The Bunny Agility Diary

[Isabelle]

*I will try to post in this daily!*

 

Monday, August 22, 2011

 

I got home from work at 5:20 and changed clothes and ate dinner really fast, because we (mom and I) had to leave by 5:50 to go the 30 miles or so in traffic to the humane society. We thought it was starting at 6:30, but it turns out when we got there no one was there! So we sat for a little while and the instructor comes in about 6:40, and informs us that the classes were changed to be from 7-8. Well I never got the e-mail, but it was fine, and that time frame will work better for us anyway so we have more time before we need to leave. So we sat and chatted with her, and her boyfriend and another person came with some rabbits, and she told me to go ahead and let Dutchess out on the big mats in the room. So I did. I sat with her for a few minutes to start with, and it turns out a few people with higher level bunnies in agility were coming as instructor types, so there were about 8 bunnies in our class, but 4 extra who were advanced.

 

Everybody came in and let their bunnies out, and I started petting two bunnies who came near me. Dutchess hopped around and explored more than any other bunny there, but wasn’t keen on letting anybody really pet her. She came over to me a couple times, more to make sure I was still around rather than to get any pets. Everybody went around and introduced themselves and their bunnies, then the instructor told us to sit with our feet against the wall and our bunnies in the triangle, in the exploration game. The goal of this game was to reward our bunny with a treat or a pet whenever they came up to us and touched us, to get them interested in being with us more. Well, Dutchess and I have no issues with that, she runs over whenever I lay down near her, so I knew that wouldn’t be a problem.

 

The instructor came over to help me fit Dutchess’ harness on her. Some of you may remember my problems with the little diva keeping her harness on in the past, so I was concerned about this. I was able to get it on her and more snugly than I had put it on before, and I let her down in the little triangle I had. She of course wanted to jump over, but I put my hands out and kept her in the triangle. We didn’t really have to work on the exploration game very much, since Dutchess basically stuck her chin on my leg and I sat and pet her face, her eyes closed in bunny heaven. A few times I tried to give her some treats, but she wouldn’t eat one treat, ever! She even took one from me just so she could throw it away from her. I poked her a few times so she’d move a bit and get more a harness feel, and a few times she tried to get it off but I stopped her right away and distracted with pets.

 

During this time, I have to put this, for whatever reason I became like the bunny person. There were about four rabbits sitting in a semi-circle around the back of me, and my mom was petting two of them, and another one actually jumped into my little triangle with Dutchess. She didn’t seem to mind the other bunny, which I was glad and surprised about! I have no idea why all those rabbits thought I was so much fun, but anyway there was one who sat next to me the whole time I was sitting.

 

Then they introduced the tree lesson. This is having your bunny walk on their harness and leash, and if they go in a direction you don’t want, you stop and be a tree, not pulling on them but not letting them go forward. Well! I didn’t think that was going to work for Dutchess at all. I was praying she wouldn’t go nuts trying to get out of her harness! I let the others start trying that first, and then I decided it was now or never, come what may. So I picked her up and stood up, then let her down, and held my breath. She sat there for a second, then started to hop. I made up my mind not to be a tree, but for the moment just let her walk around on her harness and leash. It seemed to me the bunnies who had harnesses all were walking fine on them like they were used to them already! So I felt we were behind  but it turns out Dutchess did pretty well. She hopped around and I followed, even going through someone’s legs (that was a bit awkward leash wise!) and only tried to pull off her harness two or three times.

 

And then it was about ten to eight, so they said to let the bunnies just roam around off leash for a while. So I scooped up the diva and took off her harness and leash and let her go, and we did some registration papers and stuff. Overall I was very happy with how she did, but I can see how much she still needs to do to pass the level. Someone asked if it was possible to fail, and the instructor said yes but she hadn’t seen it yet in four-five years. Dutchess might be the first, she’s awfully stubborn! In any case, I plan on working on the harness walking and might progress to the tree activity if she seems ready, we’ll see how she tolerates the harness and how –long- her royal highness puts up with it!

 

Till tomorrow, happy bun-slaving!

