Harness Training Without Force!

After a long and boring break from harness training Achilles, my blind cockatiel, I found I had some spare time from school one day and started it back up! Take a look at how far she has come since my last recording. Also notice how he has become conditioned to enthusiastically put her head in the harness. This was achieved using only Positive Reinforcement and Food Management. The inhumane and over-use of weight management is NEVER used!

In a different popular harness training video you can see consistent use of Negative Reinforcement. The side effects of such training are akin to the use of Positive Punishment. Do NOT use the first method in training if you can avoid it (and you always can avoid it if you think)! And always stay clear of the last method, for you and your animal will suffer consequences moste dire!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• parrot
• bird
• cockatiel
• training
• positive reinforcement
• harness
• aviator
• fly
• flying
• free

[GoodBirdInc]

Look how great you both are doing! : )

[ThePsittacine]

@GoodBirdInc Thanks Barb!

[XsoaproX]

FABULOUS!! Achilles is fabulous with training!! sparky is still coming along, slowly but steadily getting there. he is now being trained to put his head into a loop of material! i can put a sunflower seed about 2cm behind the loop of material so he has to put his head in. and i of course put the loop in a random place so he goes there willingly and not by force. though the only bad thing is that he takes his head out the second he gets the treat. how did u teach her to not pull her head out?

[ThePsittacine]

@XsoaproX

Sparky now wants to put his head in? That's great! Having my bird keep her harness on was the hardest part for me as well. Barbara H. reinforced the idea to reward teeny teeny approximations when training this. CoryCordes has a great video of using this on her caique, although she goes quickly through multiple steps. The trick is having the bird taking rewards fast, are your sunflowers shelled and made into small pieces? This helps if he will take them that way.

[XsoaproX]

@ThePsittacine when sparky puts his head through a loop of material, he really stretches with his neck to get it. (i don't know why though, as i put it in an easy place where he doesn't need to reach) and the second he has the treat (which is a whole sunflower with the shell on) he will pull his head out then crack it open. should i use de-husked sunflower seeds? because even though i have 4 sunflowers on my hand he will take one then pull out.. :(

[ThePsittacine]

@XsoaproX that behavior sounds like he is still getting used to the idea of the material. It is like he is trying to keep his body as far away from it as he can, like he doesn't quite trust it yet. And go ahead and un-hull those seeds. I would first offer them when you are not training though, see if you can get him used to the idea of shell-less seed.

[ThisIsHardToGetAName]

naw is that cockateil blind. he is doing such a good job

[JewelConure]

That's wonderful training..... nicely done :-) Thank you for posting it helps me so much with my Green Cheek Conure