spray bottle training

[Alisha]

Some of you may not agree with this obviously but I have attempted to use spray bottle training, just spritzing a bit of water in my bun’s direction to get her to stop doing anything naughty. It worked for all of 2 days maybe. Now she just sits there and takes the water. She just slightly shakes off the water but sits there and stares at me like “WHAT NOW HUH??” Like seriously, how is this even possible haha 

[Taloan7]

That’s like my cat, there is pretty much nothing to deter him from misbehaving. The other cats will run off if you make a hissing noise or spray water at them or throw a pillow in their direction. My 20 lb maine coon on the other hand just gives me a dirty look and keeps going. You can hit him with a pillow and he will keep going. He was eating my daughter’s lunch and she poured an entire cup of water on him and he just kept going. He’s a jerk lol.

[Alisha]

Haha such rebels

[sarahthegemini]

I don’t agree with spraying water at rabbits. The best thing to do if they’re doing something we perceive as naughty is to distract them or block access to whatever it is they shouldn’t be doing.

(edited as I misspelled naughty ?)

[Q8bunny]

Negative feedback has been shown to not be an effective training method for rabbits. The only negative feedback that works is the high-pitched loud squeal when a bun is nipping or digging at you (they do something similar with other rabbits, and so understand to stop that behaviour). But like Sarah said, you’ll experience far more success with redirection and/or blockades.

[Taloan7]

I haven’t tried training my bunny, but my bunny is training my husband to not leave stuff on the floor. “Oh, the bunny chewed up your … that I’ve told you to stop leaving on the floor about a million times? What a shame.” Should have gotten a bunny years ago :p

[LBJ10]

Spraying with water can sometimes work. But it has to be used sparingly, otherwise it loses its power. Bunnies respond much better to redirection and positive reinforcement. It takes patience though. With Leopold, I used redirection a lot because he is deaf. He can’t hear me telling him “no”. So whenever he was doing something naughty, I would have to physically move him and redirect him to something else. Blocking things off can be quite effective at making them “forget” about something. For example, a favorite digging spot on the carpet can be covered with something heavy like a brick or large ceramic tile. I would do that a lot. For when he was being obsessively naughty, I would need to give him a “timeout”. When I say timeout, I simply mean I removed him from the situation. Can’t behave in that room? Fine, you can go over here for awhile. It was effective because it would break the cycle.

[Taloan7]

Joking aside, can bunnies be trained in the way cats and dogs can? I just generally assumed I should bunny proof my home and if problems cropped up I should change my behavior or the situation that is causing the problem (i.e. put cords in buckets to keep the bunny from reaching them). With my cats you can make a hissing noise to get them to stop doing stuff and they don’t hold a grudge, but I assumed bunnies being so skittish trying stuff like that with them would just make them scared of me.

[Q8bunny]

In short, no. They can’t be trained like cats and dogs. But they can be trained like bunnies. Try googling clicker training for rabbits – plenty of youtube vids out there

[Alisha]

I’d rather lightly spritz my rabbit rather than screaming high pitched noises – no offence but that sounds much worse. The water spraying works at least temporarily for me. She doesn’t totally hate it obviously. She just finds it annoying so when she’s chewing on the bars of the condo or whatever (I can’t get up a million times a day to redirect her, I have really bad scoliosis and I’m just out of shape) I just pick up the bottle and say “lunaaa” in that mom voice and she stops and stares at me for a moment then runs to another part of the condo and finds something else to do. She will go for it again eventually but this is fine. I doubt it’s harming her in any way. She is the same amount of clingy and cuddly as she was before and it is working. Just as much as picking her up and distracting her would be. You have to do that every time your bun does something and I have to do this every time to get her to stop – temporarily. The screeching also sounds like a temporary solution but I really hope you’re not damaging your rabbit’s ears..

[Q8bunny]

LOL High pitched squeaks are meant to imitate the vocalization adult buns use to show disapproval when young buns nip, etc. It’s not a training method That’s why I suggested CLICKER training. Not the same thing.

[sarahthegemini]

I doubt Q8 screams right in Chewie’s ears ?

(A high pitched squeal is not the same as screaming at your rabbit!)

[Nutmeg]

Posted By Taloan7 on 9/29/2018 1:02 PM

I haven’t tried training my bunny, but my bunny is training my husband to not leave stuff on the floor. “Oh, the bunny chewed up your … that I’ve told you to stop leaving on the floor about a million times? What a shame.” Should have gotten a bunny years ago :p

I just spewed water out my nose!  Dang thats funny!!! 

[Author]

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