Teaching a rabbit tricks?

[DutchRabbitsFtw]

 i was just wondering how successful rabbits are at learning tricks? i know that its possible though . i’ve been trying to teach my rabbit tricks (well actually just one trick and its to spin around) and he will do it but i have to circle my finger around his body, so he follows it. he doesnt need a treat anymore to do so; so thats good. i’ve been “teaching” him for 2-3 days. is this as good as he is going to get? lol. i have been using voice commands but he doesnt understand that too well and he is usually very quick at it, i just have to lead him with my finger (so he turns around just a bit) and then he “spins” on his own. 

[Elrohwen]

Otto will spin around on his own with no luring. He’ll also stand on his hind legs. Hannah is learning how to spin and does it once in a while randomly, but it’s hard to train with two (they get anxious when separated sometimes).

It took Otto quite a while to get it without luring him, but he did get it eventually. I eventually went from moving my hand in a circle to just pointing my hand straight out so my fingers were directly behind him – he would have to start the turn on his own to face the treat which was now behind him, then when I pulled my hand back he figure out to complete the spin. I hope this makes sense! After doing the point for a bit he was able to get it without any hand signal.

Otto never learned voice commands, but I’m pretty sure he’s mostly deaf so that was probably too much to ask of him 😛 He does hear some things, but definitely doesn’t distinguish words. He just knows that if I hold a treat I want some trick from him so he’ll usually stand up, spin around, and try to lick my nose until he figures out which one it is. lol Hannah is much smarter in general and I think she could learn words, but like I said I haven’t gotten very far with her since training with a bonded pair is tricky and I’ve been lazy.

There are plenty of things you can teach your bun. Teaching him to stand up should be easy. Both of mine can also “touch” – I use a small plastic lid and throw it on the ground. When they touch it with their nose I cilck and treat. I start with the lid right in front of them and eventually move on to throwing it a few feet away in any direction. This can be used to shape all sorts of behaviors like running away from you or going to a specific spot. You could also try teaching him to jump if you can figure out how to set up a little jump for him (I’ve done it just by sitting down with my legs stretched out and leading Otto to jump over my leg).

I use a clicker for training and I find they learn so much faster once they figure out what the click means (took Otto a while to figure just that out, but once he did it was like a lightbulb went off). Clicker training does require really good timing and an understanding of the technique. If you’re interested I’d recommend clickerbunny.com or you can ask questions here and other members or myself can answer them.

[TaraMichele]

Cady is also trained with hand gestures, he knows here, up, spin, down and touch. Initially I did clicker training, but with him after awhile I didnt really need it he just caught on to gestures and voice commands. Sophie only knows here, up and hug, shes somewhat more difficult because she is food obsessed…but I just love how excited he gets when he nows hes done something right!

[Elrohwen]

TaraMichele, I noticed too that the clicker really taught Otto *how* to learn but once he learned he was able to pick things up quickly without it. I worked with him on a lot of touching exercises (putting both of my hands around him and slightly picking him up) – he never caught on to this without the clicker and just got anxious, but with the clicker he got that it was a game.

I forgot that Otto also knows how to come, though he mostly learned that after I stopped using the clicker so much with him (because I was trying to use it with Hannah and not confuse her).

[peppypoo]

Good job on the training! If you’re trying to use voice commands, try to make sure that you say each word the same every time, and that your commands are very different from one another…I’m pretty sure rabbits can’t actually recognize words, but they’re good at catching on to tones as commands. For example, Peppy knows to stand on her hind legs when I say “up!” even without any hand gestures, but I’m sure if I say anything in the same sharp tone (not just the word up) she’ll do the same thing – she responds to the short, sharp sound of the command and not to the specific word.

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