You may be wanting to train your rabbit to understand and obey voice commands. This can be useful and enrich the lives of both indoor and outdoor bunnies. Besides, training your bunnies is a great way to bond with them!
But where do you even start?
Fortunately, learning how to teach your rabbit to come when called is what this post is all about. So read on for all the tips, hints and tricks available to you as you begin or continue to train your bunny!
Knowing That Rabbits Have Great Hearing Will Be Key As You Train Them
How To Teach Your Rabbit To Come: The Basics
Before you start training your bunny, there are three important components that you must be familiar with.
- Rabbit’s Sense of Hearing
As Louisiana State University explains, rabbits’ ears are able to pick up sounds between 360 hertz to 42,000 hertz. This is a much wider range than that of humans and makes sense as rabbits are natural prey animals and must be able to hear all sounds of potential dangers.
- Rabbit’s Feeling of Safety
As prey animals, rabbits are naturally timid and easily spooked. This is why it is important to realize how critical a safe and comfortable environment is for them during training.
- Rabbit’s Love For Treats
A bunnies normal and healthy diet consists of high fiber hay, quality pellets, and a small amount of natural green, veggie or fruit treats. While rabbit’s digestive systems cannot properly digest lots of sweeter treats, they love them!
These three facts will be foundational when learning how to call a bunny to come to you.
Their sensitive sense of hearing will help them learn to associate different sounds you make (aka words) with a desired command, while feeling calm in their environment will ensure your rabbit bonds with you and associates your proximity with safety.
If rabbits feel threatened or scared for any reason, they will not be able to learn. Finally, knowing that rabbits love treats can help you coax your rabbit into training and learning with the help of a healthy sweet food.
How To Call A Rabbit To You
Calling a rabbit to you is not impossible, it simply takes patience and a good relationship with your bunny. The most important thing to realize when training and working with your rabbit are that:
- Rabbits are NOT dogs and their abilities shouldn’t be confused with those of man’s best friend! Don’t expect your rabbit to learn endless commands or complicated tricks.
- Rabbits are natural prey animals and will only work with individuals they feel completely safe and bonded to. Bond with your rabbit by always being friendly, calm and gentle. If you harm or yell at your bunnies they will learn to fear you, run from you, and will never feel safe.
How To Teach Your Rabbit To Come To You
So, the direct question of: Can you train a rabbit to come when called? And if so, how to teach your rabbit to come when called are two topics this section will address.
Rabbits can learn to come when called because they are intelligent animals that can learn to associate a command phrase with an action and a reward.
- So the first step is to pick out their favorite natural treat to work with, such as small bits of carrots, kiwi, or strawberries.
- Next, pick a short word, such as ‘come’ or ‘come here’ as the key phrase.
Note: Choosing a whole sentence, or anything more than a few syllables, will be harder for you bunny to remember.
- Then, place yourself and your rabbit in a safe environment. This means free of background noises, chatter, or other animal sounds. This will relax your rabbit; feel free to hold and pet them for a while to further relax and calm them.
- When ready, take a treat and hold it in front of your rabbit while saying the key phrase in a light tone. Give the treat immediately to your bunny after the phrase.
- Continue this practice of immediate reward after saying the phrase in front of your rabbit. A few hours later or the next day, repeat this process placing yourself just a bit in front of your rabbit so that they have to walk to you to get the treat after you say the phrase.
Slowly, over about a week or so, you will be able to be across the room or in another room and your rabbit will come to you when they hear the command phrase. Be sure to reward your rabbit with a little bit of treat every time they come!
Once your rabbit has this command down, you can slowly substitute lots of petting and light scratching for some treats so that your rabbit isn’t ingesting a lot of sugar; your bunny will continue to come when called and bond with you.
Do Rabbits Answer To Their Name
With time and training, your rabbit will associate events with different sounds. Training a bunny to respond to their name is simply teaching them to associate specific command phrases (sounds/names) with good things (treats and/or petting).
How To Teach Your Rabbit Its Name
Teaching your rabbit its name is as simple as following the process outlined above for teaching your bunny to come to you while using their name is the key phrase!
With long term use your rabbit will realize that hearing the sound of their name results in a joyful experience of a treat or a bonding experience with lots of petting and they will make their way to you as soon as possible when hearing it!
How To Teach A Rabbit Not To Do Something
If you want to discourage your rabbit from doing some action, you can train them to stop doing it. However, when training your rabbit to stop doing something you must be very aware and careful to:
- Not Raise Your Voice
As discussed, rabbits have great hearing and as natural prey animals, they are easily spooked by loud and sudden noises. If you raise your voice, shout, or otherwise verbally reprimand your rabbit they will follow their prey instincts and run from you.
- Not Harm Your Rabbit
Never harm your rabbit. Rabbits will immediately associate you and the surroundings with danger and will do their best to avoid you at all costs.
These two mistakes will break all trust with your bunny and they will no longer feel safe and calm around you. Note that, as with other animals and humans, it is much harder to win back trust once it’s lost than to build initial trust.
How To Teach Your Rabbit No
To teach your rabbit no you must work with physical but gentle removal or displacement of your rabbit and verbal commands. All physical movement must remain gentle and calm, no sudden or harsh movements!
In the moment that your rabbit is in a place or doing an action that you want to discourage, say ‘no’ in a low tone and gently pick up and remove your rabbit from that place.
Alternatively, you can say ‘no’ and gently pick up and hold (but do not pet) your rabbit for a few seconds.
When you place your bunny back down, do so in a different place. Not necessarily a different room or new location, simply away from the object or location you want to discourage them from using.
Be patient with your bunny. It is very important to remember that rabbits are not like dogs or other highly trainable animals. They are natural prey animals that must feel comfortable and safe and learn through constant repetition.
Frequently Asked Questions Related To How To Call A Rabbit To Come To You
How Do You Talk To A Rabbit?
Speak to your bunny in gentle, normal tones. Never shout or yell as this will spook your rabbit and result in fear and anxiety. You can lower your tone for a more stern approach but should keep the majority of your communications light.
What Noise Do You Make To Call A Rabbit?
The specific word you choose to call your bunny is up to you, we recommend their name or a simple 1-2 syllable key phrase. Complex words or phrases can be impossible to learn well and your rabbit is likely to become confused with them.
How To Get A Rabbit To Come To You?
You cannot force a rabbit to come to you. You must train and teach your rabbit from a base of trust and patience. Only then will a rabbit learn to associate words to actions and results and come to you when called.
A great video – on topic – by Lennon The Bunny!
Final Thoughts on How To Train a Rabbit
When training your rabbits it is important to remember to use calm words and tones, as rabbits’ sense of hearing is strong. Simply raise your tone or lower your tone in a calm voice as needed for positive and negative commands.
For the deep dive on Rabbit Hearing you can click here: Rabbit Hearing How Do Rabbits Hear?
We never suggest treating bunnies like other highly trainable animals such as dogs and must emphasize the use of natural, fruit or veggie treats during rabbit training.
Finally, remember that rabbits are naturally timid animals that must feel safe and bonded with their owner in order to listen and learn commands. Dedicated time and patience training your bunny will result in deeper bonds and enjoyable times together!