Training a bun?

[MissPinUp]

Has anyone had success?  Lucy is very bullheaded and has a ton of attitude, so I know it’s going to be hard.  I got a dog clicker because from what I’ve heard it works because of the sound?  I started with “sit up”, now every 5 seconds she’s sitting up on her own because she wants a piece of banana   She’s so smart, that’s the thing.  I know the only reason it’s this hard is because she’s so smart.  I set the little plate of banana slices on my bed, thinking she wouldn’t see them or whatever, I turn my back for a second and she’s up on the bed.  We’re done for today, but literally as I’m typing this she’s jumping on my bed every 5 seconds lol.  She just got spayed the beginning of December, she recovered very well from that, so I figured now is a good time to start.  Any links and such would be appreciated as well!  Thanks!

[Sarita]

Sorry, I have no advice but I am laughing because she is so smart. I hope someone else can offer you some advice.

[Elrohwen]

I love training bunnies! I’ve found that they’re slower to catch on than dogs, but perfectly able to learn tricks. I actually think the naughty bunnies are sometimes the easiest to train because they really want an outlet for their energy. The laid back animals tend to not have as much focus because they’d rather be lounging 😉

Barbie started a good thread on this just the other day in the lounge. She gave some good advice on how she trained Leroy and KK answered with a good post on clicker training.

I personally like the site http://www.clickerbunny.com. It really explains how to use the clicker and how to train with it. It really doesn’t matter what sound you use, whether it’s a clicker or something else, the sound just tells the bunny they’ve done something good. You start by “loading” the clicker by clicking and offering a treat, over and over, even without tricks. Eventually, the bunny will realize that click means a treat it coming. It allows you to mark the behavior right when the bunny does it, then give a treat a few seconds later.

So it’s not the sound of the click that makes the bunny do a trick, the click just marks when they’ve performed correctly and lets them know a treat is coming. Remember, a treat always has to follow a click, always. I find the clicker works great and Otto is so motivated when I use it. At first hubby would point the clicker at Otto like a remote control. Lol. But eventually he learned to use it too and now we’re both teaching him tricks.

[Elrohwen]

I wanted to add that once I taught my bun a few tricks, he started doing them every time I brought food out. They seem to think that if it gets them food one time, it might work to get them food the next time! Haha. I try to be very consistent and only give him a treat if I’ve asked him for the trick, not if he offers it on his own. Though I’m not sure he understands … he still offers tricks on his own a lot. But that’s good in a way because it shows enthusiasm! It’s very normal that Lucy’s doing that and I think shows that she’d like to learn more things and have more opportunities to earn treats.

You should try target training – this is by far Otto’s favorite thing to do. I just took an old tupperware lid and threw it on the ground. When he touched it with his nose, I clicked and gave him a treat. Most tricks took him a week to fully learn, but he had the idea on this one after about 4 repetitions. Now I can throw the lid all over the living room and he’ll run over to touch it 🙂 It’s helpful when I want him to come to me or go somewhere because I can just have him follow the lid. It’s also helpful to refocus him. If I try to pick him up or touch his feet too much, he gets kind of freaked out and mad at me. I just have to bring the lid out and his whole attitude turns around. It’s a good distracting behavior.

[BinkyBunny]

The clicker sound HAS to clicked at a particular moment – the moment your bunny does exactly what you want, at at that moment you also reinforce with a treat. The clickertraining site is a good one and check out youtube videos regarding clicker training as that will help too.

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