[Isabelle]

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Tonight I tried to put Dutchess’ harness on her and just let her sit in the exploration game with me, but she escaped and very roughly proceeded to get out of her harness before I could catch her! Well, I had to chase her around a bit before I caught her, and just brought her back to sit in the triangle without her harness. I left her harness in the triangle on the floor, and just petted her for a bit. She escaped two more times, and then the next time she tried I was able to stop her and pull her back to me. Dutchess at this point was agitated and breathing hard, and I wasn’t particularly happy myself.

The regression here I believe is due to the fact she was home, in my room, in a space she is normally free in. This is the first time I’ve asked and really followed up trying to get her to stay in one particular spot when it’s –my- idea, not hers. I wanted us to end on a good note however, with me ending the session not her. So I gave her a few treats, which she did eat even though she was stressed, and I just petted her for a bit. I did lay her harness over her back, which she didn’t flick an ear at, and took it off after a few seconds several times to try to let her know that it will come off.

I have changed my goals to be just one thing, getting her to be comfortable sitting in the triangle with me for about fifteen minutes without her trying to escape. I knew from the beginning getting her used to the harness was going to be the biggest challenge, and she will hopefully do better with her harness when she is at the agility class when she is out of her normal environment, and next time I go I will definitely be asking about ways to get her to adjust to the harness. She has the vest H type comfort harness with a neck strap and a thick belly strap.

After letting her sort of burrow next to my leg while I petted her (she did give my arm lots of kisses) for a few more minutes I ended the session after fifteen minutes, feeling that enough for the both of us. The real obstacle I’m seeing is that she is dominant and stubborn, and if it’s not her idea, she couldn’t really care less about it. I’m afraid I’m that way too, so this is going to be quite the battle of wills. Our bond is quite strong, though, since after I let her hop around and be by herself for an hour she proceeded to give me a forehead and eye bath and sit on the couch top behind my head for a while before I got on the computer. So at least she isn’t mad at me for any of this, she just doesn’t understand why, and I don’t blame her for that. No harness today, but at least we ended on a good note!

Have you coochie-cooed your bun today? If not, that’s why they’re staring disapprovingly at you while you’re reading this!

[Isabelle]

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Tonight Dutchess got a little grunty when I picked her and her halter up and sat in the triangle position. She proceeded to gallop off immediately, and I had to go grab her again. She did it again as soon as I sat down, so up I stood again to get her. This time I kept my hand on her back and pet her face right away, settling her back end against my crotch and face next to my inner leg. She seemed content there, like she was hiding, and so I pet her for a few minutes. (As I’m typing this she is currently sniffing my leg and acting like she wants pets from me.) Then I got the harness, just to lay it in the triangle space, and she tried to run away.

I had to be quick but I didn’t let her escape again, and held her back in her previous position until she calmed down. I let the harness sit there, then decided to try approach and retreat with it, while petting her the whole time I brought the harness up towards her for a few seconds, then took it away, and repeated the process for several minutes. Dutchess seemed fine with this, she didn’t blink an eye at it. So then I tried to just lay it on her for a few second and do the same. She tolerated it twice before attempting an escape again.

Grr! I kept my patience and went back to the approach retreat with it next to her two more times, then just let the harness lay there. She seemed to me that she wasn’t going to tolerate any more, so I wanted to make sure to leave us on a good note and have me ending the session. So I sat and petted her for a little bit longer, ending the session after 10 minutes today. It would seem she is learning fast that when this exploration game starts, the harness comes into play, and boy she just hates it! I’d love any suggestions if anyone has harness trained bunnies on how you trained yours to get used to it, send me a PM. In a way I’m wishing this agility class was more than once per week, because we didn’t get too much one-on-one time or ‘what if’ tips. If it was three times a week I could defiantly get a lot more from the class, but we’ll see what happens over the weekend, I’m not expecting much more from her than what she’s doing now, I’m just hoping that we’re not the first pair to fail the class in the instructor’s four years of teaching

No miracles today. Unless of course you count the fact your bun allowed you the great honor of petting him/her today.

