kitty and her harness

saya

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I'm harness training my kittens right now. not taking them out yet, just letting them wear the harnesses around the house for a for hours a day while I can supervise them.
Berach is doing fine with his, he could care less, but Chloe...
she hates it! she walks backwards trying to get out of it... continuously. as long as she's lying down or playing with something she's fine but she won't (or can't) walk normally in it.
I thought she'd get better over time but it doesn't seem like she is...

I gave her rescue remedy today wile she was wearing it but she did the same thing, albeit a little more lazily

My oldest one is harness trained also, never encountered this before...

any suggestions?
 

callista

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A different style of harness could help. Maybe buy some from the pet store, try them, and if they don't work, return them. Surely that's the same as returning a pair of pants that doesn't fit?
 
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saya

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hm. not a bad idea. Today she is actually walking around a little in it but...
she's kinda "crawling", really low to the ground. It's pretty funny actually.
she seems to be doing than she has so far so I think I'll try another week and if no improvement try some other harnesses
 

hissy

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If you can get a copy of Cat Fancy Jan 2007, I wrote an article about harness training.
 

coaster

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There is a small possibility that she'll never accept a harness. I've given up trying to get Mellie to wear a collar. She simply will not. I've tried all the adaptation tricks and none works. The main problem is that immediately after I put it on, she tries to "groom" it off and always gets her lower chin stuck under the collar, then she freaks out. I'm not going to put her through that any more.
 
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saya

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Chloe is the same way with her collar but she's still pretty small and the collar is a little too big for her still so I plan to try again when she gets a little bigger...
 

buzbyjlc10

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Oliver did the same thing when he first wore his harness (btw, he was almost 3 when I took him off the streets)... he'd walk backwards and turn into "slinky cat" where he'd kinda slink along the ground in it... he still does it sometimes, but not really that often... now he actually begs to get harnessed and hooked up to his tie out in the backyard... I think the style of harness and some time should help your kitten
 

missymotus

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My sisters girl Daisy does the army crawl until she gets outside, then she forgets and walks properly.
 

kittycat25

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I have 2 kittens and the boy took the harness just fine and couldn't care less but the girl races around backwards tripping over everything. She doesn't mind a collar though. Maybe try just putting the harness on your cat for a few minutes a day and play with her the entire time and then take it off. After a few days she might associate it with you playing with her and except it more readily.
 
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saya

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thanks for the advice guys

haha "army crawl"
that's exactly what she does.
She only did it for a few minutes today though. I gave them all treats and then a little RR in some tuna juice.
They're starting to associate them w good things though I think because today they started purring when they saw the harnesses.

patience patience
 
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