Kokoda is a 16-month-old female Eclectus Parrot. She was purchased from an Eclectus Specialist breeder in New South Wales and sent to me in Western Australia at around 14 weeks of age, after she was fully weaned and fledged. Kokoda is very cheeky, a total clown who makes me laugh on a daily basis. She is certainly her ‘own’ bird, independent, happy to play on her own, not a particularly cuddly parrot—although she is coming around to head scratches now—but also very inquisitive, often following me around just to get involved. She is very smart, she already has a large repertoire of words, phrases and sounds that she regularly uses to communicate. I grew up with Sulphur Crested Cockatoos and Budgerigars, and in my mid-teens I had a Ringneck Parrot, but Kokoda is the first parrot I have had since I began my career in training and behavior and so it has been an excellent learning opportunity for me.
Kokoda has a previous history with the harness, starting with an initial exposure at around 4 months of age, when I began training her to accept wearing it. We started very slowly, and over the period of four weeks, I trained her to voluntarily place her head through the harness and then eventually worked up to me lifting her wings through the wing holes and tightening the harness around her. Unfortunately, towards the end of the training, I began to rush the process—one of my dogs ruptured her cruciate ligament and needed to go to Perth for surgery, so I wanted Kokoda ready to wear the harness for the trip to Perth, which would have us away from home for a week.
My haste meant that the positive associations Kokoda had been building with the harness began to erode, and she started to fight having the harness put on. I believe this is because I had rushed the last part of the training, our relationship was still very new, and she is not fond of handling, especially her wings. I kept persisting, but her behaviour became increasingly fearful and anxious when the harness was brought out, so I ceased using the harness altogether until I could implement more training.
Having Kokoda harness trained is very important to me; not only does it allow her to interact and explore the outdoors and to be more included on our camping trips and holidays, but it will also give her the ability to stretch her wings and fly safely outdoors.
She still regularly comes out with us on walks and camping trips but is confined to her Pak O Bird carrier. Allowing her to accompany us is important because I want her to enjoy the outdoors, so that this can eventually become part of the reinforcement for harnessing.
Counter-conditioning plan
I have developed a training plan to help reintroduce the harness to Kokoda. The first thing I need to do is address the current underlying emotional responses to both the harness and the handling required to have the harness put on properly. If I can build a strong positive conditioned emotional response to these procedures then training Kokoda to cooperate where possible to get the harness on will be much easier.
I will need to counter-condition Kokoda to the following elements of being harnessed:
- The sight of the harness
- The harness moving towards her
- The harness moving around or near her
- Moving my hands towards her face and beak
- Placing her beak through the harness
- The wing hole of the harness going over her head, starting with the largest setting and gradually decreasing to the appropriate size
- Her wings being handled
- The harness being tightened around her midsection
Once desensitization and counter-conditioning are completed, I will work on specifically training Kokoda to cooperate with the harnessing where possible. This will include voluntarily placing her head through the head hole and lifting her wings to help position it around her body properly.
Reinforcement choices
As I have a long history of working with Kokoda on training exercises I already had a very good idea of her favourite reinforcers. These include sunflower seeds, organic fruit baby food, palm nuts, and egg and biscuit mix with coconut or almond milk.
I chose to use both the egg and biscuit mix and the baby food for these counter-conditioning exercises because they could be given through a syringe or squeeze pouch, and they also gave me the ability to offer continuous reinforcement.
Video notes
These videos are a diary of how I implemented the training plan with Kokoda. Behaviours I am looking to avoid include growling, moving or flying away, pulling away or crouching away, lunging, and biting.
In this video, we are working on counter-conditioning Kokoda to the presence of the harness. In the beginning, you will notice her move away when I initially lift the harness up, as I have it a little too close to her. As we progress, she becomes increasingly comfortable with the harness.
More work on counter-conditioning to the harness approaching her, as well as some general movement of the harness nearby. A couple notes on some behaviour seen in this video – her “hackles” are raised for a lot of it, and you will see some “baby feeding” behaviour – in this video primarily head bobbing while taking the food, but this can also include sitting low, wings held away from the body, quivering, head tilted upwards, mouth open, and calling noises – ; this is due to the use of the soft baby food in the pouch, which I have found causes some extra arousal. When the same food is in a syringe she does not react this way.
In this video, I am working on initially having Kokoda place her beak in between my thumb and fingers, and then I add in the harness later. The idea behind this exercise was primarily to desensitize and counter-condition her to my hand coming towards her face with the harness. My hope is that I could possibly also use this beak-targeting as an operant behaviour as part of training her to cooperatively have her harness placed over her head: I would cue her with my fingers to place her beak there, so I can then lift the harness over her head. It also acts as a good intermediary between just counter-conditioning her to the presence of the harness and moving the harness towards her.