[Isabelle]

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Tonight I decided to just go for it, so I picked up the little diva and put her harness on her and plopped her down in her favorite spot on the couch. She just sat there like wth? I think I half surprised with how quickly I did it, and so I just verbally praised her and petted her while she sat there tolerating the harness. She did quite well, I got one grunt and a bat (she uses both paws to sort of swipe forward), then she looked very disapprovingly as I petted her. After about a minute I took off the harness and plopped her back down on the couch in the same spot. She shook and I gave her a few treats which she gobbled up.

Naturally of course the harness and my petting messed up her perfectly arranged fur, so she proceeded to groom herself as if the whole event hadn’t even happened! She is now sprawled out on the couch with her ears half cocked falling asleep. This is much different than the past few days of working with her, she didn’t seem nearly as much stressed out. More bothered than stressed, actually. I’d like to do it again, but I don’t want to press my luck, and it’s getting awfully late right now. On weekends I’d prefer to do more than one session a day, but week nights I have work to do and she’s been cooped up all day so I hate to take away her explore and lounge time. In any case tonight we didn’t have an argument and she didn’t try to take the harness off!!

Always remember, being a bunny slave is not a daily commitment. It is a lifetime one.

[Beka27]

This is interesting to hear what you are trying. Have you done clicker training with her yet? Is that part of the agility?

[Isabelle]

I’m not sure if we will do clicker training or not. I’ve heard a lot about it and haven’t tried it yet since stores always seem to be out of clickers and the books to train buns with. As far as I know the goals of the course are: to be comfortable on the halter, to move left/right with foot cues on the leash, to target things (clicker might come into play there), and to socialize well with other rabbits (she already does). I think the next class on Monday might get into clicker training or targeting since we’ll have two weeks to work on that because of the Labor Day holiday break, no meeting that night.

[Joyfull_music]

I have been thinking about doing bun agility. I love doing agility with my dog.

[Isabelle]

Bunnies are much different to train than dogs, Dogs are predators and bunnies are prey, so know you have a much different mind set to work with

Friday, August 26, 2011

Today I did the same as last night, picking her up and putting her harness on right away. This time I pet her for a little bit, then let her start to hop around. Every time she stopped she tried to get the harness off, so I crawled around the floor under furniture and stuff to poke her a bit into scampering off. This way she got a little more experience in the harness, and when she got into a spot where I could grab her, I did so, and took her harness off. She seemed fine with the whole ordeal, although she did give me quite the thump!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

This morning I felt I had good luck the past two days to put her harness on her and then set her down on the couch. She hopped off, and ran under the computer table and immediately tried to get off her harness. Well my dad was on the computer and in the way while I was trying to crawl under it to either poke her into moving or grab her, and she got grouchy and decided to defend her territory instead of running off, so I got a few bats and growls. She ended up getting the neck part unvelcroed, and as I grabbed for her I caught her harness but not her, and she pulled her back feet right out and off she shot!

Mumbling some not very nice words, I managed to catch her and put her harness back on, and just held her for a minute to try to convey to her that sneaking out of her harness doesn’t mean she gets to be out of it. I have no clue if I succeeded in that or not, but she tolerated me putting it back on and then taking it off a minute later without a fuss. Just one more day and we’ll be back in class, hopefully to make a more substantial improvement and have me learn a few new tips about this ‘harness is not the enemy’ stuff!

Have you gotten ‘the stare’ lately? If not, good bunny, good bunny slave!
 

[Isabelle]

Sunday, August 28, 2011

I put Dutchess’ harness on a minute ago, and instead of just using the Velcro around her neck I actually buckled the little buckle that’s up there, which will make it virtually impossible for her to get the harness off. I hadn’t wanted to use it before, thinking if she freaked out too much she could get hurt, but I feel more confident, or perhaps desperate enough, to use it for the first time. She has been scampering around now, one time even racing and leaping into the air, I’m not sure if that was out of energy or displeasure, but she did it. She keeps trying to get a hold of a corner in her mouth to pull it apart like usual, only she can’t really this time because of the buckle.

