Hi!
We recently started harness training our two Bengal boys in order to take them out for walkies :)
We started last week by slowly introducing them to the harnesses: let them smell the fabric, getting them used to the sound of velcro, laying the harness just on top of their backs,...
Now we started with strapping them in the harness (in turns, never together) for a short period of time. We started with 2 minutes and now it's about 10 minutes. When we do this, we immediately try to distract them with snacks and toys so hopefully they will associate it with something positive.
The first day it went quite ok for both of them, just some 'drunk' walking. The next day they both just dropped and pretended to be totally disabled
So every time they did the effort to walk towards me, they got a treat! And now on the third day it also was a mix between playing dead and walking for 5 steps
Oh, and they also can't jump anymore
Now my question is, if I'm doing this correctly. Gin seems to be motivated enough to go for his favorite treats (but he really thinks he can't jump or walk straight). Tonic isn't so motivated by treats because he feels so strange with the harness on, so I try to let him play with his favorite toy because his curiosity is greater than is hunger
but even that seems quite difficult... he will let himself fall after 2-5 steps. Or he just looks at the bouncing toy with sad eyes... Yesterday he did manage to jump to the first platform of the cat tree, so I rewarded him with pets and treats! :) But after that jump he just dropped again.
So is this a good way of training? Should I just continue with rewards whenever they walk, run or jump? Or is it better to let them adjust to it on their own? I mean: let them wear the harness supervised for eg 1 hour daily in order for them to discover that they will not die from wearing it. Or will this 'ruin' the positive association?