Yes it makes perfect sense, she'll just stand there with this grumpy face on until I remove all the hay :roll:
When they were a trio it was quite difficult as Poppy get feeling the need to assert herself as boss, I started making sure I always stroked her first, gave her food first etc and it did help. She is such a strange little bunny, as sometimes she gets so scared of something and her scared thump is different from her annoyed thump, when she scared she runs up to me for reassurance
This is exactly how buns fascinate me so much. I really struggle to see the world from their view point & although it's the same world we even percieve it differently with their hyperacute sense of smell, hearing even vibration, & our over reliance on sight & language for communication.
I kind of gather that the giving & recieving the right sort of "respect for position/status" is very important in harmonious bunny relationships, & their relationship with us.
I think "dominance" has the wrong sort of connotations, when applied to buns, cos it's not a "Do what I say cos I'm above you", sort of thing. What Poppy does, also reminds me how quickly a "bond" can break down with buns - just 12-24 hours unexpected absence. They've fantastic memmories, Thumper knows visitors who only come once a year. So why the need to re establish one's place in the heirarchy after such a short absence?
The other side of it is the anger thumping. Mine doesn't usually do that but plenty of bunnies do it. He's got a special thumping sequence specifically for " That's NOT ON don't you dare do it again". I've found that Thumper modified some of his natural communication to get the message across to a "thick" human, partly copies me, & I probably got him completely wrong in the beginning, so he adapted to what worked.
I'd forgotten that he'll bite the THING that's "doing" something he doesn't like with a vengeance, & throw it out of the room, but never goes to attack me (the do-er). I'd give him a break at that point & tried to work out what was annoying him & find other ways to do what I was doing. It was a rather nice, precise communication = "You're OK, but I don't like what you're doing".
He really attacked the brush when I cleared up his territory marker of a pile of poops at the bottom of the lawn - very important to him. I just did it when he was inside when it got too big!
Funny how we learned to rub along together, & avoid annoying each other on BOTH sides, as well as doing nice things for each other.
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