Getting my cockatiel used to doing things without millet being directly there

[Eqiine]

Hey, I'm currently harness training my 1yo Cocktail. Some background information; she will step up and enjoys head scratches and will let you touch anywhere on her body as long as you are scratching her head. I got the aviator harness and she wasn't scared of it at all and would sit there playing with it. So then I moved onto getting her head through the loop by making it smaller and smaller gradually and she was fine. She even consistently gets her head through the small head loop. This only happens when she has her millet right there however, and the absolute moment I move it away she freaks out and get mad at the harness.
This is the same when I give her head scratches or millet while very gently stroking her body.

For now this is fine as we haven't been doing her harness training for long, but after a while I just want to know how I can get her to stay in the head loop for longer and longer periods of time without needing her millet.

Also! When her head is through the loop or when he is eating millet from the cup of my hand she shows absolutely zero physical signs of distress or discomfort and enjoys eating her millet, only when its taken away does she freak out. I also have a short video of her putting her head through the hole and then me taking it off her if anyone needs to see exactly what I'm doing.

 

[BirdG1rl]

@Tiel Feathers?
@Zara?

 

[Zara]

how I can get her to stay in the head loop for longer and longer periods of time without needing her millet.

Time. Keep doing it the way you are doing it. You don´t want her to have any negative experiences with the harness, so removing the millet and her freaking out with her head in a loop is not going to help. Work out a way to do this training without her freaking out and work hard to avoid that.

 

[Eqiine]

Time. Keep doing it the way you are doing it. You don´t want her to have any negative experiences with the harness, so removing the millet and her freaking out with her head in a loop is not going to help. Work out a way to do this training without her freaking out and work hard to avoid that.

Okay! I'll be extra careful to keep going at whatever pace she feels comfortable with.