The substitute target stick is a piece of chrome tubing about 16" long, with a funny piece of round black plastic attached at its end. I have no idea what colors stand out for rabbits. I hope they can see the tip of this all right.
Dorcas is still healing from a torn toenail and cannot go outside in the pen with Jemimah and Maddie for another two days until the risk of infection has completely passed. So I thought I would take part of yesterday afternoon to just sit with her alone in our Rabbit Room and try to introduce the stick. I had not carefully enough thought of everything. Dorcas was still having her beauty rest (it was only 3 pm) and couldn't be bothered. No treat would tempt her from her rest.
Later in the evening, when I had brought Jemimah and Maddie back in, I again introduced the stick. Maddie and Jemimah both touched it twice with their nose and received yoghurt berry treat rewards for it. I am wondering how long it will take them to be consistent with the stick, how much positive reinforcement it takes. I can't imagine that there was enough reinforcement yet for them to have made the connection. I think they just thought it was another occasion for getting treats. Getting the clicker will really help clarify things in training immensely.
I didn't really consider their trainability individually for a long time. I mainly was interested in training them to high jump, and high jump alone. So I considered my lively two-year-old Maddie the most likely candidate to be successful, as she likes to run and jump much more than her 5-year-old mates Dorcas and Jemimah. Next, I realized, from experience with time in the harness -- running them in harness and leading them over the little jump we have made -- that Jemimah although by far the chunkier of the two five-year-olds, was the next most trainable because she is very eager to please.
Dorcas, my darling little girl, I am afraid became labeled as the least trainable, largely because sometimes in harness she doesn't even feel like hopping. She seems to see it as an opportunity for "quality" time sometimes, not an opportunity for running and jumping.
But as I have watched videos and learned more things about the types of training that one can do with clicker training, I realize that Dorcas will have areas in which she is a champ at training too, they just may not be the same stunts that Maddie at two years will do athletically. I dearly love Dorcas and I am confident that the clicker will really improve our quality time together for many years to come.
