Breaking Bad Habits

       Bunnies, like people, develop bad habits and then find it difficult to break them. Bad habits can be impulsive behavior, aggression, chewing inappropriate items, chasing, biting, boxing, poor toileting, marking, excessive mounting, finicky eating, limited grooming and hygiene, etc. Once a bad behavior elicits a desired response, it is repeated and becomes habitual quickly. Primal instincts kick in at the slightest provocation. Bunnies being bonded may be friendly with one another one minute and chasing and grunting at each other the next. 
          How can bad habits be changed? There needs to be a shift in attitude toward stimuli. This requires tremendous focus. I am asked often why bunnies stare at one another so much instead of becoming friends straightway. The answer lies in the lack of bravery in prey animals. It takes courage to push past a standard habitual reaction and choose a new way of reacting to the same stimuli. Bunnies are not generally brave. It may appear as though a bunny who lunges and chases is brave, but it is a faux bravery based on their natural defensive reaction to a perceived threat to resources.
        By offering gentle but consistent redirection guidance, they slowly begin to associate new reactions when confronted with the same situations. So, the end result is controlling their instinctual impulses, taking risks to confront new behaviors, and adapt them into conditioned responses. In time, patterns of events lead to new habits that bring happiness and satisfaction. The amount of time it takes for this to happen directly correlates with the amount of commitment the human coach is willing to give toward guiding them to change. Change is often scary for people. Imagine being a bunny who is hard wired to fear for safety from predators every minute of every day. Bunnies do not understand the end goal of shared companionship, but human coaches do. Keep the goal in mind the next time you are tempted to lose hope in bonding.