Chicken Harness Training Diary

[robinwhiskers]

Day 1: I put a small dog vest harness I bought on Jagger the 21 week old Buff Orpington pullet. She at first freezes up and then tries to get it off while all the other chickens obnoxiously follow her around, but I give her some treats and feed which calms her down and helps her have a positive association with the harness. She forgets her stress and comes when called along with the other chickens. The harness is taken off and she gets something good to eat.

 

[Thing2]

Cool! Why are you harness training her?
(Sorry if I missed you mentioning it already!)

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

Cool! Why are you harness training her?
(Sorry if I missed you mentioning it already!)

X2

 

[Chickassan]

I've done this, good luck, have fun and don't take any chicken sass too personally. Also, don't take her out in public she'll embarrass you that's how they get revenge for the harness.

 

[robinwhiskers]

I'm into dog training and I've taught the chickens some things (Jagger, technically my own chicken, can ring a bell, knows her name, and gets fluffy when you call her a pretty bird and all the chickens sort of know their names and come when called). Jagger is never feisty, she's sweet and quiet and very calm and cute and pretty. When she was only a month or two old for a week or two I did some harness training, so maybe that paid off. I'm harness training her because I want to be able to take her for walks (even if it's at an incredibly slow pace) so she can get mental stimulation from seeing our neighbors' cows and horses (that would be interesting) and if I ever wanted to take her to Tractor Supply, lol. (Our TSC has no chickens so she can't get diseases) Just a fun thing to do, of course I want it to get to where she has no stress wearing it. I'm not just doing this for my own pleasure obviously. I'll be posting a diary update every day, so stay tuned and I'll answer any more questions!

 

[robinwhiskers]

Day 2 (training session 1): Jagger isn't one to be held much, but she did calm down with a little bit of handling because she got to eat some dry corn out of my hand while I put the harness on her. At first I locked up all the other chickens so they wouldn't bother her. Jagger didn't try to get the harness off. She shook herself a little bit but now knew she couldn't remove it from her body. She paced around the border of the coop, but did eat a bit out of my hand and didn't seem too alarmed with the harness. I let the other chickens out, and she ate corn I scattered on the ground with the other chickens. A little disoriented, while wearing the harness she wouldn't come all the way when called but was taking corn every now and then. I had no problem removing the harness from her and she was then her normal self. I'll do another session later, I'm very happy with the progress she's making.

 

[Thing2]

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

How do you harness train? I'm interested.

 

[robinwhiskers]

I've heard all different things, but it's similar to what you would do with a dog or cat. With Jagger, what I'm doing is getting her used to me putting the harness on, wearing the harness, and taking the harness off. Through the whole process, she gets lots of love and treats so she will associate all the good things with the harness. At first chickens might flail around or stay perfectly still, but eventually they'll hang of it, but I guess some chickens are better to harness train than others. I'm doing 2-3 short sessions of Jagger wearing the harness a day until I feel confident that she'll be okay wearing it and dragging a leash around. Once she's ok with the leash, I'll pick it up and maybe try to get her to do a little bit of following me for rewards, even though a chicken will probably never walk on a leash like a dog would.

 

[robinwhiskers]

Day 2 (training session 2): I decided that because it's a nice, sunny afternoon, another harness training session would do some good. I didn't have too much trouble putting the harness on Jagger after I caught her. She shook out her head a few times, but after that she was pacing with the harness on. She doesn't seem too stressed fortunately. She also stayed still while I took it off. As usual, she got good things to eat while I put the harness on, while I took it off, and while she wore it. The other chickens are beginning to get less annoying about trying to pester her while she wears it. They want to peck the shiny ring you're supposed to put the leash on!