Afraid of the Harness

[noblemacaw]

So after over a year since the "incident" of Valentino's first outside experience in his aviator harness and my very bad asthma attack I decided to work with him again to get him harness trained.

I found the Aviator harness package and with Valentino on my shoulder watching I began to pull it out....slowly.

The black bungee part didn't concern him but it was when he saw RED part of the harness is when he got concerned and began backing up on my shoulder into my back hanging on me like I am the cliff in the desert. At that point I just set it on the table and left it there.

Yesterday while Valentino was in his tree playing I was standing by the table and picked up the harness and started "playing" with it. I didn't approach Valentino with it because I knew by his reaction when I took it out of the container he was still afraid of it. I set it back down on the table walked up to Valentino and petted him while on his tree. His response was the baby squeak.

This evening while perched on my shoulder I was refilling his pellet dish and I reached over to touch the harness and Valentino's grip got tighter. I picked it up and again he backed up on my shoulder and slithered down and was hanging off my back.

Valentino either is still afraid of the harness or really hates it. All this time has passed and he has not forgotten what had happened last year. I was able to get the harness on him without much of a fuss, took him outside and walked him a bit around the property. I wanted him to see "outside" so he would be able to recognize my house and the area around it. He did well outside and was into it so I began to take a walk the same route I use to walk my dog on. No real traffic and it was peaceful day. Unfortunately two blocks of walking my chest began to get tight and I didn't have my inhaler on me. I knew I had to get back home quickly.

It didn't take much time for me to get into trouble. It was humid and warm so after I got back into the house so the first thing I tried to do was to get the harness off of Valentino. Suddenly my asthma attack became so severe I could not breath at all not even to get the medicine into my lungs from the inhaler.

I panicked which made Valentino panic and he takes off in harness and gets tangled up in it. I almost passed out but I also collapsed into the floor while Lupe was trying to get me to breath. She ended up having to get the harness off of Valentino so she could cage him and drive me to the ER.

I admit that was not the only asthma attack Valentino had to witness. If I breathed a certain way he always wanted to be on me or near me. My dog Mercedes was the same way so on those trouble days I would have dog and parrot by my side.

I can say after my pulmonary specialist finally got my asthma under control and a now 50 pound weight loss I have not had a mild asthma attack or even had to use my inhaler in months. I have taken the effort to exercise so my lungs are stronger. Walking is now not even an effort for me.

Now I want to get Valentino harness trained again. I think that if is is ever going to happen it will take a LONG time before I can even get him to wear it if ever. I have been taking him outside in his Kings travel carrier which he can see all over. I feel it is important he learn the area in case of escape so that he knows where his "home" is.

I have seen more than one person outside with their RFM not contained or even in a harness. I believe these are older birds where Valentino is not even 2 years old yet.

With his negative reaction with me just taking the harness out of the container is any indication I feel some what hopeless that Valentino will ever be able to accept the harness. I can't blame him because what happened last year. Valentino has a very strong will and he is now afraid of the harness.

I wonder if a different color would help. I guess it would not be bad to have a "back up" harness owning more than one but I would hate for even a different color harness traumatize him.

Has anyone ever had their parrot experience a traumatic event and have trained/helped the parrot get though this event with desensitizing them? I don't want to handle this the wrong way further traumatizing Valentino. For now the harness lays on the table silent and dormant.

 

[MonicaMc]

I like to try to go for harness colors which are similar in coloration to the bird. Valentino being a green bird, use a green harness. A blue and gold you could use a yellow or a blue harness.

A different color may indeed help! A part of Temple Grandin's book Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior, she talks about how a horse hated black hats. All other hats were fine. She didn't think, at the time, to see if it was black objects in general (i.e. would he freak out over a black purse) but any time this particular horse saw someone wearing a black hat, he'd freak out. In other areas, she mentioned different horses that were hard to work with. If you changed the bit, or changed the saddle, all of a sudden the horse was easy to work with! Animals can have specific fears, so a different colored harness may help.



What you might want to try doing is hiding the harness behind you while Valentino is on his cage or somewhere else. Start 5', 10' or however many feet away that you can where Valentino does not freak out over the site of the harness. Have your other hand full of treats.

Once in your starting position, bring the harness out from behind you, show it to Valentino, say "Good" (or any verbal praise you want), hide the harness, walk up to him, give him a reward (treats, praise, scritches, etc). Then back up to the same distance and repeat.


If he remains calm, try being slightly closer, then repeating this behavior, all the while rewarding Valentino for remaining calm. Repeat, repeat, repeat.




Continue in that manner for as long as it takes for you to be able to get up close to Valentino without him freaking out and rewarding him for remaining calm. If he kind of freaks out, then take an extra step or two back before proceeding.




After he's ok with being close to his harness, then teach him to pick up the harness (hopefully not bite it!), lay the harness over him, and go back over just teaching him to accept the harness before putting it on him.