Bunny Discipline?

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ontario, Ontario, Canada
Sable has a very aggressive, bossy and generally unwanted behavior at times. Such as shaking the cage when it's not time to be let out for play time, such as the middle of the night, or being too aggressive during play. Since I have a very small apartment, and don't want her to associate her cage, or my hand, with disciplinary action, I've been giving her half hour time outs in the bathtub with naught but a drinking dish. Is this too harsh or dangerous for buns? Is there a better, more bun friendly, behavior correction method I should enforce?

 
Welcome to RO :wave:
Nice to have another ontarion here :)

This is typical bunny behaviour; it isn't wrong or malicious... she's expressing her needs to you.

"If I shake my cage, Mom will come see me and let me out! Boy, I love mom!"

She doesn't view her own behaviour as annoying.
Your time outs mean nothing to her. She can't reason as to why she is there, and she can't likely remember doing anything that you perceived as wrong.

These are typical discipline strategies:
-biting: you yelp really loud and high pitched. If between bunnies, get a squirt bottle of water.
- unacceptable action: clap hands, say "No!"
- Praise and treats when rabbit performs acceptably.

Apart from biting, all other behaviour alteration success must come from your own changes to the environment, and a change in your perspective on the situation. That can range from furniture/hutch rearrangement, bunny proofing, longer or more regular out time, larger run area.

It sounds as if she has a lot of energy :) Can you take a picture of her cage and run area? When does she get to play, and for how long?

As for play aggression, is it between you and her, or between herself and Rice? Are both rabbits de-sexed?
Again, welcome!
 
Also, bunnies seem to have amazingly short attention spans, so any corrective action has to be immediate, and lasting a long time (ie a longer "time out" for a worse offense) won't do much.

It may be better to turn your back on her (so she can see you) and look over your shoulder at her when she bangs on the cage. This is "giving her the butt" and expresses that you are upset with her and don't want to deal with her.

Here's some good perspective on bunny communication.
http://language.rabbitspeak.com/
 
I'm in the camp of ignore bad behavior (in the case of cage shaking) and praise good behavior. If she shakes her cage and you pay any attention to her (even if you say "no") she's getting what she wants. I know my own bun often thinks that me saying no and physically moving him away from an object is the most fun game in the world. You could be reinforcing the cage shaking without meaning to. Totally ignore her when she does this and praise/let her out when she is being patient and quiet.

As for the aggression - is she spayed? Spaying could help immensely. If she's already spayed, then I recommend walking away from her when she's being aggressive. If she really is trying to play with you (not trying to get rid of you) she will realize that her playmate walks away when she is being rough, but comes back when she's being nice. If she's try to get rid of you, or being territorial, the opposite technique works - do not leave her space and let her understand that you're not moving because she wants it. Put on gloves, squeal if she bites you, etc.

A lot of training is figuring out how to not reinforce bad behaviors. Often, we accidentally tell our rabbits that what they're doing is ok, by giving them attention when they do it, and this causes them to do it more.
 
NorthernAutumn: I'll take a picture of the cages as soon as I find where the camera is as, much like my cellphone, my buns enjoy stashing away anything I have a bell charm on. The cages are 45x77cm and have a mesh(1x1cm) bottom, half of which is covered with a bunny blanket. Sable's cage is tiered as she's more boisterous about her personal space, where as Rice is uninterested with levels in such a place. They had a run but due to the limited space of my apartment and them needing to be watched while accessing it (it was the early days of us all learning to get along with each other), it was easier to let them have the run of the apartment. I work two shift jobs so their free time on a work day can range anywhere from 4-8hrs and on those rare work free days they get 8-12hrs as long as they are behaving well.

Neither of them are fixed, which I know must be causing 70-80% of the problem, but with only one vet in town willing to take on rabbits the cost of getting them both spade is par with rent. My 'living room furniture' fund has merged with the 'buns go to the vets' fund but with times quite tight it's still going to be a ways off (come on tax return!). Since that solution is going to be some time in coming I need to explore the alternatives. The aggression is mainly toward Rice, though I've gotten my share, and is kind of confusing me. I'll watch out the corner of my eye and Sable will be grooming Rice but as soon as I turn to watch, or snap a pic, she'll get aggressive and nip at Rice's hind legs and back area. There have been no bleeding wounds but large hunks of nip-cropped fur leave me worried.

Thanks for the link Tonyshuman. I've read the whole site over and will give the tips and tricks a serious run to see if that will help improve our relationships and resolve some behaviors.

Ignoring the cage shaking is really hard, particularly at night as it is a small apartment and the only 'wall' dividing us is a book shelf. With working two jobs sleeportunities are short and need to be maximized. Wishful thinking of 'ignore her and she'll stop' when you're dealing with sleep dep. has yet to pan out. I can't cave either and let them out while I'm sleeping as, despite my best bun-proofing efforts there are still some dangers to buns and things I don't want distructo-bun'd.
 
If you can't ignore the cage shaking at night, I totally understand, but just realize that the more you pay attention to them when they do it, the more they'll do it. It's kind of like teaching a kid to sleep on their own - the first few times are really hard, but once they get it, you get to sleep through the night.
 
Another thought I had, if you can't ignore the cage shaking at night, is to try a squirt bottle. When your rabbit does it, don't say anything, just squirt. You'll have to do it a number of times until your bun puts two and two together, but it works successfully for many rabbits.
 
Chase use to shake the cage like crazy when I lived in an apartment. It would keep me up at night. I started putting a blanket or sheet over her cage and she stopped. You just have to be careful that the rabbit doesn't pull the blanket through the cage and eat it. Chase never did. But I know if I tried this with Little Bunny the whole blanket would be eaten by morning. Chase only rattled the front of her cage so I would put the blanket just on the front and a little on the top of the cage leaving the sides, back and part of the top open for air and I only left it on when I was sleeping. I would also only put it on when she started rattling her cage. I am not sure if she ever connected that the blanket gets put on when she rattles or not. What finally stopped her from doing this all together was giving her a lot more time out of her cage.
 
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