Rabbit tricks?

[funnybunnymummy]

I've taught Gus to periscope up and take afew steps when I say, "Up-up-up!"

He can also spin in a circle when I say, "Circle!"

And he comes when I say, "Come on!" (Especially if I'm heading toward his cage and his food dish! Then he really comes running! )

What tricks can your rabbit do?

Rue

 

[RabbitLover94]

Wow! That's really cool! I plan on teaching my new bunny some tricks once she's settled in. So far, she knows the command to go back into the cage for when I have to leave.

Edit: Don't know why it's a double post! Sorry!

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

I taught my rabbit to spin.

But other than that, he also does rabbit hopping.

Emily

 

[elrohwen]

My bun will stand up on his hind legs when I say "up" whether or not I'm holding treats. I only consider it a finished trick if he'll do it when I don't have food.

I'm working on teaching him to spin in a circle. I still have to lure him the whole way around, so I don't think he's caught on yet. But we've only been doing it a couple of days.

He's not very consistent on "come". If I have food he comes running, but that's more about the food than the fact that I said "come". So that's a work in progress too.

I love training and hope to do a lot more with him. I'm going to target train him next and I hope it'll help with training other tricks.

 

[kirbyultra]

My buns periscope when I put my hand above them. I
I taught them with a treat and then took the treat away

 

[Little Bay Poo]

Billy gets so excited when he sees me getting his food ready, and I thought it would be cute if I could teach him the word "food" so he'd be aware of what was coming. Every night for the past few months I say to Billy, "Do you want your FOOOOOD? Billy, do you want your bunny's FOOOOOOD? Your FOOOOOD!" Nothing.

Either he doesn't get it, or he doesn't care. The only reaction I get is Chris's laughter from the other room :grumpy:

 

[fuzz16]

Fallow comes when i say cheerios thats about it

 

[Chickadee289]

I dont know if its a trick, but Regi's already learned the routine. He is waiting when I get up, I open the cage, he hops out. I go refil hios water while he waits, then I sit down and put the water back in. HE hops in my lap and supervises me opening the food bag/putting it in his bowl then hops back in and happily starts eating. If I neglect to let him in my lap he wont go back in his cage for his food haha

 

[funnybunnymummy]

Sounds like there are some smart and talented rabbits out there!

Elrohwen: What is target training?

Thanks!

Rue

 

[elrohwen]

funnybunnymummy wrote:

Sounds like there are some smart and talented rabbits out there!

Elrohwen: What is target training?

Thanks!

Rue

Target training is where you teach an animal to touch their nose to a target - either the end of a stick, or just your hand. It's usually used with clicker training, but you can just have them touch your hand, then say "yes" and give them a treat. Same idea. Eventually they should touch the target whenever you hold it out and say "touch".

Once theyconsistently touch the targetyou can use to to shape new behaviors. For example, to get a bun to stand up on its hind legs, instead of holding food over its head you would use the target/your hand and put that above his head and train it that way. That's a simple example, but it's very useful to train jumping, coming up on furniture, running through a tunnel, etc. Once the bun will follow a target you can make them go anywhere. It's easier for the bun to think "Oh, there's my target. I'm going to run up and touch it" than for them to learn a whole new trick every time that may confuse them.

I hope that made sense!

 

[crystal]

my bunnies stand on their back legs to get a pellet, even Lopsy with two dodgy legs can balance very well. I call it a trick but really they just want their food. I haven't been consistent enough with using a word at the same time that they do it on command yet...

how do you teach the circle thing, I want to try that one next

 

[elrohwen]

crystal wrote:

how do you teach the circle thing, I want to try that one next

I've just been luring him in a circle with a pellet, similar to what you're doing to get them to stand up. It's all about the luring Though my bun seems to have a hard time figuring it out. After a few days I'm still clearly luring him - he isn't offering the behavior on his own at all, so I don't think he understands that it's a trick. But basically, after you do it a bunch you should be able to lure less and less and have the bun do it on his own while maybe just making a small circular hand motion.

 

[funnybunnymummy]

Yes, that made sense! Thanks, Elrohwen! I might try that next with Gus. He's a pretty smartbun, IMVHO.

Rue

 

[elrohwen]

funnybunnymummy wrote:

Yes, that made sense! Thanks, Elrohwen! I might try that next with Gus. He's a pretty smartbun, IMVHO.

Rue

Keep us updated on how it goes! I'm very interested in animal training and I love talking to other bun owners about it. It's just so different from dog training.

Another tip for target training I just remembered. If you use your right hand as the target, for example, you would hold the food in your left, say "touch", and have him touch your right hand. Now, the important thing: when he touches your right hand, transfer the food over to the right and feed from that target hand. This keeps him interested in your right hand because that's where his food reward comes from. But since your left hand holds the treat for 90% of the trick you're not just luring him to touch your right hand.

 

[Demismith]

Harley is very trained.
He will follow a target stick, roll a football, stand on his back legs and turn, give me high five and come when called.

He's also trained for Rabbit Jumping (Also called hopping) - www.rabbitjumpinguk.moonfruit.com

 

[elrohwen]

Demismith wrote:

Harley is very trained.
He will follow a target stick, roll a football, stand on his back legs and turn, give me high five and come when called.

He's also trained for Rabbit Jumping (Also called hopping) - http://www.rabbitjumpinguk.moonfruit.com

That's awesome! Did he pick up on everything quickly, or did it take you a lot of time to train all of this?

 

[Demismith]

Luckily he's very smart and quickly associates tricks with rewards.

Flash dosen't do tricks, but he does do rabbit jumping. Took two years to train him!

 

[DazyDaizee]

I never put any effort into teaching "tricks" to my rabbits.. but Toot is a great door opener:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69ndMyIJsz8[/ame]

And she rings her bell if you ask her to, I don't have the video uploaded yet... Wally would come when he was called.