Alfie was out of the cage and I decided to have a super quick harness session. I'm really limiting the time spent with the harness at the moment because we've never done much structured training. I've identified a treat he likes (cedar nuts) so I am now only giving these to him when we are doing anything with the harness. He has other treats he likes but cedar nuts seem to be his absolute favourite at the moment- he will never refuse one. So this seems the ideal treat to use as a training motivator.
He was out of the cage and sitting on his shelf and I took the harness out and showed him three cedar nuts. He seemed interested. First, I asked him to touch the harness (exactly as I have been doing through the cage bars for the last few days) and when he did that I praised him and gave him a nut. This is the first time approaching the harness training out of the cage. I decided to be a little bolder and I made a big loop with the harness then showed him the treat. He had to put his beak through the loop to get the treat. He did this perfectly with no fuss and no grabbing the harness. I let him finish his treat then tried this one more time. Again, perfect response. He put his beak through the large loop and took the treat. I stopped it there, gave him lots of praise and let him eat his nut.
Whilst this might seem like a tiny step, I am happy with it. I'm aware that I might be overly cautious with keeping the training so short but I don't want to jump in and push too hard so that he backs off and is wary of the harness. Over time I may try and slowly increase how many times I ask him to repeat the behaviours to extend the training.
If anyone has any pointers or tips I'd welcome them.