Harness Help!

[Kat88]

I'm not sure if I'm in the right forum here, but let me know and I'll move it if it's in the wrong spot.

At the moment I'm training my lorikeet to wear the harness (aviator). It's at the stage where she'll put her head through the either the head loop or a loop I make with the strap to get the treat, but then she'll yank her head back through the loop as soon as she's got it in her beak.

It gets kinda difficult when she puts her head through the head loop then tries to yank it back out, but because the hole is small, she ends up almost upside-down on the perch (she's ended up upside down a couple of times). To stop this, I went back to making a bigger loop so that her head wouldn't get caught, but I tried holding on to the treat (a piece of fresh apple) so that she would have to eat it with her head in the loop. That didn't work either. She'd just rip off a chunk then pull her head out of the loop and happily take her time eating her apple.

I also tried putting one hand on her back and then putting the loop over her head then giving her a treat while the loop stayed on. But that doesn't work as soon as I take my hand off her back.

I'm just not sure how I should go about this, because I'm pretty sure she's not getting what I want her to do. She knows she'll only get a treat if she puts her head through the loop, but to her, that doesn't mean it has to stay in the loop! Short of forcing her to keep it on, I'm not sure what to do...

Any advice would be really helpful!

I should note that she is very, very tame, doesn't bite and is pretty tolerant of almost anything. I had to give her some antibiotics at one stage and she made complaining noises but didn't bite when I had to hold her still and drop the antibiotics in her beak.

So I could force her without her ripping my hands to shreds, but I don't really want to. I'd rather she like putting the harness on (as much as parrots can, maybe tolerate is a better word)

[Michael]

Two things:

1) Linger a little before giving the treat once the head is in the loop. Let's say if you wait 2 seconds head is still there, but 5 seconds and it's pulled out. Reward a few times at the 2 second mark for keeping it in. Then once in a while wait long enough for it to pull it out and ignore the bird and no treat. This should help differentiate the treats are only for when the harness is on. Then begin to increase your demand for how long the collar must be worn by not rewarding the shorter times.

2) If the above isn't working, you can gently grab/hold the parrot (or better yet have a second person for this to free up your hands) while this is going on. When the ring comes on, grab it with the hand holding the bird so it can't be slipped back off. Now make it super super rewarding. The first time give a treat and then take it off. But work your way up in terms of duration by giving treats over and over again while it is on. Eventually loosen your grip and the bird should ignore the collar and not pull its head out because it gets a treat once a minute while wearing it or something. Then you can proceed as normal.