She is now licking her paw, sitting under the computer table as I type this. Licking the other one. What I am really looking for here is for her to go and lie down somewhere or sit, sort of in way of resolving herself to wearing it. Dutchess now tried to grab it again, and now she moved under my chair. Scampering again, trying to find a way out or something, sitting under the coffee table. She’s been wearing it for about five minutes. Doesn’t seem overly scared or stressed about it. Jumped up on the couch. Back on the floor, running up into the kitchen. Now she’s sitting under her habitat taking a bath. So far she’s doing really well, much better than I expected. Perhaps I should give her more credit!

Ten minutes into the session, she’s doing fine. Now twenty minutes into the session and she’s trying to get it off, though not really struggling at all, just trying to tug at it. She’s all crouched in the corner under the computer table. She’s not quite as relaxed as I’d hoped but she’s done splendidly well!!!!! Much better than any other nights, so I think I’ll take it off now and let her be. She did awesome!!!! I have a lot more confidence now in her getting used to the harness, I’m sure it will take a lot more sessions like this, but at least we’ve gotten a pretty good starting point. Tomorrow night we go back to class!

Give your buns a hug. They might glare at you for it, but hey, you’re blood pressure will be lowered.

[Isabelle]

Monday, August 29, 2011

Dutchess did exceptionally well at rabbit agility tonight! I put her on her harness right away like the other bunnies, and I changed her leash from a springy one (neither of us liked it) to a normal leash. We began with the Be A Tree game, and I let Dutchess go anywhere on the mats she wanted, but if she tried to go off the mats (like to go under a table or on the tile floor), I was a tree and she couldn’t go farther. She did really awesome on that, to the point where she was just sitting there and I was getting bored. So I prodded her a little with my hand to get her to scamper a little bit, and several people and I had to figure out crossing leashes as the bunnies whizzed by, which was funny.

After I think about a twenty-thirty minutes of that (I wasn’t watching the clock) we sat down and did the explore game again. Of course I had forgotten to bring treats for Dutchess, but she hadn’t been eating them before so it really didn’t make too much of a difference, she’s more interested in having her humans serve her via long pet/grooming sessions. Anyway, then after about fifteen minutes or so the instructor said it was time to try CLICKER TRAINING!!!! I was psyched. So she passed out a clicker for everyone to borrow until we could get our own (I bought a set of 4 clickers with wrist bands for $6 on Amazon right away tonight). So the goal of clicker training, for those of you who don’t know, is this: you try to get the rabbit to do or touch something, and to start with we’re using the word “touch” and for the rabbit to touch our hand, and immediately click the clicker when the rabbit touches and give a treat reward. Then the rabbit will associate the click with the correct response and a treat! Well, I was jealous that other bunnies in the room already had a little clicker training, and some were even doing tricks for treats.

I’ve tried to get Dutchess to stand up for a treat, but she never really learned, so I felt at a bit of a disadvantage, but that was okay. So Dutchess kind of start learning, she didn’t really always put her nose on my hand, but she normally doesn’t, so I’ve started just rewarding her nearly touching my hand when she reaches her nose out to get her started in understanding what I want her to do. So we worked on that for the last bit of class, then let the bunnies off their harnesses and leashes and out in the room to play or relax. All of the bunnies laid down either in their owner’s laps or in the middle of the room (a group of three started cuddling together and one of them flopped!) except ONE. I bet you can’t guess who that ONE was. The one who scampered around and had to sniff and explore everything and never stop long enough for anyone to pet her, and did a few binkies and chased around by herself as if her owner never let her out x.x

Anyway, I’m super excited to start clicker training, we won’t have RA (rabbit agility) next week due to Labor Day, so we’ve got two weeks to get good at it and wow everybody there =p Okay, so I’m dreaming, but at least it’s a nice dream while it will last.

