Teaching your rabbit to roll over?

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LunarFantom

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Not really a behavioral issues per se but I can't find a good place for this thread... How would you teach a rabbit to roll over?

I see that some people teach their rabbits tricks, and I know the key is patience, not taking the rabbit too far too fast, and of course plenty of treats when they do it right. So for example I'm teaching one rabbit to be held by picking up one foot at a time, praising, giving a treat, slowly moving to 2 feet, then slowly lifting it a little, etc.

However I'm a bit lost at approaching this particular trick. Should I wait for it to roll over naturally then say "roll over" and give it treats? Should I pick it up and place it on its side? Should I gently push it over?

I'm not sure how to break up the trick into manageable bitesized pieces basically. :?
 
Not my area of expertise at all :lol: but if you google teaching rabbits tricks you find tons of information. I can't offer an opinion on the quality of the advice -- you'll have to decide that for yourself.

:good-luck:
 
Speaking as a professional dog trainer here. You're on the right track with breaking the trick down into "bite sized" pieces. With dogs, you generally do this with the follow steps:
1. Dog lies down.
2. Dog turns head toward side/hips until they rotate their hips to the side.
3. Dog leans further to the side until their shoulders are rotated.
4. Dog flips onto back.
5. Dog continues roll onto other side.

Here are a couple videos demonstrating:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCOvAf_-Xz8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPH5d-VD16w

Rabbits obviously have different body shapes and movements, but the progressions will look similar. The question is, how to you get the rabbit to do each step? You could manipulate the rabbit into the positions, but this is stressful for most animals and doesn't necessarily teach them how to do it on their own. I would instead use target training so that you can "suggest" to the rabbit how to move its body, but it's in control of the situation. Then you mark the correct movement and follow up with a reward.

You'll want to look up how to do clicker training, targeting, and shaping behavior by splitting criteria and successive approximations.

I actually wouldn't start with roll over as the first behavior that you teach or that your bunny learns. It requires many steps and the final behavior is complex. Start with simple targets such as a nose target and stationing on a mat or platform. Then try teaching your bunny to interact with objects, like going over a low jump or through a tunnel or around a pole. Then you might be ready for rolling over.

Good luck, and feel free to ask more questions about training. :)
 
averydeadbird":6gtxresg said:
Speaking as a professional dog trainer here. You're on the right track with breaking the trick down into "bite sized" pieces. With dogs, you generally do this with the follow steps:
1. Dog lies down.
2. Dog turns head toward side/hips until they rotate their hips to the side.
3. Dog leans further to the side until their shoulders are rotated.
4. Dog flips onto back.
5. Dog continues roll onto other side.

Here are a couple videos demonstrating:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCOvAf_-Xz8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPH5d-VD16w

Rabbits obviously have different body shapes and movements, but the progressions will look similar. The question is, how to you get the rabbit to do each step? You could manipulate the rabbit into the positions, but this is stressful for most animals and doesn't necessarily teach them how to do it on their own. I would instead use target training so that you can "suggest" to the rabbit how to move its body, but it's in control of the situation. Then you mark the correct movement and follow up with a reward.

You'll want to look up how to do clicker training, targeting, and shaping behavior by splitting criteria and successive approximations.

I actually wouldn't start with roll over as the first behavior that you teach or that your bunny learns. It requires many steps and the final behavior is complex. Start with simple targets such as a nose target and stationing on a mat or platform. Then try teaching your bunny to interact with objects, like going over a low jump or through a tunnel or around a pole. Then you might be ready for rolling over.

Good luck, and feel free to ask more questions about training. :)
Click to expand...

Ooh thanks, I actually just want it to be willing to flop over on its side on command. I don't need a full rolling motion. :lol:

Hm... target training does look helpful for this. So for example: target nose-spot in cage, then paw to spot in cage, then finally side of body to floor of cage? (over the course of days and days of training I imagine?)
 
Oh yeah, that's easier than a full roll over! I have yet to clicker train a rabbit, but my first approach would be to teach it to touch its nose to a target stick, then try to use that stick to get it to twist its body similar to how a dog would roll from a down to its side. The difficult part would be getting the bun to twist rather than just spin in a circle to follow the target. Hmm... I have a 3 week old litter on the ground and I'll be keeping some females to replace their mother. Ask me again in 6 months and maybe I'll have trained one of them. :lol:
 

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