Hi there, new to the forum so hope I've got the right board. I have two bengals, they're fairly new in my life, and I would like to train them to walk on a harness.
My 6 month old, Wessex, is happy being handled. At the moment we're working on him letting me handle his paws for long periods of time, and not struggling while I put the harness on (it's a figure 8 jacket).
My lovely girl Scarlett is 5 years old, I adopted her in February from a family who couldn't meet her needs. She has always been an indoor cat, apart from having a run which we intend to build but due to unexpected circumstances can't quite afford it just yet, so I thought a happy medium might be to train her to walk on the leash, that way we all get some fresh air and outdoor play. The problem with Scarlett is she's moved homes a lot in her 5 years, and although her behaviour is impeccable, she hasn't had the handling we need to get a harness on her.
I'm looking for some advice as to how I go about getting a harness on her, and how long I persist with the training every day. At the moment we manage about 15-30 minutes every evening when she wakes up from nap time (she's calm then). I'd like to know if what I'm doing is right and should continue.
With Scarlett I am also clicker training her, and we spend training time with me picking up her paw (click, treat whenever she lets me touch it, which is most times now.) I think she's slowly letting me hold it for longer, but we're moving at glacial pace. Is this normal?
She used to hate being picked up, but now we can pick up and walk for a few seconds before she struggles (and when she struggles, she no longer claws me). Click, treat and lots of fussy praise whenever she allows picking up, or even just the touching of her undercarriage.
I know consistency is key, but I don't manage to get the training time in 7 days a week, more like 5, and sometimes in the morning. I'm very much doing it alone, there's no hope for my partner helping to say hold Scarlett while I put the harness on. Besides which, ideally what I'd like is to train her to hold still and accept my putting this strange item on her.
Is there anything I am missing, should be doing, that will help the process be 1. More fun/tolerable for the cats, 2. Make the training more successful, and 3. Perhaps pick up the training pace? (I pop training in basically whenever my being home without family commitments coincides with the bengals being calm, which can be several times a day or once a day. Some days they're just like toddlers who downed a bag of skittles!)
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