As you can see, Tula and I have been having a lot of fun!! Now it's time for part two of our interview! As we told you in Part One,Tula works with her people at Small Animal Resources and Empowered Animals Behavior and Training, LLC to help rabbits with all kinds of behavior issues. In this segment, we're going to get into the real nitty gritty of clicker training!
You know a lot about clicker training, and I've noticed that your people work with you using clicker training techniques. Can you tell us a little about why clicker training is so good for bunnies? How does it help form a bond with your people?
I DO know a lot about clicker training! I have so much fun doing this with my people! Like most bunnies (although I would consider myself a little exceptional), I am really smart, and I enjoy learning new things. Clicker training helps my human communicate to me EXACTLY when I've earned a treat. When I hear the click, I know I did the right thing and am going to get a treat! My human teaches my behaviors by breaking them down into small steps.
For example, to learn to spin a circle, she first taught me to bend my head, then to spin 1/4 of the way, then 1/2 way, then 3/4, then the full circle. When she breaks it down, it makes it easier for me to go from one step to the next. Clicker training is amazing for building a relationship with your human because it really is all about communication. You have to work really hard to figure out what your human is trying to teach you, and your human has to work hard to figure out what you're thinking and how to help you understand. Your human learns how to keep the training session going by keeping it fun and interesting for you!
At the end of the day, treats only get your human so far. Treats are a great way to get us to invest initially in interacting with our human, but team work is a great social activity, and we bunnies are quite social! The teamwork, mental stimulation, and treats all build your bond with your human!
Think clicker training is silly? Check out this video about crate training!
You'll never struggle to get your bunny into a carrier again!!
Clicker training also can help bunnies feel brave! The great thing about positive reinforcement is that your human REINFORCES (increases the frequency of) behaviors that of you try. As you know, we bunnies can be reserved when it comes to trying things out. After all, when our wild ancestors got too bold, they got into trouble! So, we've inherited some of that "bunny street smarts," but, once you start trying new things with your human and getting reinforced for making choices, you realize that we really don't have to worry about anything in our homes.
It encourages us to explore new things, be bolder, feel more comfortable in our homes, and be more adaptable to changes in our environment. Clicker training also helps our humans be creative! If we get into something we aren't supposed to, for example, our humans can use clicker training to get us to come back to a safe spot!
What is your favorite clicker training trick?
My favorite trick is the "shell game!" This is one where my human switches around a bunch of overturned cups and wants me to find the one with the leaves on the bottom. She swaps them all around, and I have to put my paws on the right one! I really love this trick because I LOVE using my nose to find things, and that's the secret to winning the shell game!
This is me playing the shell game! Notice how I go back to my "station" in between each round!
What is your most useful clicker trick (from your human's point of view!)
My human probably would argue that my most useful clicker trick is my hand target. This is where I touch my nose to her palm. We use this behavior for lots of different things: she uses it to get me into a position when we are going to work on nail trims or brushing, when she needs me to face a certain way to set me up to succeed when I'm learning a new trick, to move me away when she spills something (she always does this!), or to help me start to feel comfortable again when I'm unsure. We do this one all of the time!
Here I am doing bar jumps! You can my person's hand cues and that I go back to my "station" in between these jumps as well. I love working with my people!
People seem to think clicker training takes gigantic amounts of time - does it take a lot of time or can it be done in short sessions?
My human has started to set time limits for our sessions because we both get too excited and try to go for too long, then get a little lost! Usually, our best sessions are just about 1-2 minutes long! We usually train later in the evening, because that's when I like to be awake! This works great for her work schedule because she works all day, I sleep all day, and then we play at night!
It really doesn't take very long, so sometimes, when she's really tired, I cut her some slack and we just do 30 second sessions and work on the essentials. I've scheduled my weekly weigh-in for her Fridays so that we can do that short and easy session for 30 seconds and then we snuggle!
In the time it takes for you to watch my barrel roll, you and your bunny could have a training session of your own!
Wow! One or two minute sessions would be easy for anyone to fit into their schedule! What kinds of bunny problems can you and your people help with?
We help with just about everything! My people are really good with bunny "aggression," which we put in quotes because aggression is just a manifestation of fear. My human spent a lot of time watching bunnies in shelters and learned how to work around some really tough cases.
We really work hard to teach people how to figure out what their bunny is afraid of, and then they work with the human to be able to take care of their bunny in a way that the bunny is comfortable with.
We usually start out with identifying the "Relationship Account" which is an exercise to help people see things from their bunny's perspective and figure out how to make deposits! My people also work with litter box issues, unusual behaviors, and cases where people just want to improve their relationship! They also do private coaching for bunnies who want to do more clicker training, and offer group classes by Zoom and Facebook!
They also work with many different species, including cats, guinea pigs and other small mammals, pigs, fish, and even, recently, with my cousin Bernard, a Bearded Dragon!
My people make sure I have lots of fun toys for enrichment, like this awesome ball...
...and this Trixie Mad Scientist Treat Dispenser!!!
Tula, if someone would like a consult with your people, how do they get in touch?
Our email address is empoweredbehaviorandtraining@gmail.com. We are also on Facebook as Empowered Animals Behavior and Training and on Instagram at @empoweredanimals. We also run Small Animal Resources (on FB and Instagram!), which is a free educational resource for people who love bunnies and other small mammals!
As you know, there is so much misinformation out there regarding small mammal care, and we are so glad to be able to send people to your wonderful blog for quality bunny care info!! Thanks for interviewing me, Mrs. Brighton! I'm so honored! Tell my friend Bee that I say hi!!
We sure will, Tula!! This has been a great interview, and I hope we meet up again soon!
Tula was the first bunny to have earned this title!!! These trick titles are awarded by Do More with Your Dog! and are designed for dogs. Tula had to perform 5 tricks that are determined to be of the highest-difficulty level in the program to earn her title. Congratulations, Tula!!
If you and your bunny are having "issues", please don't hesitate to give Tula and her people a call! You'll be so happy you did!
Love, Mrs. Kitty Brighton,
Education Bunny
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