I had to take a step back at the beginning of this video, as Kokoda initially became anxious about the presence of the harness on my hand. We did a few repetitions without the harness and then I added it again without issue. I am trying to gradually have her place her beak through the harness a tiny bit on her own. I am using my fingers to keep the harness open, and I am using the wing opening instead of the head opening because it is adjustable and larger—I can start with the opening very wide and gradually make it smaller as she becomes more comfortable.
We start where we left off in the previous video, working on having Kokoda place her beak just through the harness opening to get the food. Approximately 50 seconds in, you will see her body language change a little (crouching lower, pulling backwards) as I place the harness farther over her head on two occasions. These behaviors suggest that she is feeling anxious, so I switch back to where I was placing the harness before. About two minutes in, I begin moving the harness farther over her head and towards her neck again; this goes well until around the 3:30 mark, where she growls and lunges at me. We resume after this without any other issues.
At this point I feel like we are making good, steady progress, as it should be with counter-conditioning. Kokoda and I will keep on with our training sessions with the harness and I will continue to document them in the next installment of our diary.
Lee Stone CPDT-KA is the owner of DogTag Dog Training in Port Hedland, Western Australia. Lee has a passion for anything animal behaviour and is working towards building a multi-species behaviour consulting business.
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Mike is an emerging animal behaviorist sitting in Minnesota in the US. He carries an MSc in social science research methods (U. of Kentucky) and brings a passion for understanding how the methods we favor shape the knowledge we privilege. Coming from careers in teaching and non-profit program evaluation, he found companion animal behavior by accident helping anxious feline friends in a unique shelter in Ohio. It is a privilege and a joy to combine these and advance the journal in this exciting time of growth.
Alexandra is a certified dog behavior consultant and holds a PhD in neuroscience. She has spent over a decade in academic research and is author of numerous scientific articles on different aspects of brain development, including olfaction, neurogenesis, and memory formation. Her work as a behavior consultant focuses on creating trusting relationships between humans and their dogs through communication, respect, and science-based knowledge. Alexandra is very dedicated to promoting more science within the dog training world. She supports dog guardians and professionals to build a solid understanding of scientific principles and provides guidance on how to apply these to life with dogs. She runs Canine Mindscape in Alicante, Spain.
I’m an Argentinean-Italian dog trainer and CSAT who spent eight amazing years in Brazil learning and working with dogs. Now based in Europe, I volunteer with the IAABC as a translator and, in my free time, help rehomed dogs settle into their new families. I love bridging languages—and hearts—between people and their dogs.
I’m a translator, editor and journalist, as well as canine educator for children and families, specialized in canine body language. I am part of the IAABC Family since 2019, as Language Director at the IAABC and Translators Team Lead at the IAABC Foundation, at the moment. I volunteer at local shelters and promote bite prevention and animal welfare at schools and events all over my country, Uruguay.
I’m a Chilean veterinarian and certified dog trainer, based in Madrid and working at a veterinary clinic. I’ve been volunteering with the IAABC and the IAABC Foundation for over seven years. In my free time, I help dogs and their guardians strengthen their bond, and I love spending quality time with my own dogs.
Master’s Degree in Natural Sciences, with a strong interest in environmental sustainability and the protection of natural ecosystems. Passionate about writing and science communication, she collaborates with multidisciplinary teams on research projects, such as Equine International, and with non-profit initiatives in the environmental and cultural fields. She is writing for different magazines, including IAABC Foundation. Her major goal is to improve horse’s welfare through behaviour research and empirical practice.
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I believe that knowledge from a wide range of disciplines fosters a more empathetic, curious, and engaging world. I am passionate about social, environmental, and minority rights issues (both human and non-human), and this has invariably led me down the road of multi-species anthropology. Perpetually curious about the world we live in, I hope to contribute towards making the world a kinder place for all of us earthlings to live on!
Beckie Wheldon is based in England, UK, and has been supporting the IAABC Foundation Journal team as a volunteer journal content editor since early 2025. She has a BSc (Hons) Animal Behaviour and Welfare, and has recently completed a MSc Clinical Animal Behaviour. With a passion for both practical and theory, Beckie is proud to be a part of the journal submission journey and support the process of applied animal behaviour information and research getting from our writers to the readers. As her full-time career, Beckie is currently part of the UK veterinary charity, PDSA, as a Learning and Development Business Partner for Veterinary, where she supports the professional development of people in their Veterinary Hospitals. Her last position was with the rescue charity, Dogs Trust, as a Canine Behavioural Welfare Manager, where she worked on embedding evidence-based behavioural welfare best practices throughout policy and practices, with both internal and external professional stakeholders, such as the police and military. With a varied background in kennels, caregiver education, and charity dog training classes, Beckie is also an accredited Animal Training Instructor (APDT UK) and an Associate Clinical Animal Behaviourist (APBC).
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