Hi all
I’m new to the forum and I’ve come seeking advice on my mean little bunny.
My husband and I have a Netherlands dwarf mix. She is neutered and we’ve had her since 3 months (she’s now 4 yrs old)
She is not caged. Although we do have a cage for her-but we leave the door open and she litter trained herself to hop back in to do her business.
She was very skittish as a baby and at first only liked me and slowly warmed up to my husband.
But now she’s our little snuggle bean. She loves being held by us, snuggles up in my armpit in bed, gives me kisses on my nose and nudges my feet to get attention.
Sounds great, right?
But in recent months I have been noticing more and more that while she is our ‘little snuggle bean’, to others she’s mean, aggressive, lunges, snorts and scratches
And all 4 lbs of her scares the living daylights out of people.
When we left her with my inlaws while we went on our honeymoon last year they gave us a very bad report on our little bun.
We chalked it up to her being in an unfamiliar place and being scared.
But last month my mother stayed at our house while we were away for a night and she said that our little bun was completely unapproachable
She walked over to her and said “hi Stringbean” in a soft voice and started to kneel down to her level and she lunged and scratched at her.
Ok, we weren’t home-maybe she was confused and upset wondering who we had left her with
But lastnight I witnessed it myself with my girlfriend.
I was right there with her and my little bun actually jumped at her snorting and showing teeth.
When Stringbean misbehaves with me (which is rare), I pick her up and calm her down.
It helps that I’m also not afraid of this 4lb fur ball. I guess that reminds her of who’s boss. Whereas friends and family who are met with her aggression jump back in fear of her-which seems to let her know that what she’s doing is working and she’s maintaining her dominance.
That doesn’t work with me, and she knows it.
I guess my question is-what can I do?
She only lives with my husband and I, but eventually we’d like to add a dog to our home. I can imagine it now-getting a dog twice her size and she’ll end up being the dominant mean one.
We also have a vacation planned for mid June and plan to leave her with my inlaws again…who are actually scared of her at this point.
No one wants to be around her when they come over bc they all think she’s some blood thirsty Cujo rabbit.
She’s 4 lbs! How anything that weighs so little can be such a big fright to others is beyond me.
I guess it’s easy for me to say though since I don’t put up with her crap
Anyways, I’d appreciate any suggestions and input from everyone.
I’m open to anything at this point. I want others to see that she really is a sweet little bun-she just needs some time to warm up. But after the first lunge, everyone is in fear of her