After I wore him out with the laser pointer tonight I thought it would be a good time to start harness training.
We had tried the harness one time before, but it was too early in the relationship; we were having other problems; and I got it on wrong, so that was a total disaster. I waited a good month and a half before trying it again tonight.
Putting it on involved a great deal of biting and him holding on to bite harder. He would perhaps do better with a harness that only had a top strap, not a top and bottom strap between the two circles.
However, once it was on, I initially distracted him by throwing treats for him to retrieve (I wanted him to understand that he could move with it on without any problems). He retrieved treats admirably. Then I sat back down to observe how he dealt with it on his own.
This resulted in him coming over and launching himself at my arm, trying repeatedly to bite me (this is how he expresses displeasure). So I got the laser pointer out again and, after finally getting him to see the dot and not attack my hand every time it made the click sound when the pointer went on, he decided to chase the dot for a while.
Then I left him to rest, which he did (finally). He tried to examine the harness after a while, washing the bits of himself between the harness straps (shoulders, etc). At one point he nearly did a headstand trying to see the underside of it.
But he did voluntarily go and get a drink of water while wearing it, and walked around, and so forth. Wearing it does not actually seem to be a big deal. It's putting it on.
When I took it off he "helped" by pulling out of it, and then wanted to look at it once it was off--but he only took a cursory glance and left for better things (something made a noise outside of the window so he went to look at it).
I left it on for about 45 minutes. We shall see how he does next time. I'm hoping less biting. My arms feel flayed.
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