Clicker Training

[LoveChaCha]

I wanted to ask.. what exactly is clicker training? What are the benefits of it? 

[FluffyBunny]

Clicker training is training an animal to do tricks with the help of a clicker. I’d suggest you Google it (I think there are websites about it) – it’s lots of fun to train a bunny!

Training bunnies definitely has benefits. First, it’s just a fun way to spend time with your bunny. Second, many people have found that training actually makes rabbits more social and affectionate. Third, there’s lots of tricks with practical uses, like teaching your bunny to follow you or to hop into their cage. I’ve personally found that my bunnies seem to just love having a way to almost communicate with a human.

Neither of my bunnies seem to get the point of clickers or voice commands. However, I have taught both of my rabbits several tricks with hand signals. In fact, my male rabbit knows 9 different tricks – and I’m working on teaching him 2 more! If you’d like to know my method of training bunnies, send me a message.

[Doe of Chai]

I have used Clicker Training with Chai and I have found she has learned commands way faster then the rabbits I have had in the past, and it also allows a way to “play” with your bunny. Some tricks she has learned is jumping over legs, running around a person, going through tunnels, coming when called (which is very useful) and ect. Plus it is fun to demonstrate when guests come.

The training is very easy and works better then voice praise since it is very clear that the click sound means correct while a human voice could sound like the teacher in the Peanuts comic of “mumble mumble mumble”.

[Elrohwen]

clickerbunny.com is a great place to read some of the theory and steps.

Basically the clicking marks when the bun has done something right. You give a command and as soon as the bun does the correct action you click. Every click is followed by a treat (always). It’s effective because when you give a treat it’s often many seconds after the correct action has been performed. With a clicker you’re able to mark the exact second the animal has done the right thing so they can get the idea much more quickly. Just imagine yourself trying to learn something from a person who speaks a totally different language (or doesn’t speak at all). If they gave you a piece of chocolate 30sec after you did the right action, you wouldn’t be sure which thing you did got you the chocolate – it would take you a while to figure it out. If they said a specific word each time you did the right thing, you could quickly figure out “Ok, that word mean the thing I just did was right. I’ll have to do that again.”

That’s the basic idea. Once an animal understands the point of the click, it can really accelerate learning because you now have a form of communication going. In my experience, dogs are very good at communicating with people and even without a clicker they don’t have much trouble telling when you’re praising them and what they’ve done right. Clicking with dogs is really helpful too, but they’re so good at reading us that many novices are able to teach some commands without ever using a clicker. For rabbits and other animals who don’t have that hardwired communication with people, the click is so effective to get you working together. It doesn’t have to be a click either – you can choose a word to replace the click, though the click is easy because it’s a consistent sound each time while words can change in tone.

[cactuspancake]

I’m clicking with Franz and it’s a great way to play and bond! If you have any questions I’m really good with training animals.

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