• 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.

Has anyone trained a rabbit? Agility/'tricks'?

Liz47

Wise Old Thumper
As part of an assignment for uni I have to train an animal 3 core behaviours, a send to (rabbit travels a distance of 5 meters on cue), a recall and a target behaviour alongside a creative behaviour, such as a chain (eg assistance task), sequence (eg agility) or object discrimination. I had trained Jack woof most of it but after he unexpectedly passed away I now have to start thinking of what other animal I could train and wondering if any one has trained their bunnies before? A rabbit at uni is target trained and can do simple 'tricks', I am wondering if I could clicker and/or target train Beano or Jake and whether they would actually enjoy it and could do some simple agility obstacles. I would most likely chose Jake as he enjoys human company more and pesters people for attention whereas Beano would rather do her own thing, I wouldn't try to get Beano to do agility either due to her age! I don't know how I would keep his attention or if it's possible but I may give it a go!
 
Training bunnies is fairly easy. I haven't clicker trained but the girls understand basic commands (box, up (stand on back legs), down (get off whatever they are on), leave (go away from whatever they are interacting with)). Just lots of food motivation, small pieces and even using their pellet allowance (or part of) in training sessions. I always keep them short (no more than 15 mins) and the girls can disengage at anytime they want. Training is a choice for them and they don't have to interact if they don't want to. :)
Good luck x

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
Training bunnies is fairly easy. I haven't clicker trained but the girls understand basic commands (box, up (stand on back legs), down (get off whatever they are on), leave (go away from whatever they are interacting with)). Just lots of food motivation, small pieces and even using their pellet allowance (or part of) in training sessions. I always keep them short (no more than 15 mins) and the girls can disengage at anytime they want. Training is a choice for them and they don't have to interact if they don't want to. :)
Good luck x

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

Thank you :) Aw your girls sound very clever! I think Jake may do well, as he is interested in us and what we say (ie responds to his name). I'll write a training plan and give it a go! Wherever I do it he can walk away at any time and I won't pester him obviously, and I think he'd enjoy the extra attention and treats. Beano can have them as well of course :) x
 
It's take me months to train them & I always have to retrain the box command as a vet visit means the box becomes a negative and I have to work hard to retrain phoebe that it's safe & a happy place.

I think they only do all this because they get jealous of each other getting treats and have to "out do" each other when it comes to getting treats lol

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
I trained Julie to stand up on 2 feet, run a short obstacle course, hop over short objects and give me her paw. It was very simple to do and she had it down pack in 3 days. She seem to really enjoy it but she was food and love/attention oriented rabbit. My husband trained her fist to come running when he whistled. He did it just in case there ever was a fire. He whistled and it never failed she would come running. He feed her though when she came. It was funny because I can not whistle so I would yell whistle whistle and it also worked. She would also come when I called dinner for my husband. We think that she thought her name was dinner though. She came for a pet whenever I called dinner.
 
Aww bless her, another clever RU bun! :) It sounds promising then that rabbits can make associations between vocal cues and then doing something, I was concerned as each part of the behaviour has to have a vocal cue and the rabbit performs things on cue, rather than running the agility course infront of him he has to wait and do the obstacles I ask of him in a varying order. I will let you know if Jake takes to it :)
 
I never managed to train mine but I could've succeeded if I'd been more persistent, I think, as both were very clever. Bella especially was very observant (and very easily bribed with treats!). With lots of positive reinforcement I think it's complete possible to teach most rabbits "tricks" or commands.
 
I'm sure all our buns have trained us! Do you think they laugh about us behind our backs - 'I got another treat out of her just by pulling this face' ! :D
 
I've only trained modified bunny behaviour & come in from the garden or up & down stairs.
I can't imagine them doing "stay" "sit" etc.
They tend to be good at running & jumping - predator escape behaviour. When I tried to train Thumper over a low jump, he ran beside me so as to make me do the jump while he missed it!!

Yes PippinsMum there's training both ways! :lol:
 
Joey used to periscope on command "up joey" for ages, Boo cottoned on despite being deaf by copying Joe, then Mouse came along, mad as a box of frogs. Joey & Boo cant up periscope anymore cos Mouse gets so excited at the whiff of a treat she runs in circles & knocks them off balance. Poor Joey, his first wife did the same, little Noodle ran in circles when he was periscoping too ...well she always ran in circles:love:
 
Aw thank you every one for sharing your stories :love: I need to pass this assignment as there's no retake for it, so I am getting quite worried about it! But I will still see what Jake does, it's only a bit of fun for him and me and I will worry about the assignment part later! I think it will be fun anyway to build some agility bits for Jake to do as he is very active!
 
As part of an assignment for uni I have to train an animal 3 core behaviours, a send to (rabbit travels a distance of 5 meters on cue), a recall and a target behaviour alongside a creative behaviour, such as a chain (eg assistance task), sequence (eg agility) or object discrimination. I had trained Jack woof most of it but after he unexpectedly passed away I now have to start thinking of what other animal I could train and wondering if any one has trained their bunnies before? A rabbit at uni is target trained and can do simple 'tricks', I am wondering if I could clicker and/or target train Beano or Jake and whether they would actually enjoy it and could do some simple agility obstacles. I would most likely chose Jake as he enjoys human company more and pesters people for attention whereas Beano would rather do her own thing, I wouldn't try to get Beano to do agility either due to her age! I don't know how I would keep his attention or if it's possible but I may give it a go!

They most definitely can be trained, it's quite easy if you have a rabbit who's obsessed with food. I haven't tried to properly train my current boys so they don't know anything fancy, but they do come when called, stop what they're doing when i shout ah ah, and they're getting quite good at going back in their cage when I tell them to go home. In the past I've trained rabbits to jump over large hurdles, follow a target stick, weave through cones etc.
 
Back
Top