Videos of my bunnies!

[Moonlight_Wolf]

I had to make a video for psychology for my final project and I decided to do conditioning a pet and use my bunnies. The movies go on for really long because I needed a ten minute presentation…

Here they are!

 

[leyley904]

What do you use as treats?

My favorite part was when Thistle hopped through back and forth just while you were grabbing for the treats! He was like “Oh, pshhh. This is as easy as carrot cake!”

[HatterBunny]

WOW! Great vids. I hope the class was impressed! Where did you get the hoop?

[Moonlight_Wolf]

I actually am showing it to my class tomorrow and I hope they will be impressed! The hoop was actually a bug catching net that I cut the net off, thats one reason I say “net” instead of hoop. I also say net because when I said hoop for some reason fern would spin, I have no idea how hoop sounds like spin :p

[Deleted User]

Moonlight, these videos really made my day. I hope you get the best mark, they are top-notch! Maybe you would like to submit them to BB for the video gallery?
My rabbits are completely untrained, they don’t do a thing on command. I will try to teach them maybe the spin until I get a proper hoop. I will let you know how my rabbits are getting on with learning your tricks!
Great job!

[Deleted User]

Posted By Moonlight_Wolf on 06/02/2010 02:04 PM
I have no idea how hoop sounds like spin :p

 

don’t you get it? Fern was telling you that you are using the wrong word and so she would do the wrong trick!

[Moonlight_Wolf]

Haha, lol its true!

[Minty]

Fern is sooo adorable!! I love her! especially the high five trick… this has inspired me to try these with my bunnies!

[mocha200]

you inspired me to start training to! i have wanted to train my buns for awail and now i have finally started! how long have you been training fern?

[Monkeybun]

Moosie would do well with some training I think. Me shall try Awesome vids!

[jerseygirl]

Thanks for sharing these MLW ! You explain the process well and have 2 clever Sweethearts starring and demonstrating the process. 10 out of 10 from me! Hope your class and teacher enjoy it. Let us know what they thought and Goodluck on your results.

btw, Jersey says hoop sounds like loop – as in do a loop. Then she rolled her eyes & muttered something about hoomins…

[babybunsmum]

wow! great job
your buns are very sweet! i now need to try this with pinky
i also hope your teacher & class enjoy… good luck!

[Deleted User]

Posted By leyley904 on 06/02/2010 01:43 PM
What do you use as treats?

I’d like to know too

[Barbie]

Cute videos!

I dont know what Moonlight wolf uses, but I use pellets – I just take them from the bunnies’ daily ration. Some of the pellets are long, so I even break those in half. On occasion, I’ll mix in a few small bits of carrot or a crasin cut into pieces to keep things exciting for them.

[leyley904]

Hm, I just tried using some small pieces of ‘nanner and carrots. They won’t even focus on that! Haha, much less follow it! Beans took it out of my hand and tossed it away!!!

They do seem to enjoy pellets, I’ll try that. They aren’t very fruit/veggies motivated, I’ll try to find something they really like, though!

[Moonlight_Wolf]

Oh yea (sorry I forgot to answer your question leyley) I do use pellets, I find they work quite well, at one point I did use lettuce but for the sake of the movie I used pellets just because when training with lettuce it takes a while for the bunnies to chew. When I do tricks I always do them before mealtime so I feed them part of their daily pellets and give them the rest once I am done training.

I found that lettuce worked better for when first training (short attention spans) but pellets or lettuce works for rehearsing.

The class really liked it and I heard a lot of people going “aww.” At one point they asked if the bunnies ever got full… lol.

I trained Fern for a while but she was so smart and all it took was persistence and a little training each day. Thistle I have not done much training with, just because it is hard with two, but I probably will begin training him more and just put Fern in the cage (with some pellets of her own of corse). I would train every day untill Fern had mastered the trick and then I would add in another to the routine. She learnt very well this way and has not forgotten a thing! I may not practice with her for months, but then when I try again it is just the first two times that she is like, “What does this mean again? Oh yes I remember.”

I am so glad you guys all liked it! The key to training is just persistence and finding ways to get your bunny to do what you want. I did try clicker training at one point, but I kept forgetting to click and it was hard doing the hand gestures, giving the food and clicking with only two hands.

