I ordered a flight harness for Kili a while ago but finally got around to trying it for training today. I can't say that she's thrilled about it but she lets me put it on her and take it off. The moment I let go of her or am not occupying her with tasks to do, she resorts to trying to chew it off. I guess one of these days I just have to leave her wearing it for a while so she can get used to the fact that there is no way she can get it off. The bigger problem I foresee is having her fly around my apartment in it. Ideally I'd like to do some indoor harness flight prior to outdoor. The problem is that unless I'm holding the short (6 foot) chord, it's bound to get tangled with her flying around with it hanging off. I wonder how I can get her to practice flying in it without going straight to outside. The 6ft section isn't detachable so there is no way to make it so the chord doesn't dangle when she flies.
The method I used to get her used to it was to have her to tricks with the harness lying around. Then I had her target right up to it. It didn't take long to make her unaware of the harness material. Then I started putting it on and off of her and treating the process. Once again, she is very hand tame and is not bothered as long as I am holding her. The moment I let go, if I keep feeding her treats or cuing tricks she will ignore the harness. However, the moment this stops she starts chewing it. I did some recalls with mixed success. The worse was when Kili flew off. Either I wasn't holding the chord and she couldn't land anywhere with the chord dangling off. Or she would fly off and get stopped by the chord. I'm going to have to figure out some way to get more practice flying with the harness at home.