pre harness work with chicken

[gingerpeach22]

I have a lap sitter girl, a barred rock yearling, that I'd like to teach to wear a harness and leash so I can let her go on the grass outside the coop and run. I've been picking her up a bunch today & giving her a few sunflower seeds so she thinks it's a nice place to be. Then I slowly lower her onto the floor. She plucks my jeans and we go through it again - strong association with food. I added walking slowly in the coop while holding her and offering seeds. Any other ideas?

 

[Rivulet]

You might look at clicker training and some of their ideas. Though it's primarily considered a technique for training dogs, lots of animals respond quite well to it and the fact that it's all positive reinforcement makes it a good fit for pretty much any animal!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Good luck on harness training your 'chook!

 

[Carrie Lynn]

I was thinking of doing the same thing with my Bantam, the LF aren't such good fliers and I'll always be out there watching for hawks.
I think if you're not trying to walk them it should be easy. The trick would be finding a soft harness that
fits but doesn't block their crop. I'll look for a kitten/cat or reptile harness this spring.

Let us know how it goes

 

[gingerpeach22]

I have a kitty harness which I think will work. We did the picking up, offering couple of seeds, petting, standing around & repeating today. I can envision fear when trying to put on a harness though. Haven't thought through what to do if she struggles - it would increase her fear.
Yes, I'm familiar with clicker training horses and have done a lot of it.