• 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.

Territorial Behaviour in the Time of COVID-19

bunjour

New Kit
My 11.5-year-old Lionhead has always been a bit of a drama queen, but she's taken things to new heights since my spouse and I started social distancing about 2-3 weeks ago. It's become very clear to us that she considers the area around our dining table to be "hers." We're not sure why, because it's on the opposite side of the room from her pen and the rug she refuses to stray from doesn't extend to the area underneath the table, but whenever my husband works at the table, she hops to edge of the rug and engages in the following behaviours:

1) Staring
2) Leaning out and nudging husband's foot with her nose
3) Stomping
4) Leaving little linear poo trails to mark her perimeter (something she normally only does when we move house to claim a new space)

Today, she took things one step further by doing a wee on the edge of the rug when all the other measures failed to get him to leave the table. This was obviously deliberate because she's usually very meticulous about doing her business in her litter box, and she was nudging and stomping prior to the wee incident.

Is there anything we can do to get her to back off? I have always worked from home and have a desk in another room but my husband needs a surface for his makeshift office during lockdown and it seems silly to let him be bullied out of using the table by a 1.8kg rabbit.

How can we let her know the table doesn't belong to her? Any advice appreciated!
 
Be thankful she doesn't start nipping him :lol: When I clean Annie's playhouse (on my knees) she will come and nip me! So, now, I lock them out of that area while I do the cleaning. The only advice I can think of is to restrict her while your OH is busy at the table because at 11 yrs old it might not be easy to "re-train" her.
 
Back
Top