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Category: Training

Taming Vacuumasaurus

Posted on by Melinda

It emerges with no warning, clattering out of dark closets, the strange, shiny, hairless creature. Roaring incessantly – deafeningly – never stopping, not even to take a breath. It lurches menacingly around every room in the house, raging in and out of every nook and corner. It’s terrifying! The bane of house bunny existence: The Vacuum Cleaner.

But there is hope, fellow lagomorphs: we too used to fear this gruesome monster. But now when he appears, not only don’t we mind, we kind of enjoy it! If you’re still living in fear of Vacuumasaurus, tell your humans to read this article.

Sincerely,

Moraea and Finnegan

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What Are You Afraid Of? – Banishing Bunny Fear

Posted on by Melinda
For Finnegan, fear has a name. It’s The Sizzle. The first whisper of frying foods from our kitchen sends him urgently racing for cover as if a hungry owl had just flown in the window. Desperate to escape his auditory enemy, he cowers or scurries about, unable to rest until the culinary culprit is silenced.

Does your long-eared lad or lass have a nemesis like The Sizzle? Well, there might be a way to help them.

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Does Your Rabbit Trust You?

Posted on by Melinda

Years ago, I helped a woman adopt a rabbit after her previous one passed away. She fell in love with a beautiful silvery lop named Sheldon, and delightedly took him home. A few weeks later, she gave me a call. She was concerned because she and Sheldon weren’t “connecting”. In fact, he was avoiding her.

I asked what happened when she got close to Sheldon. She said she’d pick him up and cuddle him, but he would get away as quickly as he could. “Have you tried not picking him up?” I asked. Though I tried my best to work with this well-meaning bunny mom, in the end I failed.  She became convinced that Sheldon was somehow defective and he was returned. On the brighter side, Sheldon went on to find a happy home.

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Chasing Desire: the Art of Luring

Posted on by Melinda

Luring is a basic tool that is used routinely to move dogs around, distract them, or to initiate new behaviors like “sit” or “down”. It’s like the Swiss army knife of dog training. Just hold out a nice, tasty treat and Fido will follow you anywhere. But can you lure a rabbit?

You sure can.

It’s a simple and easy skill you can practice with your bun. It can come in handy for training other things, or any time you want your bunny to move. For example, a behavior like standing up on the hind legs or hopping up on a platform can be taught with a lure.

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Book Review: Behavioural Problems in Rabbits by Guen Bradbury

Posted on by Melinda

Your rabbit is peeling the wallpaper off your wall. How do you seek help? Talk to rabbit-lover friends? Call the rescue you adopted from? Google it?

Ever ask your vet?

Bun owners like me often consult a vet about a behavior that we suspect has a medical cause. One example is urination outside the litterbox. It’s sometimes thought to be caused by a bladder infection, so the vet is the obvious person to consult. However, recently I discovered that some veterinarians can also be of help with behavior concerns that aren’t directly linked to an illness or injury.

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Reduce Rabbit Travel Stress with Crate Training

Posted on by Melinda

We need to leave for our vet appointment in less than ten minutes.

I’ve scooped up Monty, my furry white whale of a boy. It was easy only because he’d been asleep. Monty’s theme song? “Don’t Fence Me In.” He’s scaled thirty-six inch exercise pens. As I load him in the crate, he clearly disapproves. I manage to safely tuck his nose inside before hurriedly latching the door.

Now it’s Pixel’s turn. But my delicate diva of a daintily dappled Rex has been alerted by the flurry of Monty’s capture. She knows something’s up and wants none of it.

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Road Rabbit: Traveling by Car

Posted on by Melinda

Come Saturday morning, Moraea, Finnegan, and I head out on an errand. When I open the car door, both bunnies joyfully hop right in. They ride with their noses pressed to the windows, excited to view the passing scenery. Arriving back home, they jump down from their little car seats and cheerfully follow me inside.

OK, that’s pure fantasy. As much as I’d love to bring my little fuzz-faces with me wherever I go, they wouldn’t like it; not one bit.

Pssssst! If you like the Bunny Bus design featured above, you can shop our Bunny Bus Collection of mugs, t-shirts and more on Zazzle!

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An Easy Rabbit Training Task: Target Training

Posted on by Melinda

Want something easy to train your bunny to do, that’s also useful?  Try target training.  That is, teaching your bun to touch his nose to a “target.”

Why Start With Target Training?

Target training is an excellent first exercise for both trainer and student.  It’s a pretty simple thing for your rabbit to do, and the mechanics for you are not too complicated.  The best part is, once you have trained this, you will have a way to tell your bun to move to a particular spot. That makes it a nice gateway to teaching other stuff — like, go to a mat, or get in a travel crate. Once your rabbit knows to touch the target, you can get him to go wherever you put it.

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Why You Should Train Your Pet Rabbit

Posted on by Melinda

In the world of professional animal trainers, there seem to be only two kinds.  Most everyone is familiar with dog trainers.  From there, it veers immediately into zoos and the circus.  I was willing to accept this as reasonable for most of my life. Not any more. I now believe that for any species of pet, both human and animal will benefit if training is part of the picture.  And not just any kind of training, either.  It should be force-free and based on positive reinforcement.

What made me so adamant about training, even for rabbits?  After I watched this video by Small Pet Select of Dr. Guen Bradbury I realized that training is the best form of communication that we have with another species.  If you are going to live with someone, things are going to work out a lot better if you can talk to each other!

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