A big achievement and a minor setback with Astro in harnes training

[dollfish]

Astro is making huge progress in harness training. She can comfortably put her head through the loop all by herself and wait patiently until she receives her treat, which is banana.

This morning I rushed a little bit and put one wing through, which freaked her out but then I was able to quickly remove it, thanks to extensive taming.

We stopped the session right there and did one repetition after an hour, and she was fine with putting her head through still. Whew.

It is very exciting how you can get a tiny animal to trust you enough to put her head through a tiny loop. We really are getting there I think. Patience is the key, allowing your bird to decide when they are able to take it a step further really makes for great foudation for any type of training. I value this so much and have seen great success with it. I sometimes fall into the excitement myself but really it is training for both the human and the bird.

Well donne Astrogirl!

 

[Imogena]

I'm ipressed. Really. It is a huge success. Congratulations. Be proud of Astro and yourself.

 

[dollfish]

Thank you. We could succesfully put it on when she was little with no training, but once she freaked and it took ages to get it off her. Ever since then she has been petrified of it. I first started offerin formula through the loop. I might have done it for more than a month.. Then we did wing opening and general taming for about two weeks. Now she lets me touch almkst everywhere on the body. Finding extremely valuable treats also helped a ton

She is at a point where she gets excited when she sees the harness because she knows it is heaps of treats coming!

 

[Imogena]

Thank you. We could succesfully put it on when she was little with no training, but once she freaked and it took ages to get it off her. Ever since then she has been petrified of it. I first started offerin formula through the loop. I might have done it for more than a month.. Then we did wing opening and general taming for about two weeks. Now she lets me touch almkst everywhere on the body. Finding extremely valuable treats also helped a ton

She is at a point where she gets excited when she sees the harness because she knows it is heaps of treats coming!

Wow. I love when someone apreciates the importance of training. I'm training with my two Grays as well. Now I stopped because Akira is on her medications (probably liver problems), but as soon as she is well enough, I'm resuming training sessions with her. Edgar has a break as well, because Akira needs rest and he... well... he is hormonal teenager right now. Giving a rest to the girl he likes is not in his book.

 

[dollfish]

They also seem to respond much better to training if you give breaks from time to time. How do you house your two Grays? I would love to give Astro a buddy in the future. Edgar and Akira look stunning!

 

[Skyandkiwi]

Congrats! What a great achievement! It’s great that you are taking harness training nice and slow, and respecting Astro’s comfort zone! Slow and steady wins the race!

 

[dollfish]

I'm determined to have Astro comfortable in the harness. She absolutely loves being with us and it would be so nice to take her on our walks. She is very nicely desensitised to the outdoors too. I think she will enjoy it so much once we get there!

 

[Imogena]

They also seem to respond much better to training if you give breaks from time to time. How do you house your two Grays? I would love to give Astro a buddy in the future. Edgar and Akira look stunning!

They have separate cages but go out together. It took some time but now they coexist quite well although they fight every ten minutes. Nothing serious though. I seldom need to break those fights.
Breaks in training work very well. I noticed this too.
And from my experience it is good to start with one Grey. Train him well and then get another. Training helped me and Edgar with accepting Akira on his territory. This and sheer luck. Edgar liked Akira from the very beginning.
And thank you. Edgar will be pleased when I tell him your opinion about him. He is very narcissistic.