Does anyone breed rabbits for Bunny Jumping?

[minimoomin]

So I recently watched a video on bunny jumping (where bunnies compete to jump over hurdles), and I was wondering if anyone breeds rabbits for this? How do you train your rabbits to jump over the hurdles? And is there a certain breed or body type you look for when breeding rabbits for this competition?
Thanks!:running bunny

 

[majorv]

Hi, I've seen all different breeds of rabbits doing this...Dutch, nethies, lops. If you have a higher energy bunny that likes to run and jump then it's worth trying it out. Some of our Tans have taken to hopping pretty easy, but they're a running breed anyway. You can get some wood and dowels at a hardware store and make your own simple jumps for practice.

 

[Azerane]

I've also seen many different breeds jumping, the more athletic looking breeds seem to do really well (such as tans as mentioned) but you also see lops doing a great job of it too.

I know there are some people who breed rabbits, train them for jumping and sell them with some training. Presumably from stock that they have that has shown to jump well. But really any breed except probably the large-giant breeds can be used for jumping. It can be a bit too much stress on the body for the larger breeds.

 

[minimoomin]

Thanks! I was thinking of seeing if I could train my lop to jump (she's very high energized, and I think having something to focus her energy on will help her in the long run). However I don't actually know how to train them to jump... I saw a tutorial on youtube, with the bunny following a pointing stick thing, but I don't know what that is or how it's essential in the training. Anyone know how they're trained?

 

[Azerane]

You can train in different ways, people use the pointed sticks because the rabbits are first trained to follow that stick. It's like a "home base" and once you've trained the rabbit to "touch" the end of it, then you can train them to spin in a circle by following it or going over jumps etc. It's a visual guide for what you want the rabbit to do, rather than sitting on the opposite side of a jump with a treat and calling them over (which is what I tend to do , it's not particularly successful). But having the stick more obviously shows them what you're asking of them so it's easier to train.

At least I'm pretty sure that's the essentials of it.

 

[missyscove]

I have this book and found it helpful for suggesting tricks that rabbits could actually do and it covers the basics of clicker training pretty well if you're not familiar with it.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1890948233/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[woahlookitsme]

I had a tan diesel that seemed to like jumping. I would have him in our hallway or bathroom and basically divide the room in half with a jump that I made. He loved to follow me so I would walk around and walk over the jump and when he went over I would praise him. He eventually would do it by himself And get very excited. Also depending on where you are many hopping clubs are starting to pop up. People in Canada and there's even an American club.

It's hard for me to copy links but just Google American hopping association

 

[PeterLolasMummy]

Omg!!! This is amazing! I know what me and Peter will be doing this weekend 😉.. Does anyone know where events like this are held in the UK? Would love to go and watch x

 

[minimoomin]

I've only ever seen the events being held in Switzerland. I doubt there are in my country (New Zealand) so I'm just going to be training her for fun! However, I just now need to know how to build the jumps... Any chance anyone knows how to build them?

 

[Azerane]

If you're making jumps at home just for fun, you can make the jumps out of almost anything, some wood and length of wooden dowel, or even pvc pipe or electrical conduit. The key thing to remember is that the rails on the jump need to be able to fall off somewhat easily. If you look up pictures of rabbit jumps on google you could probably get a good idea of what's used. I know there's a few clubs in Aus, but I'm not sure about NZ.

Here's a website for the UK: http://www.rjuk.moonfruit.com/