# clicker-trained bunny



## SilverBeat

My rabbit Bella is my pride and joy. She was the first animal I ever rescued and she holds a very special place in my heart. She came from a neglect situation, I believe, and was dumped on my front porch in the snow. She was extremely aggressive--I have nerve damage on my thumb to prove it. 

I have worked a lot ["training" in the bunny world] with her, and a couple of weeks ago I started experimenting with the clicker. I "loaded" it just like you do for a dog, and then started asking her to do simple things she knows, clicking and treating along the way. When I first started clicking she was scared of it so I wrapped it in a piece of cloth.

Things that she used to do most of the time, now she does them all the time [things like "go to bed" which means go to your pen, and coming when I call her]. And her aggression? It's basically at zero. She still does this one thing where she snaps at the air if something touches the tip of her nose, but I think that will always happen and I've learned to live with it. 

We are still working on things like "down" [put your head on the ground in a grooming position while I put food in your bowl], "kennel" [get in your carrier] and such, but I'm amazed at the progress she's made so far-- I never really thought clicker training would work for a rabbit like it does for dogs!










Bella was on Disapproving Rabbits last summer. [the pic in my sig]


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## MissusMac

That is really cool!


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## Tobi

Thats awesome, what a cute bunny! How long did it take you to load it?

*ashamed* I still can't get it loaded right with Tobi... it seems he could care less about it.


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## xellil

that is just horribly cute. And a gorgeous rabbit.

I think you can successfully do clicker training with any animal (or probably humans, someone tried it on their toddler?), if you are coordinated enough to click at the exact right time, along with the treat, along with remembering what the heck you are doing besides concentrating on the clicking and treating


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## SilverBeat

I did it probably 50 times. My bunny already knows that when she does something she's asked, she gets a treat. But marking the behaviors really seemed to reinforce that.

With Wallaby I really only use the clicker to shape and mark the more complicated stuff. I've heard of people loading the clicker like 100 times for their dog.


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## swolek

That's awesome! I don't use a clicker (never got into clicker-training for some reason) but taught my rabbits some basic commands to make life easier, haha.


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## Tobi

xellil said:


> that is just horribly cute. And a gorgeous rabbit.
> 
> I think you can successfully do clicker training with any animal (or probably humans, someone tried it on their toddler?), if you are coordinated enough to click at the exact right time, along with the treat, along with remembering what the heck you are doing besides concentrating on the clicking and treating


 I can see a mother walking through the mall with a toddler clicking when he's walking next to her :lol:


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## MollyWoppy

Wow, that rabbit is just gorgeous. Whoever dumped her sure lucked out on picking the right house. Good on you, most people wouldn't have taken her in so I'm thrilled that with all your effort and patience she has turned out to be such a gem.
I love that you are clicker training her too. Hearing how much success you've had with Bella has me thinking of doing that with my cat. Trouble is that she won't take any treats at all. The only other type of reward I can think of is affection or a pat, but she already gets like a thousand of those a day, so thats not special.


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## SilverBeat

MollyWoppy said:


> Wow, that rabbit is just gorgeous. Whoever dumped her sure lucked out on picking the right house. Good on you, most people wouldn't have taken her in so I'm thrilled that with all your effort and patience she has turned out to be such a gem.
> I love that you are clicker training her too. Hearing how much success you've had with Bella has me thinking of doing that with my cat. Trouble is that she won't take any treats at all. The only other type of reward I can think of is affection or a pat, but she already gets like a thousand of those a day, so thats not special.


Thanks. I'm pretty sure someone gave the person my address because 2 weeks before we "got" her I got a phone message from someone saying they were going to dump their rabbit in the woods because it was "the meanest bunny ever," unless I came to get it. They didn't leave a number so I couldn't call them back. 
I actually had two other rabbits at the time and she got along with them very well, so everything worked out great.

Bella lives for treats and affection so she is very easy to train. Does Windy like those feather-on-a-stick things they make for cats? Maybe that could be a reward.


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## Ania's Mommy

"Meanest bunny ever" is kinda like an oxymoron, right? They should have said "meanest RABBIT ever" because everyone knows that rabbits are sometimes mean. Bunnies are not.

What a cutie! Ya done good! And she's definitely a bunny, not a mean ol' rabbit. :becky:


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## Janet At Nutro

Bella is a very smart, and pretty bunny!


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