Training Your Rabbit
Before you attempt to start rabbit jumping, your rabbit must be used to you and happy in your company. Spend time with your rabbit and make it enjoy spending time with you. Rabbits are prey animals so you have to be very
calm with them, don't shout at them and chase them around, and don't hover over them and try grabbing them. Bonding with your rabbit can take time, so be patient.
Once familiar and willing to train you should begin with simple tasks such as teaching the rabbit to answer to its name. The only reinforcement used is to be positive. Clicker training is a method that many rabbits are responsive to, a treat to reward the desired action once it has happened will also be well received, although it should be noted that a full rabbit will be less likely to meet physical demand so keep treats small and use sparingly. Shouting and physical punishment will only serve to make the rabbit fearful of you and it will result in an association to a bad experience every time that you attempt training. If you do not have the patience required to train at the pace best suited to the rabbit you are training this really isn't the sport for you. You must consider that your rabbit may not enjoy jumping or being trained full stop, DO NOT push the rabbit to do what you want against its will. You must just accept that for this rabbit it is not pleasurable and will be of no benefit to its health or welfare.
Your rabbit must also be used to wearing a harness before you start to jump. See the 'Harnesses' page for more information.
Once your rabbit is happy with you and with a harness, you can start to jump them. You will need to set up a small course of at least two jumps in an area the rabbit is familiar with. See the 'Jumps' page for information on
making jumps from household items and building real jumps like the ones in competitions. To start with, you don't want to put the bars higher than 10 cm. Some people even start with the bars just lying on the floor.
When your course is ready, put your rabbit in its harness and sit them just before the first jump. This is where you have to encourage them over if they do not go forwards naturally. To encourage them, first try gently tapping their rump or hind legs. If they don't respond, try tickling their stomach or chest, some rabbits are sensitive here and should move. Should that fail then gently lift the rabbit over the jump. If the rabbit tries to go round
the jump or go backwards on the course, take them back to their previous position. When they have finished the course, praise them, and give them a short rest. When the rabbit is ready for another go, go back to the point where you first started, otherwise the rabbit may start to complete courses then turn around and go backwards. Make sure you stay behind the rabbit when jumping; don't stand above them as they're likely to stop.
You should have short training sessions to start with and only have a few a week, so the rabbit does not get bored. When the rabbit is comfortable doing a small course of low jumps, don't increase the height of the jumps straight away, instead add more low jumps so they get used to completing a longer course. Once they're happy with this, then you can very gradually increase the height. If your rabbit is less than four months old you don't want
to strain them whilst they're still growing, so don't go much higher. By eight months old they are fine to be jumping around 50 cm.
If the rabbit is not happy with higher jumps, they are probably not 100% confident with the lower ones. Practice a lot more with the lower jumps and very slowly and gradually build up the height again. When going higher, you should put the jumps on carpet or grass so the rabbit does not hurt itself.
The important thing is to praise the rabbit, never punish.
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