Am I pushing him too much?

[3willowsbunny]

I can clearly see that some of you are unwilling to part with aggressive training techniques. While I will never agree that these techniques are kind or helpful, I accept that some folks swear by them... Having said that, I think it bears repeating once more that I have seen remarkable progress in Sage's willingness to trust me, allow me to medicate him when needed, and give him his critical care porridge. Creating an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect is crucial. Ask yourself, "Am I doing this for my rabbit's health and well being or because I am too lazy and impatient to put in the time it takes to build a healthy relationship with my rabbit?" Also, sometimes a little game of chase gives him a good workout! Allowing Sage freedom, privacy, choices, combined with love and firmness when his health and wellbeing are at stake has resulted in a trusting, patient, loving little gentleman rabbit friend in our household.

I don't think laziness has anything to do with it, GENTLY pushing his head to the floor GENTLY is what his mom would have done to tell him "knock it off what you are doung is bad" it does NOT hurt them. Their heads are only about an inch from the ground whan you do it and you are not hitting, slapping or otherwise hurting them, I don't think you understand that. You do it for 1 second, Stewie was fine with it and didn't try to "nibble" after I did it 3 times within 3 days.

I do want to address your statement that "if they don't want to get picked up don't do it" (or something along those lines). i could get VERY snarky here and say, well my dog hates it when I trim her nails so I should stop that right?? My parrot hates it when I clean her cages, so I should stop that? My kids are not thrilled with doing homework, so that should stop too....Right??? Well sometimes we have to do things to others (or make others do) things that they are not thrilled with. There WILL come a time, I have no doubt when I will have to pick up Stewie for some reason and when that time comes I do not want to get scratched, bit, or kicked by a pissed off 15 lb. Flemish Giant! I am training him with love, pets, foot rubs and loads of yummy treats but he will be trained to be a proper young man, not a biting lunitic because I let him set the rules, my house my bunny food, my rules.

One other thing, did you say you liked chasing your rabbit around the living room? Wouldn't THAT be severly stressful for a prey animal? One thing my mini lop hated was to be chased. I'm sure some love it though.

 

[pani]

I see that Sage's mom has been banned, so I guess no real further discussion is needed... but I just wanted to note that I taught Felix that biting was an ineffective way of getting my attention by gently pressing his head to the floor. Within a week or so he learned, and since then he just nudges me with his nose, and has learned that I'll respond to him that way. He's only bitten me once since then, when I was holding him while my partner sorted out something in his play area, and he obviously wanted to get back to playing! I'm really happy with how effective that training worked, and Felix never seemed to be too bothered by it.

 

[3willowsbunny]

Just to update, Stewie is doing great, he, for the most part only nudges now, he nibbled once when I picked him up recently but I had a horrible grip on him and I would have been scared if I was him too! He is funny, when we ignore him when he is out he tries to get our attention with nudges and climbing on us. When we want to play with him, he ignores us! Silly bunny!!!