Teaching to Dunk?

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This topic has 2sd replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 9 months ago by pinknfwuffy.

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- 07/21/2016 at 5:39 PM
  pinknfwuffy
  Participant
  660 posts
  I know this may sound silly, but does anyone have experience teaching a rabbit to “play basketball” or “dunk” (i.e. place a ball or object in a container)? I have been clicker training Olaf and he’s been really quick to catch on. Spin and jump are solidly part of his repertoire. I just can’t seem to figure out a strategy to get him to place something into a container. I’ve seen plenty of videos with rabbits doing this task but never any instruction.
  
  My first thought was to try touch training with a small plastic cat ball. It has openings in it so he can pick it up. Every time I point and he touches it or picks it up, I plan to offer a treat to associate the ball with good behavior. If it matters, he loves to put toys and food in his water bowl so he’s a pro already but I certainly don’t want to reinforce that behavior. :] I realize this will be a multi-step training process but I’m not sure what those steps should be so they build upon themselves for the final trick.
  
  Any tips? Thank you! (The cat ball will also only be used during training as I know it is not safe to leave in his cage.)
- 07/21/2016 at 8:54 PM
  Betsy
  Participant
  37 posts
  LOL!
  
  My rabbit Vega used to do this and it would drive me nuts – mostly because she especially liked to put her toys in the water.
  
  She’d either end up covering the water bowl with an empty food bowl, or inevitably put a wooden painted toy in the water and stain the water
  a strange color.
  
  We were at least her 3rd set of humans, so if she was trained to do it it was at least 2 humans ago – but I think she just did it for fun.
- 07/22/2016 at 7:28 AM
  pinknfwuffy
  Participant
  660 posts
  Ha! Too cute. I think it’s instinctual or they fling some things in there by accident and just keep doing it, much to our dismay.
  
  Olaf drops his carrot in his water bowl and looks at me absolutely perplexed as to how to retrieve it. I also came home to lime green water when he put a new toy in there that had leached out all its dye. o.O
  
  I’ve seen videos of rabbits placing balls in bowls and stacking plastic plates. Just looking for some fun new things to teach him so he’ll use his noodle and not get bored.
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