[mocha200]

i am trying to train Lulu to come on command but she doesn’t seem to get it. are other tricks easier ?

[Moonlight_Wolf]

For me getting an animal to come is actually a pretty hard trick to teach. Dogs and bunnies alike.

You can teach your bunny to come to the sound of the rattle of her treat bottle. Just rattle the bottle every time before you give your bunny a treat and then she will associate the rattle of the bottle with treats and come running when she hears it.

I have failed at all attempts to teach my bunnies to come on command.

[mocha200]

maybe i will try a different trick.

[bunnytowne]

Yes where did you get that hoop.  I would like one for Cotton to train with.    Or maybe I could go thrift store hopping and look for tennis rackets and take the center out for the bun to hop through. 

Great you gave me some good ideas there  Moonlight Wolf.

By the way are you a wolf lover.  I am.  I saw a full timber wolf at a vets once.   HUGE   absolutely beautiful and very friendly.  I always wanted a wolf.  

[Deleted User]

Moonlight, I tried making Lint do a spin on the weekend. He wouldn’t do it. He just sat there wondering why I made his treat go away in a circle from his nose! It was kind of funny too but very much embarrassing!

[4Lily]

SO CUTE! Love it! I am going to start training Lily to do tricks! HMMM, She comes to us on command, well did better before, now she does it most of the time! I guess it’s consistancy too! (the same word or command with the same action) LOL!

[4Lily]

Hope it went well!

[Minty]

Moonlight, what treats are you using in your vids?

I’ve started to try to teach them the high five trick, but they aren’t getting the hang of it. I am using craisins and they are soo crazy about the treat that they just start running around frantically and it’s hard to get them to concentrate lol. Maybe I should use a treat that they don’t like as much? I also have to keep the sessions very short since they can’t have too many craisins. They also get distracted by the hand that is held flat for them to rest their feet upon, and seem to think the treat is there. How did you get your bun to do the high five without the treat?

Sully has the spin down pat, but he won’t do it with a hand command. He will only do it if I tap his butt. How did you get your bunny to do it with just the hand command? Is it just repetition?

Maybe your bunny is just a genius! lol

[Deleted User]

Posted By Minty on 06/07/2010 03:37 PM

Sully has the spin down pat, but he won’t do it with a hand command. He will only do it if I tap his butt. 

 

That is way cute. I like that!

[Moonlight_Wolf]

For the treats to train her I used lettuce, but then to perform I now use pellets. I found that lettuce was easy to train with just because the bunny can easily see where the treat is (and doesn’t think the treat is anywhere else).

For the high fives I just made Fern stand, put my hand underneath her (not touching), then bring the treat down and she would go down with the treat putting her paws on my hand.

To start out with I would put my hand underneath her when she was up so she would not see the hand when first going up. This seemed to work and then after a while I would put my hand there so she could see it when she was going up and then come down on it. Eventually when I put my hand there she would put her paws on it, it is really cute because sometimes she puts her paws on my hand hard.

Sorry if I did not explain it well. Here is another way of explaining it:

First Stage: Bunny cannot see hand you have placed under him/her.

Second Stage: Bunny can see hand but still needs guidance of the treat.

Third Stage: Bunny will put her paws on your hand on command or just when you put your hand in front of her.

For the spinning I first got her associated with the word and would just pair that with the hand signal and she eventually leaned that the hand signal meant spin too. Yea it mostly is repetition, I did the stage where I would put a treat behind Fern and she would spin halfway and then I would bring it back (not in a circular route, just directly back) and she would finish the circle. eventually I would just say spin and she would realize what I wanted her to do.

I always like to pair the word with a signal just because I think of how hard French is for me and how I hardly can tell some of the words apart so I think that signals are easier to understand for animals (at least in my opinion, but then again I am kind of bad at french)

[Nibbles_NZ]

Wow! Great job! Thanks for sharing. I’ve been trying to teach Baxter tricks….trying lol. So far, he chases his tail. lol. I tap his bottom with linkadoos and then he turns in circles. It’s so cute! I don’t know if I can call it a trick though. He may just do it out of being annoyed at the linkadoos lol.

[bunnytowne]

Nibbles your bunny avatar reminds me of  chinchilla with oversized ears.   lol.   Great picture I like it.

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