How to Clicker Train Your Bunny

Clickers are an effective way of training your bunny

By using a pet clicker or by simply clicking your fingers when you bunny does something you want and then positive association this with a reward, primarily food treats your bunny will soon learn what good behavior is.

Clicker training is also better than other forms of training because it's not dependent the sound of your individual voice so more than one member of the family can share the results of the training. Also, because anxiety or frustration can creep into your voice clicker training is less likely to cause your bunny stress.

However it's important to say clicker training is supposed to be fun for you and your bunny. It is not a way of getting your bunny to do something it doesn't want to do and it is defiantly wont help as a way of stopping you bunny doing something you don't want it to do.

First thing you need to do is choose the right reward

Before you begin you will need to find out what will motivate your bunny the most. Its unlikely it will respond to a positive verbal response or petting. Typically, the best form of reward is some sort of edible treat. The treats should be small and easy for you to pass to your bunny and should be quick to eat. If you feed your bunny a diet of hay and green food then it can be easy to simply up the value of the food to get your bunny a treat, some fresh herbs such a coriander or basal may be a favorite or some small some pieces of vegetable. You can use fruit but sure you don't give your bunny too much as it can contain a lot of sugar which is unhealthy. If your bunny likes crunchy things then a bag of dry food. Try you bunny out on a variety of things and it will soon become apparent what food it likes then keep this in reserve for the training process.

Choosing a clicker

For the bunny, the clicker must never lie.

An important step is to introduce your bunny to the clicker carefully or it may get an adverse reaction and making it longer to gain your bunnies trust. Pick a quiet place your bunny is used to where you are not likely to get interrupted. Let your bunny get in a calm state and sound the clicker then give your bunny its reward. once it has eaten it repeat the process. You may need to pause a second between the click and the treat at first to make sure the noise sinks in but after a while you bunny will soon recognize the sound and leap on you for treats. It is important from this point that every time you click you dish a treat out. For the bunny, the clicker must never lie.

Ways of teaching new behavior

There are a few ways to teach behavior the simplest is when you see your bunny doing something you want it to repeat, you then use the clicker then give a reward. The more time you do this the more you bunny will associate them together.

If you want to teach your bunny simple behavior that may be less likely to occur on its own you can lure your bunny to do the thing you want, typically with a treat then when you get the bunny to perform the action you want you use the clicker and give a reward. It is a bit like tricking your bunny into doing something the first few times then when you have done it enough times your bunny will want to do it. As your bunny learns the behavior you need to rely less on the lure and will eventual use a cue like a voice command or gesture your bunny will recognize till eventually you can give the command and you get the desired result. There is more about this later on in the article.

If you want to teach your bunny more complex behavior you need to break it down into a series of steps each of which moves you closer to the desired result. The key part of this process is to move between steps by raising the criteria the right amount at the right time in small steps so your bunny is rewarded regularly and remains attentive. The balance is between making sure the behavior has been learnt but not over repeating it or you could get stuck and find it difficult to move onto the next stage. If you bunny becomes confused you may even need to go back a few stages and start again.

It's important to talk too much when you are clicker training, it can lead to confusion and obscure the importance of the clicker however it can be beneficial to introduce a voice commend to let your bunny know its behavior other than the one expected, this can be a simple No in a kind voice or Bad luck', Don't however use it to you bunny off its all a part of the encouragement.

Using a cue word

The next important stage is to name the behavior with a cues. It should be a words or words that are easily identified with a distinctive sound. Try and avoid words that are used it general conversation as this can lead to confusion. Each behavior you teach should have a distinct cue. The cue should be given clearly and confidently, there should be no need to shout the word as bunny have very sensitive hearing and will have heard you. Make sure the cue sound the same each time so avoid emotional intonation and your bunny should will eventual only need to be give the cue once to response.

Extending behavior

With many types of learnt behaviors, the first step is to get an immediate response that can be repeated then you can begin to extend the same behavior for longer periods of time by introducing a pause. This can be achieved by introducing small periods of delaying between the behavior your bunny has learnt and the click. By gradually increasing the length you pause you can get your bunny to hold the position for longer and longer.

Rewarding for excellence

When your bunny can repeat a behavior on cue you can then start to improve this by giving rewards for excellence. By withholding clicks and treats when it's below an acceptable standard and then improving this standard you can bit by bit make improvements. Do not try and do too much at once, pick one aspect and work on this till an improvement has been made then move on to the next.

Reinforce behavior

Your bunnies motivation is essentially the reward and once it has learnt a behavior it knows it can go through the motions and get its treat however if you want it to put more effort into it you can make it reinforce the behavior by skipping a treat every other time. In an effort to persuade you to reward him, your bunny will respond by repeating the behavior harder and faster.