• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Bunny Tricks?

Shardy95

Young Bun
Hello :)

I've been watching some tutorials on Rabbit Training. And I REALLY want to train Martha to do some tricks, but how do I do that? Do I need a clicker? And how do I train her? Will I have to wait until we've bonded more (I got her yesterday) she is 8wks today :)
 
I'd give her a few more days to settle, just spend time with her, talking, stroking her, giving her bits of healthy treats to get her used to you first :) I think a clicker would help, its a good clear, concise marker to your rabbit to show her she's done the right behaviour but not sure a bunny would respond to one tbh. I can't say I could manage to train any of my bunnies, they're too independent and prefer doing their own thing! :lol: but to see if your bunny would enjoy it as a bit of enrichment you could try using her daily pellets or something like herbs/veg cut up into small pieces and when she does what you want either user a clicker or just give her a piece and see if she repeats it?
 
Yeah, yeah i will do. I've been having cuddles with her and been talking to her lots :) I can't give her any treats until she's a bit older so what I'll do is use the clicker and then reward her with some pellets :) I'll give it a shot soon and see how it goes :thumb: I'll watch some more tutorials, they do really help!
 
I clicker trained my old bunny Neo, so it definitely can work. It requires patience, timing, and something really tasty in tiny pieces that are quick to eat (I used ordinary food pellets because Neo loved them).

You can use a clicky biro instead of getting a proper clicker, as long as it makes a repeatable identical noise that isn't so loud it frightens the bunny.

Stage 1 - Charging the clicker
What you need to do is "charge" the clicker before you do anything else - this is how you get the rabbit to associate the click with the treat. Offer little pieces and click as she takes each one. After a lot of repetitions she'll get the idea that click means treat - you'll know she understands because she'll start to look for the treat when she hears the click. Every time you click she should get a treat.

Stage 2 - mark and reward the behaviour
Stage two is when you start to reward the behaviour you want to see. Start small - you can't expect her to jump through a hoop or do any other complicated/difficult trick without working up to that. Sitting up in the periscope position or touching your hand are good behaviours to start with as they are natural for bunnies and aren't too difficult. Pick one behaviour, don't confuse her by trying to teach different things at once.

There are two ways you can approach reinforcing the desired behaviour - you can wait for the rabbit to do the action on its own, or you can "lure" it (for example holding a treat just above the rabbit's head so they have to lift their front feet slightly to reach it if you're teaching "sit up"). Click at the exact moment she does what you want, and treat immediately after the click. Timing's massively important, the click and treat have to be very close to the behaviour so she can associate the behaviour with the click+treat. Always treat after a click even if you clicked "wrong". And don't try to use any commands - she has no idea what "sit up" or "touch" or whatever means right now so it's a waste of time. Keep quiet. And resist giving treats without clicking just because she's cute! She'll work better if you're only rewarding the specific behaviour.

What you're teaching her is "if you do this thing, you will be rewarded". That's all. After a while she'll start to increase the frequency of the desired behaviour - I find that this happens quite suddenly as if a switch has flipped on in their head and they've realised all at once that sitting up (or whatever you're teaching) means food. Once this happens reliably, for example she performs the behaviour again straight away after finishing each treat, you're ready to move on.

Stage 3 - Teaching the cue
Next it's time to add the command. I think this is the hardest stage, personally, because it's much harder to get the timing perfect. Pick a short word/phrase like "up" or "touch" or "jump", whatever works, as a cue. You'll give the cue just before you click, so as she's most of the way through lifting her feet for the sit up, or just before her nose reaches your hand for the touch. This whole stage only works if the rabbit's really happy and reliable about the behaviour - it's useless if you say "touch" and she pulls away for example, because then she learns that "touch" means "move away" - so back up to the previous stage if you need to, make sure the behaviour is really solid.

Stage 4 - Using the cue
Now you can start to use the cue as an actual command, saying it before she performs the behaviour. If you've done the previous steps throughly then she'll respond to the command and perform the behaviour. Say it ONCE. "Sit", not "Sit, sit, sit. Sit!" If she doesn't respond correctly 90-95% of the time, she's not ready for this yet and you need to go back to stage 3. It's no good keep cueing if she isn't doing what you ask for, because then she's starting to disassociate the word from the action and undoing your previous good work.

But hopefully by now she'll perform the action quickly in response to the cue. Keep clicking and treating - if she's working for you she should get paid! If you're happy, you can move on to something else (keep practicing this one too though), or you can start to refine the behaviour.

