Harness Training!
AnimalCare 
Apr 16, 2016 
AnimalCare, NGOs 
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When Mimi the cat visited us at Pet Fiesta coming on a leash (like a dog!), I was totally intrigued. Then Oreo wrote to me to tell me that he too goes for walks on a leash (like a dog!).
Oreo suggested that I could try putting a harness on my cats to see if they would take to it. After all, Oreo started off, in his own words, “flipping like a fish” too. This was precisely what Cow did when we put the harness on him years ago and we gave up after that.
The only time that the harness worked was when Ginger had to be caged to safeguard him from Mr “Terrorist” Quack’s attacks. I would take Ginger out for walks on the harness.
So, today, I dug out Ginger’s harness and decided to try it on our most obliging cat – Tabs.
This was Tabs’ first reaction.
This was next.
I didn’t pull her anywhere. I just let her go wherever she liked within the house and outside in the house compound.
Of course she wasn’t comfortable with this strange thing on her.
Oreo had already forewarned me that there is a way to get out of the harness – just walk backwards. Well, Tabs tried this too (walking backwards), but I made sure the harness was always behind her, and pulled taut. Tabs didn’t manage to get out of it. Then Tabs tried lunging forwards a few times. That failed too.
So, she decided to just sit.
Tiger was very concerned and kept watch from the Stargate.
Next, it was Tiger’s turn!
Tiger was less disturbed by it. Oh well, Tiger is KNOWN for his calmness.
Next, it was Bunny’s play time.
So just for the fun of it, I put the harness on Bunny.
Ha! What do you know, it didn’t bother Bunny in the least!
He happily went about his way, doing everything he would do, as though the harness wasn’t even on him!
However, I have reservations about taking them out of the gate. What if they like outside so much or they wish to explore and the next time they escape, they might just make a bee-line for the gate (Tabs and Tiger come out quite often to play).
Bunny gets his playtime whenever Jia-Wen is back and Bunny has already made many bee-lines out and he’s gone up and down the road, to at least as far as four houses both ways. He has even crossed the road and gone up to the playground using the steps. Maybe he thinks he can conquer the road just as he did in the old neighbourhood. Cow and Bunny ruled the entire road back there in our old neighbourhood and no other cat dared to come in.
Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2016/04/16/harness-training/
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