What tricks can your bun do?

[peppypoo]

What tricks can your rabbit do, and how did you teach him/her?

Peppy, my blue Dutch (picture in sig!) will stand up on her hind legs when I say “up!”, and come when I call her name.  To train her do her ups, as I call them, I would hold a treat slightly above her head and give her the command.  After a few days, she came to realize that “up!” meant “oh, there’s a treat above me!” and I started to move the treat progressively higher until she had to stand up to reach it.  Eventually, the command + my hand above her head (with no treat in hand) was suffice to make her stand up, and now, just the verbal command with no hand or physical cue is enough.
 

Here’s a video of her doing some ups. My friends remarked that it sounds like I’m yelling at her, but I promise I’m not being mean! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yEh229WS9s

To train her to come to me when I call her name, I spent some time calling her name and then handing her a treat, so she soon associated the sound of her name to a tasty morsel.  After it was clear that she anticipated a treat after hearing her name, I moved farther and farther away until she had to come to me to get it.  Even though I don’t always reward her with food every time now, she very eagerly drops whatever she’d doing and dashes to me whenever she hears her name 

Anybody have more suggestions? I’d love to try more tricks with Peppy!

 

 

[Elrohwen]

Otto can stand up on his hind legs when I say “up” and spin in a circle. He can also touch a target with his nose and will run to it when I move it around the room. I’ve also worked on some touching exercises – they’re not tricks, but now he’ll let me pick up a paw or put both hands on him and pick him up half an inch.

Both bunnies will come when I tap the floor, and Hannah seems to know her name, but Otto is clueless. In fact, I don’t think he knows what “up” and “spin” mean either – I think he just does whatever he can think of until I give him a treat (or he’ll follow body language). No matter how hard I try to train him to listen to my words, he just doesn’t seem to understand that the things I say have meaning 😛

[Chazz]

Larry spins and will go around my legs on command. I’ll have to get a video, I think it’s so cute! We’re working on jumping up on a go to spot. He’ll do it onto a rubbermaid container, but we need to branch out to something else. We’ve tried to do jumping over things, but haven’t has as much success with it as with the spinning. Coming when called was an easy one, especially if you pair it with the shaking of the treat bag.

[jennyrabbit]

Jenny go’s to a target, touch’s my hand with her nose, stands up on her hind legs, lays down(though she still needs a slight touch on the back for that one), comes, goes over jumps both close and distance, spins both ways, runs around me jumping over my arms, weaves between my legs, and runs up and down a ramp. currently she is learning to stand on her hind legs while reaching her front paws in the air(as opposed to the drop down they do naturally)..I am doing this by teaching her place her front paws on my hand when she does her “up”, once she has that solid, then slowly raising the hight of my hand..its slow going though because she has an aversion to placing her paws on my hand lol oh she also gives kisses and hops on my lap on command.

Peepers doesnt know any lol

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

Jenny is a talented bun! Wow! Makes up for Peepers easily since she does enough tricks for eight buns, haha!

Frankie comes when you call him (“Bunny bun!”), stands on his hind legs (“up!”), walks on his hind legs (“walk”), and spins in a circle (“spin!”). He’ll also goes nose-to-lips if you lean near him and make a kissy sound. Most of his tricks are one-syllable commands, but they’re paired with a hand gesture so he knows what’s what anyhow.

[Monkeybun]

Smudge walks on her hind legs only for raisins

Monkey is too spazzy to learn tricks I think. And Moose is a little… dense shall we say?

[Elrohwen]

I forgot that Otto gives kisses on command. For DH he’ll do it without treats, but for me he’ll only do it if I show him the treat first 🙁 He makes the motion to do it, but then thinks better of it once he gets up to my nose.

I really need to work on tricks with Hannah more. Otto is pretty dense, but Hannah is like a little border collie – I think she would do so well with tricks. It’s hard though because they’re always together, and training her while Otto is climbing on my lap and spinning frantically isn’t easy. Haha

[peppypoo]

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[peppypoo]

Sorry, I thought that it wasn’t posting so i pushed the button 30 times! Can a mod delete the extras? 

[peppypoo]

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[peppypoo]

Wow, so many talented buns . I have a feeling that Tammo was a little dense as well; I had only been training him for three days, and he was just starting to respond well, when he passed away…I guess I’ll never know how much the poor bun could have learned. I can’t wait to start getting a feel for how my new girl responds to training, but I think she may be a tad young at this point.

Sometimes when I call Peppy, she’ll very deliberately look at me, then completely ignore me, as if she’s thinking “hmm maybe…nah, nevermind.” I think she’s just so closely associated being called with things like treats that she won’t come if she’s not in the mood for treats!

[peppypoo]

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[GrumpyBun]

Lol peppypoo!

my buns are unfortunately trickless, unless you count looking cute so long I just give in and give them the damn treat.

[jennyrabbit]

lol Grumpybun, you mean to say yiour rabbit just stare at you for a treat? Jenny for very demanding, thats how it started in the first place lol she started doing stuff when I was giving my birds treats trying to get my attention because she was left out, once she got my attention, I was like “ya ok you too” and handed her a treat too..she assumed that to mean what she did got her the treat so she start repeating it for more lol, didnt even cross my mind at the time to make her do stuff for treats :p

[EveryPossibleWorld]

Ringo is much more “aggressive” for his treats! He jumped right into our popcorn bowl about a week after we brought him home! He jumped on the top part of the couch and before we knew it we had a rabbit in the bowl!! Stinker!