Stage 5 (optional) - Shaping
So bunny's now sitting up every time you ask (or most of the time). Great! It's likely just a little foot lift right now, so we can improve that, right? Pick one thing to change, such as duration, or height. Don't try to modify in two directions at once. And you might want to drop the cue during this stage too (add it in again afterwards) so this stage is basically like stage 2 except you're making the rabbit work a bit harder. Try it, see what happens.

So now basically you're being a little more discerning with your clicks. Say you want a longer "sit up" - make the bunny wait a fraction of a second longer before you click. If the rabbit gives up too soon, you're moving too fast. Click and treat every time she stays in the sit up position for a tiny bit longer than she did at first. Once she's doing a longer sit up reliably, increase the time a fraction more. You're aiming to very gradually shape the behaviour to make it better.

Similarly if you want the "sit up" to be higher, you'll only reward slightly higher feet lifts, ignoring the lower ones.

This stage can be a little frustrating for the rabbit if you move too fast. She's used to getting a treat every time, and it can be hard for her to understand that now you want something slightly more. But she'll get it if you go slowly.

The "touch" behaviour is a very useful one to shape. Touching your hand with her nose is adorable, but shaping it can lead to coming to you from across the room, or jumping into your lap, or leaving that dangerous object alone. If you teach her to touch something like a ping pong ball on the end of a chopstick (use a different command for this if you want a hand touch as well - I suggest "target"), you can shape the touch into a follow. This is great for leading them into a carrier or back into the cage, or even on top of boxes or over a stick to teach the "jump" command.


Train in short sessions, maybe 10 minutes two or three times a day in a distraction-free environment. End on a good note with a good behaviour earning a "jackpot" treat of everything you have left (make sure to save some for this) and if she isn't feeling like training right now then respect her and try again later.

Okay, this is an essay. Apologies! I'm just very interested in animal training and psychology and I've learned a bit about it. Good luck!
 
My Meeple and Nemesis are now 10 weeks old and I really should start clicker training them. Maybe we should have a clicker training club? ;)
 
My Meeple and Nemesis are now 10 weeks old and I really should start clicker training them. Maybe we should have a clicker training club? ;)

Wow! Thank you so much for all that infomation, it will really come in handy :thumb: when would you say I should start training her then? At the moment when I let her out for playtime, she likes to do her own thing and isn't really intrested in me. Today though she jumped on my leg and sniffed me, so I think she's getting more used to me :)

She nudges me on my feet and hand too quite hard. What does this mean?

KarenM said:
Thanks I'll check this out too :)
 
Last edited:
Wow! Thank you so much for all that infomation, it will really come in handy :thumb: when would you say I should start training her then? At the moment when I let her out for playtime, she likes to do her own thing and isn't really intrested in me. Today though she jumped on my leg and sniffed me, so I think she's getting more used to me :)

She nudges me on my feet and hand too quite hard. What does this mean?


Thanks I'll check this out too :)

I think if she's settled in and used to you, you could start right away. Any age rabbit can learn!

And I'm sure I don't need to tell you this but you should never punish your rabbit or get cross with her. Training can be frustrating if you don't feel it's moving fast enough, but if Martha gets scared or worried she won't be able to learn. Be patient. :)

I also think that this kind of training is a good bonding activity for you both, and provide her with some really good mental stimulation which I think is important for any animal. My Neo used to get excited when he saw me reach for the clicker!
 
From what I've read, nudging can mean three different things. ;)

1) Feed me!
2) Pet me/give me attention!
3) Move, you're in my way!

I sit on the floor with mine a lot, with my back against the sofa. They often nudge my back to remind me they need more room to move through the gap between me and the sofa. :)
 
I started "charging" the clickers for Meeple and Nemesis last night, using pellets and nibbles of FibaFirst. My plan is to work with each of them for three 10-minute sessions a day, but I'll probably have to break each of Meeple's sessions into two because he doesn't want to sit and take pellets from me for very long when there's running around to do!

All I'm doing is giving them a piece of food and clicking as they take it, or slightly before, and repeating when they start looking for the next bit. I'll probably do this for about a week, but I expect to see them understand that click=treat earlier than that.

And then we can start the real fun!

As I have two rabbits I want to make it super-clear who the click is for, so Meeple's clicks are made with a proper clicker (one I used with Neo) and Nemesis's with a biro. They sound very different so I won't confuse one rabbit when I click and treat the other - they'll learn which sound means treat for them.

Nemesis is going to be easy I think, as he's very focused on the food and he already jumps onto my knee and climbs all over me if he knows I have food (or if he just hopes I do ;)). Meeple loves food but is less motivated by it so he might take more work.

It's going to be interesting anyway. :)
 
Back
Top