|
|
Clicker Training Bunnies
I was in the middle of a Bunny Festival, when a tourist from England asked me what was happening. We had a lovely chat. She told me that rabbits in England jumped hurdles in competition. The idea was enchanting and I shared it with Andrea Bratt. Andrea began to train her rabbits to jump hurdles. One day her phone rang. Pet Star asked Andrea to put her bunnies on TV. At first Andrea thought it was a joke, but no, Pet Star really wanted hurdling bunnies for their show.
So Andrea began training her bunnies, Mattie, Philbert and Muffy, to hurdle in different locations: her hula studio, parks, the court house, and finally KEYT. One day, while training bunnies, the man who made the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile (yes, it was made in Santa Barbara), came by. He was also a dog trainer and advised us to learn more about clicker training.
Andrea’s bunnies were filmed twice for Pet Star, but did not win the competition. After that, though, those bunnies would run their hurdle course under any conditions. See Mattie, Phibert and Muffy here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9OXATfF0o
Andrea and I went to Karen Pryor’s Clicker Expo, a three day conference packed with information about animal training. Through Clicker Expo we met Teresa Lewin and Joan Orr who were writing a book, “Clicking with Your Bunny.” We were hooked. BUNS volunteers learned to clicker train. BUNS bunnies were jumping through hoops, following targets and generally having a good time. We sent photos of BUNS bunnies being trained for inclusion in the book. See more bunny tricks here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgDHWLyztCI&NR=1
We joined Teresa in presenting a class at the House Rabbit Society Headquarters. Later we wrote an article on clicker training for the House Rabbit Journal. Then it was off to Reno, for the Best Friends 1,000 Bunny Rescue where we taught another class in clicker training. We taught at Best Friends in Utah and even went to Michigan to teach a class.
Andrea continued to pursue clicker training and began training dogs. Her knowledge and skills were assessed and certified as a trainer by the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). She opened her training business: K-9’s Behave. In addition to K-9’s behave, Andrea is under contract to train dogs for Animal Services. Andrea also teaches our Basic Bunny and Guinea Pig Class, which includes clicker training.
In 2016 the APDT asked Andrea to present a class at their national conference on clicker training bunnies. Andrea, Paul, and Kristina Knight, a BUNS clicker trainer, packed up a group of BUNS bunnies for the conference. While she was there, Andrea was approached by an English lady, who said she had come from England for the Clicker Training Bunnies class. She brought Andrea tea as a thank you. So we came full circle, from the first English lady who got BUNS started on clicker training, to another English lady who came to the US to learn about it. Good Show!
|
|
