Camo