Hmm . . . where IS your rabbit, anyway? *shifty eyes*

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Today I’ve been working on the clicker training with Dutchess. Binkyland, we do have a problem. I sat down near her and held out my hand, the treat concealed in the underside of my fingers. I told her to ‘touch’, and she just sat in her spot, and blinked. So I tried again several times. Showing her the treat and flipping my hand back over. Still she just sat there! So I moved closer to her, and she did finally bring her nose towards my hand, even though she didn’t touch she at least tried, so I clicked and flipped my hand over to offer the treat. Well she put her nose back up and just sat there again.

*jaw drop*

K, so we started over. She did nothing again. And again, and again. I sighed, and just gave her the treat on the floor to see if she was even interested in eating it by herself. She wasn’t. O.O Oooookay then. A bunny not eating their treat? Well she isn’t sick, so I just stared at her, and then she lazily bit a little piece off the already little treat and munched, then bit another, and another until it was gone. Of course naturally I thought YAY let’s get going! No such luck. By the time I grabbed another treat, she did a big binky under the computer table and hopped behind the computer table chair next to the wall and settled down for a nap.

*face plant*

Well I let her be, and later on I dropped my hand down whilst in the chair, in the same way as before and said “touch”, and with about four treats I got her to touch/almost touch my hand and clicked and gave her the treats. So at least we do have a bit of a start! I think I need to break out the secret treat weapon I have, the treat she never ever refuses, the treat she runs across the length of the house for when she just sees the peel. You guess it:

BANANAS!

She’s nanas over her nana. She hasn’t any for a while either, so I think I’ll slice some thin slices and then quarter them, and I’m sure THEN we’ll get some results! Unfortunately we have no bananas, so I’ll make do with craisins and raisins until we can get some at the store. In any case, the key for this training will be only a few times, but very frequently throughout the day. We’ve got two weeks to work on it, and at least this doesn’t require a harness!

Baby talk is not just for babies. It’s for bunnies too!!

[Isabelle]

Sorry it’s been so long since I posted in this last, we had a class break over the Labor Day week and Dutchess got hurt at the last meeting on Monday. She’s okay but it’s quite a bit of a story so I will be posting that up soon!

[Isabelle]

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Dutchess and I were working on using the voice/foot cues hop, sit, left, and right, going around the room. Things were going pretty good, she was sitting better than hopping and took a few grooming breaks. I picked her up to move her to a different side of the room, and after letting her down she hopped and somehow the leash line was stuck between her back legs. I bent down to fix it when she took a big hop forward and the leash was pulled up against her tail. She freak out and jumped, further pulling it against herself. She leapt and twisted and was getting all over the place with me trying to grab her. The teacher saw the trouble and together we tried to grab her. She was flipping and twisting in the air, I was scared she was going to break a leg or her back. Duthcess landed and pulled back, ripping the belly strap off. Then she yanked again and got the neck strap off. I dropped the leash and the teacher managed to catch her and flip her over.

She noticed blood on Dutchess’ mouth and I started inwardly freaking. It turns out she at some point bit her lower lip, there was a ting crack that was bleeding on the inside and it was swelling a bit. I took her from the teacher while she got a paper towel to wipe the blood off gently and some water. Dutchess wouldn’t drink from the bowl but she did drink a little when I cupped a bit in my hand. After that I held her for a while, the decided to let her down. I wanted to make sure she was moving okay and had a chance to hop a bit so the last thing she would remember wouldn’t be the scary stuff. She hopped around a little but stayed around me, and when she got into her carrier I decided it was time to go. Class was pretty much over at that point anyway. I kept a watch on her for a few days and it didn’t take long to heal, but I wasn’t sure after that we’d go back.

After a few days I decided that we would go back, and if it turned out to be too difficult I could always just let her hop around and then call it quits. It turned out that the night turned out great! The teacher had set out two half circles of double cones so we could work on foot cues in a more purposeful way. Dutchess did really well, I had to stay behind her quite a bit instead of staying to the side to help her but she was more focused and calm than in the other classes. Even the other people were commenting on her changed behavior. She even went around and got pets from people! She never does that, she normally just goes to sniff and then scampers off before they can touch her. So I was really happy with this session, and even though I’m not sure if we’ll pass or fail the final test tomorrow night, at least we can work on these lessons when she’s in the mood.
 

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