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From the Archives: Tricks are for Rabbits
This year is the 25th anniversary of BUNS! We're celebrating by sharing stories from our volunteers about their experiences with BUNS. This month's story comes from our newsletter archives: In the 1990’s BUNS began to promote clicker training for rabbits, and this was one of our early articles on the subejct, written by Heidi Greer, former BUNS Vice President and Education Coordinator.
I happened upon it completely by accident. One day I was watching TV, and my rabbit, Bretta, hopped across the floor in front of me. Feeling friendly, I made a kissing noise with my lips. How surprised I was when she ran right over, put her front paws on my legs, and touched her mouth to mine! Where had she learned what a “kiss” was? I didn’t think I’d taught her that, but then I remembered something. You see, every night I go into the kitchen, get a couple of raisins, and give them to Bretta as a treat before going to bed. However, I give them to her only after I make a sound to get her attention, and I hold the raisins in between my lips. At some point she’d learned that the sound meant she should touch her lips to mine, where she would find a raisin. Then it hit me, if she could learn to give me a “kiss”, what other tricks could she learn?
Think about it; your rabbit probably already responds to a variety of sounds – the sound of the refrigerator opening means “food”, and the thump of your foot means “danger”. Why not expand on that? Clicker training has been a popular method of training dogs and horses for several years, and it works with rabbits too! Clicker training is effective because it uses the animal’s tendency to repeat actions that have positive consequences. How does it work? To put it simply, the “click” is way of saying “good” – it helps to identify which actions result in positive consequences, and thereby encourages your rabbit to take those actions.
The first step in clicker training is to get your rabbit to associate the “click” with a positive consequence. You’ll need a clicker, which is a small plastic box that makes a clicking noise when pushed. You’ll also need something your rabbit already views as positive, usually food (use small portions!). Start by simply clicking and giving a treat. Do this until your bunny looks for the treat when he hears the “click”. At this point he knows that this “clicking” noise means food, which is something he wants.
Next, begin shaping the behavior you want. For example, let’s say you want your rabbit to come to you when you call his name, You’d begin when your rabbit sitting or lying down. As soon as the rabbit makes any movement in your direction, with his head, his paw, his ears, anything, “click” and then give a treat. The timing of the “click” is crucial. You want to click during the action, not after it. Otherwise, he won’t associate the action with the sound of the clicker. Continue and his behavior will become more confident. Now try waiting a little longer before clicking. Wait for a greater motion towards you; maybe your rabbit will move a paw. Click again and treat. Repeat for a while and then raise the bar another level– maybe he’ll get up and take a step towards you. You get the idea! Breaking the desired action into TINY steps allows your rabbit to progress quickly.
Once your rabbit has learned the desired behavior, you can introduce an additional cue, such as verbal command that he will learn to associate with behavior. It may seem strange not to give commands initially, but remember your rabbit can only learn one thing at a time. Gradually you should stop using the clicker and giving the treat. Eventually you will be able to simply give the cue and he will perform the behavior your want!
Rabbits are creatures of habit and are easily trainable. Once you get the hang of it it’s fun! Think of tricks your rabbit can learn! He can learn to come, stay (very helpful when at the vet!), fetch toys, stand on his hind legs, hop in your lap, etc. It’s more challenging, but you can even train your rabbit NOT to do things, like bite or chew on the furniture. The possibilities are endless. Give it a try! At the very least you will enrich your relationship with your bunny.
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