Clicker Training Questions

[Deleted User]

How do I teach my rabbit the following with clicker training?

– Jump over hurdles

– Follow your finger/target stick

– Give you high five

– Jump through a hoop

– Come when called

– Jump onto you when your on the sofa

– Push a ball into a goal

Please, this is for people who done this before! Please Help!

[Tate]

It will be much easier for you to buy the book. It would be an incredibly long post to go through each.

[Beka27]

I agree. The book is really good. You’ll need to purchase it.

And it could be considered borderline copyright infringement to detail all of these training techniques on a public forum.

[RabbitPam]

Exactly. By the way, the author of the book does have a website (Karen Pryer I think) so you may find a few tips there. Basically, if you use the touching an object technique, it get the bunny to do each of those things in stages.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

There are several ways;

one is a lure-so you use a treat and lure the animal to do something. When they do what you want-click then treat
Another is free shaping. You basically sit down and wait for the animal to do something that is SORT OF what you want (so for come, you would sit and wait for your bunny to look at you, then click and treat. After many succesful rounds (looks at you, gets clicked then treated) you step it up and make them look at you and take a step forward.

There are debates over which is better, with the people who use free shaping thinking that it makes the animal gain critical thinking skills.
If you don’t mind if your bunny doesn’t get on to rocket science and phd’s then go for the easiest for you. Free shaping is fun, but the lure works quickly.

So start teaching your lure. Pick up a clicker stick, or make a target stick yourself and combine with your clicker.

Now-put a raisin (or treat of choice) on the ground and put the target stick so the target (usually a colored ball on the end is touching it) and let bunny come and eat the treat. Click when the bunny takes the treat.
Repeat over many sessions-maybe 3-4 treats a day, for a week. Ensure your bunny knows you want him to touch the target. Then your set!

You can then use the target to teach come -call bunny and hold target stick by you, bunny will run for the target, and get a click-treat.

Over a jump or through a hoop-lure with the target stick; click-treat

High five-just take your bunnies hand gently and click treat. Repeat

push a ball-well use your target stick by the ball until you can remove the target stick and your bunny touches the ball. Then withhold the click treat so your bunny gets frustrated and touches the ball harder and it rolls. Click-treat. Repeat Then you’ll change your discrimination to only click treat when your bunny pushes the ball near the goal and so on.

jump onto you while your on the sofa? USe the target command or the ‘come’

Training a bunny is no different than any other animal.
You have to solidly establish that a click means a treat is coming. Never click and don’t give a treat. If you clicked wrong, give a treat and try again.
You have to go slowly.
Establish the criteria you are working on in each session-only work on one criteria (for instance, don’t ask the bunny to touch the ball and push it towards the goal in one session if he’s never seen the ball before. The criteria shoud be easy and progress slowly. First touch the ball, then push the ball, then push the ball in a discriminate direction, then in a discriminate direction for a discriminate distance)
Keep a journal-to ensure that you are being consistent and not making things difficult by changing criteria too quickly. Also it will help you go back and find out what went wrong if your bunny seems to forget what he’s doing.
Patience
Don’t get too excited and get your bunny fat or sick from too many treats. Sessions are short and limited to a normal number of bunny treats.

Good luck and have fun!

[Author]

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