[EveryPossibleWorld]

It should be noted that the popcorn was OUR treat not his lol…. he still has issues distinguishing the two…

[GrumpyBun]

Posted By EveryPossibleWorld on 11/30/2010 08:32 PM
It should be noted that the popcorn was OUR treat not his lol…. he still has issues distinguishing the two…

I believe this is common among rabbits

Jennyrabbit – essentially they just get the treat for looking at me! Oxo doesn’t seem to feel I’m worth listening to and Bisto isn’t the, err, brightest of buns so gets confused. I’m too soft and just give in!

They do sometimes do ‘running when they hear the treat bag crinkle’…

[EveryPossibleWorld]

I think it would be awesome to teach them how to “play dead” (how they do a big side flop)…

[jennyrabbit]

^^ that is what I am leading too with teaching Jenny to lay down :p

[peppypoo]

I’ve always wondered if it’s possible to teach buns to roll over; I think it would be amazing to be able to tell Peppy to “do a barrel roll!” for those who understand the video game reference XD. However, I have a suspicion that it’s probably physically impossible. 

(Peppy is named after a grey hare in the Starfox game series, and one of his catchphrases is “do a barrel roll!”)

[MirBear]

Twix knows: up, come, spin, and a bit of agility (we started in the late summer for a few weeks and she was getting it but the weather is to iffy lately. when we get packing snow i want to make a snow course and then continue training on nice days. then again in the summer.

Hershey knows: up, come, and stay.

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

Peppy – I totally didn’t make the name connection until you pointed it out, but you have at least one nerdy member who hears “do a barrel roll!” in that certain voice in their head. Haha.

 

My apologies for distracting from the topic for a second, but I just came across this and laughed out loud like an idiot and thought you’d also appreciate it:

 

[jerseygirl]

That’s such a great pic. ^

[jerseygirl]

 

Posted By EveryPossibleWorld on 12/01/2010 10:41 AM
I think it would be awesome to teach them how to “play dead” (how they do a big side flop)…

This reminded me of this video. “Go Kabang!”  So cute.

[RabbitPam]

I love Go Kabang!

[GrumpyBun]

I love Go Kebang too!

On a serious note, how practical is it to teach tricks when you have more than one rabbit? How do you get past them confusing eachother, without upsetting them by splitting them up for training sessions?

[Elrohwen]

I have two and I haven’t found any solution other than separating them – otherwise they climb all over each other and get confused. I tried to push Otto away one time while I worked with Hannah, and he got really sulky. I think he was confused about why his tricks weren’t getting him treats and he got so frustrated he just ran away and sulked. Not trying that again! I think I need to do it while they’re in separate rooms. Some pairs might be upset about separating, but most get to the point where 5 minutes in different rooms isn’t unusual or stressful for them. Training sessions shouldn’t be longer than 5 min anyway, so you can work with one, work with the other, then let them back together.

[GrumpyBun]

Thanks Elrohwen. I’ll think about doing some things with them if I can get them apart without having to pick them up and carry them (guaranteed to cause sulking)

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

My bunnies trick list:

Pee on blankets
Wake parents up repeatedly by throwing boxes into the wall
throw boxes into the wall
run like they are being chased by a dingo because I’ve come in the room with a jacket on (and I’m not mommy anymore)

LOL

Seriously though-they all can beg and that’s just an easy trick to start off with. Rupert can go through a hoop and he targets well. My liimitations are his legs, Noots blind and Kahlua doesn’t really eat treats-one raisin max… Poooey! Maybe the GP will work for treats

[anneNjoerule]

Seeing as this is a thread full of people who can teach tricks, I have a question. I need to train my bunny to go back into her cage/pen if I have to leave. Herding does nOt work.

[peppypoo]

(dig)x(me)x(now), that’s an amazing picture!! I gotta take a picture like that with Peppy, heh.

anneNjoerule: You could try giving a command (“go home!” or “cage!”) while leading your bunny into the cage with a treat…in time, hopefully your bunny will learn that the command means that there is something tasty waiting in the cage for her and go by herself when she hears it . I find that the key to verbal commands is that you have to give them in the same tone of voice every time; bunnies probably aren’t so good at only recognizing the words themselves, but also the way in which you say them.

[MirBear]

anneNjoerule:my little one, Hershey, used to know that command, but they forget that one quickly. i started with letting her out, then when she would sniff her cage id say cage and give her a bit of a treat, if she went in the cage when i said cage she’d get a full treat. Eventually when i said cage she’d run to the cage and hop inside. i stopped using the comand for awhile and she’s forgotten in.

[cactuspancake]

Franz does “kisses” “Gimme 10!” comes when called…. he walks in a vest also. I’m working on target training he goes to it and touches the ball with hi nose consistantly. OMG I’m getting a private training lesson with the head trainer at the MSPCA Angell in Boston!!! We’re going to work up to agility so I’m so happy! I hope it doesn’t break the bank :/ The private dog sessions aren’t too much. It’s 100 for 4 weeks in a small group…

Franz rolls around on the floor on his own so I’m sure I could capture the behavior into a “roll over!”

I think the coolest tricks would be a honk for “speak” and a big yawn for roar!!!

[jennyrabbit]

anneNjoerule when and where do you feed your bunny? didnt take my girls long to figer out that if they go in their cage they get a bunch of veggies..Peepers is just learning, as she is just starting to get out of cage time in the same area her cage is in, but she cought on after like 3 days. Jenny has been doing it for almost 2 years…and she hightails it to her cage so fast its comical lol

[Elrohwen]

anneNjoerule, I agree with some of the others that feeding her in the cage when you want her to go back is probably the best way. My bunnies don’t know a specific command for going to their cage, but they certainly know what opening up the pellet container and going to the fridge mean! Haha. We feed them dinner in the evening when we’re ready for bed so they always happily run to their cage at night.

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