#rabbit training

[spindle-and-nima]

People don't believe me when I say rabbits can be trained but here's Nima listening to the command "inside" to get in her pen for the night.

Its amazing what you can do with hay cookies and a food motivated animal!

[residentbunny]

I stayed up late last night and hung out with shoelace, and he learned how to give high fives! I’m so proud of my smart little boy!!

If I can get a video of it do you guys wanna see?

[securityunit-ese]

There's a 2 second flip finish competition on Facebook.

 🤔 not fast enough yet

[spindle-and-nima]

I try to use positive reinforcement to make Nima associate human presence with good things and reward behaviors like listening to verbal commands which is definitely great but Nima has decided all of her behaviors should be rewardable so I catch her doing random things like knocking things over or digging up carpet or lurking nearby and she follows it up with this very specific expression she makes when she wants a snack. She sits back and licks her lips like "wasn't that cool?? Cookie please" if she's outside of the pen and if she's in the pen she puts her paws up on the pen bars which she only does if she wants a treat.

I taught my rabbits the command "inside" to get them in the pen every night but Nima is absolutely convinced that anytime she goes inside the pen (without commands) she deserves a cookie

[spindle-and-nima]

So I thought Nima was too afraid/timid to really be trained but it turns out nope she understood every command but the condition of following it is a hay cookie. I thought cookie was the only word she understood but no it was really just her favorite word.

"Inside" (command for time to go back in the pen) works for spindle just fine but Nima scrunches herself up and then I relent and go "ok. Cookie inside" boom. She's inside and waiting eagerly for her reward. I don't even need to ask twice

"Nima, no bite" hmm no reaction

"No bite, cookie" immediately stops chewing what she shouldn't and goes to collect her reward.

[ej-smiles]

Dammit rabbit! eat the treat and be friends and love me

[fezzikgiant-blog]

Hey! I need some advice, I have a little Dwarf Lop, he is about 3 months old and I am trying to Litter train him. I have read up all about it, but at the moment he doesn't seem to be going in the one place, he poops and pees everywhere in his cage. I have a litter box and have tried different types of litter and in different spots in the cage but it doesn't seem to change. I have also tried putting all his poops in there. The strange thing is, when I let him out he poops in my cats litter! help!

I’m not an expert by any means. Fezzik is the first rabbit we’ve ever had. If he’s pooping and peeing all over his cage, I’ve read that it’s possible his cage is too small. You might want a larger area for him to run around in when he’s locked up, and that might encourage him to choose just one corner. When we got Fezzik, he would poop everywhere, but he chose like… three corners of our house to pee in. We bought multiple litter boxes and put them in those corners with his poops and with paper that had his pee on it. Eventually, we found his most consistent spot, and he started using it enough that we were able to remove the other litter boxes until he only used one exclusively. It also helps a lot if you put a bunch of hay into the litter box(es) because rabbits like to eat while they do their business. Putting it in the far corner of the litter box also encourages them to hop inside the box to eat it, and hopefully they'll do their thing while they eat.

I recommend finding a way to block off the cat’s litter box from the rabbit even if it’s only while he’s running around. If you’re using normal cat litter, the dust can be extremely harmful to your bunny’s lungs, so do your best to keep him out of there.

Another option could be to put the bunny’s litter box where the cat’s box is while the bunny is running around outside of his cage. Then, when you put him away, you put the litter box back into his cage with him (preferably in a corner because most bunnies have this weird thing where they prefer corners). It could encourage him to better understand that he needs to just do his thing in that one box. I don’t know how long you’d have to do it or if it would even work, but I think it’s something I’d personally try if I had a similar circumstance.

[alisonunderground]

Heath and I are trying to train Wheatley not get on the bed because she's been using the bathroom a lot on it (she was litter trained idk if it's because she's getting older or not ((maybe hormones?))), and so far she understands when I shake my head "no" and say "ah ah" in a disapproving tone.

It actually just worked a few minutes ago when she started biting at a trash bag and when I used the command, she stopped, looked at me, then hopped over to something else (ㅇㅅㅇ❀)