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Clicker trained buns?

Jay on Happy Hoppers was clicker training his bunny Bertie and made videos of it, it was brilliant, they are on Youtube, sadly Bertie died a couple of months ago
 
Love it, Love it, Love it!
Right my new aim for when I get home - clicker train Pie! :D
 
I was clicker training Sebastian but Im not sure I was doing it right, must start again. Anyone got some good tips on how to start?
 
would somebody explain this to me please? i'm missing the point. what is the clicker for? the rabbit seems to get endless treats. the clicker doesn't seem to be a code or purpose other than to attract attention. give me a clue, please!
 
would somebody explain this to me please? i'm missing the point. what is the clicker for? the rabbit seems to get endless treats. the clicker doesn't seem to be a code or purpose other than to attract attention. give me a clue, please!

they do a trick, the clicker clicks, they get a treat. It'd be very easy to use pellets instead of treats. These could be taken out of daily rations.

It seems like a nice way to keep them amused. (Of course I think it should only be a thing that the rabbit likes doing, and should stay in the home.......I can imagine "rabbit obedience" could become the bext "rabbit jumping" :roll:)
 
would somebody explain this to me please? i'm missing the point. what is the clicker for? the rabbit seems to get endless treats. the clicker doesn't seem to be a code or purpose other than to attract attention. give me a clue, please!

They associate the clicker sound with getting a treat.
 
So cute!

I would love to train Jenson, little things like "wait" would be a start, every morning when I open the cage (he's only in at at night) it takes me a while to put the ramp on because he wants to play. Massive hurry to get out, then hops straight back in!!! :lol:
 
Basically the clicker is an instant reward. Too often we're slow in telling them that they've done the right thing as by the time we've said it, the right behaviour is in the past. With clicker you press it the second they're doing the right thing and then you can treat them knowing they know what they've done right.
 
I was clicker training Sebastian but Im not sure I was doing it right, must start again. Anyone got some good tips on how to start?

It's all about timing with clicker training. I think with rabbits, it's easiest to get them to follow the treat. Start off with just clicking and giving a treat. My two haven't been clicker trained but come to me when I call their names. You could start clicker training with recall. Call their name when they are near to you, treat then click. They will catch on to that one pretty quick and you'll soon be able to call them from a distance and they will run to you for a treat.

Then build up to something holding the treat over their head so they reach up for it. Once they get the treat, click immediately and give the vocal command you want them to associate with the action at the same time. Repeat a few times and change to giving the vocal command as they reach up for the treat, then click. Some catch on quicker than others, but basically you can teach them anything that you can lure them to follow the treat, such as the twist and give me ten in the video.
 
It's all about timing with clicker training. I think with rabbits, it's easiest to get them to follow the treat. Start off with just clicking and giving a treat. My two haven't been clicker trained but come to me when I call their names. You could start clicker training with recall. Call their name when they are near to you, treat then click. They will catch on to that one pretty quick and you'll soon be able to call them from a distance and they will run to you for a treat.

Then build up to something holding the treat over their head so they reach up for it. Once they get the treat, click immediately and give the vocal command you want them to associate with the action at the same time. Repeat a few times and change to giving the vocal command as they reach up for the treat, then click. Some catch on quicker than others, but basically you can teach them anything that you can lure them to follow the treat, such as the twist and give me ten in the video.


So command, treat then click to start with and eventually command, click then treat?
 
bunlover has trained her buns by clicking her fingers. :D
Its useful when I am minding them when she's on hols as it removes the need to respond to a certain voice.
I just click my fingers when they are in the garden and they know its time to go in.:D
sue:wave:

(bunlover doesn't use a clicker, or get them to perform tricks -she just clicks her fingers to let them know its time to go in).
 
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Now that's a coincidence, I'm working on a schoolproject now, I choose to do it about animal behaviour, learning in particular. I used clickertraining for my experiment. (Well, I am using it.. Have not finished yet..)

I should be working on my English presentation about it now :lol::oops: I'll post my explaination when I'm finished.. (Maybe one of you could be so kind to check the grammar etc too haha.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83Is1G6c1dc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaQ1z5UHLQo
 
So command, treat then click to start with and eventually command, click then treat?

Treat, click then command at first as they need to associate getting the treat with the noise of the clicker as the reinforcement - the whole idea is to associate the click with the treat. Then you add in the command so you can teach them more than one trick.

Once they get the hang of the trick a little, you then treat, command then click. Then once they reliably do what you are aiming for you command, click as they are performing the trick then treat as they know the treat is coming once they hear the click. But the key is all the actions should be within a second or two of each other.

The thing you need if you are going to clicker train an animal is absolute perfect timing. I've done it in the past with dogs, but I just find it an extra step in training that I didn't really need with my dogs. It's a great training method and used extensively in zoos to be able to examine the larger animals with minimum stress and human contact.
 
would somebody explain this to me please? i'm missing the point. what is the clicker for? the rabbit seems to get endless treats. the clicker doesn't seem to be a code or purpose other than to attract attention. give me a clue, please!


Hi, I clicker trained my Bertie under the advice of both Anne McBride (Behaviourist) and John Chitty (Bunny specialist).
From a behaviour point of view, I had a lone housebunny, it gave Bertie a lot of mental stimulation. I wasn't training him to do tricks for entertainment, but for his mental wellbing. He'd spend a good half hour learning something, then he would then do things on his own as result of it. He became more interested in his toys, tunnels, was lifting bunny dumbells and hopping around with them, and he became more alert, intelligent and engaging because of it. It helped deal with any boredom related stress.

Medically, it provided him with a lot of exercise, and as he had arthritis in his spine, it meant that I could lower his dose of Metacam. It also helped him loose weight and this in turn helped his back problems.

You can see the first part of what we did on this video . Sadly he didn't live long enough to make the second :(

There's some more info on it here

You can use the clicker to toilet train, and to reinforce good behaviours, such as chewing cardboard instaed of walls etc.

I was very uncertain about training a bunny, as I didn't feel it was right to have it under my 'control', but this never happened, Berts loved his training sessions, and used to grab the clicker from the coffee table to let me know when he was ready :)

Hope that helps :)
 
would somebody explain this to me please? i'm missing the point. what is the clicker for? the rabbit seems to get endless treats. the clicker doesn't seem to be a code or purpose other than to attract attention. give me a clue, please!

You use treats at first just while they get it :) I didn't use treats though, I used small pieces of carrot. It didn't take very long. Mine will come into the house from anywhere in the garden as soon as they are called, go from the house to the garden, from anywhere in the house or garden straight to their hutch...

It just makes life easier than chasing them round trying to catch them :oops: I think there is a video on here somewhere of Buu being called from her run and getting straight into her hutch. I don't use the clicker anymore I just used it while I was teaching them

If I sit with my legs flat on the floor Trip will jump backwards and forwards over my legs if I call him to :lol: He will jump onto anything, obviously I don't call him to jump onto anything high just like into my lap or onto the sofa. I didn't bother doing that with Scarlett though because she wasn't interested, she likes to amuse herself :lol:

And what Jay said :lol:
 
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