Cosette and the IQ Toy
I was talking with a new friend who trains horses. He spoke about the importance of understanding your horse and how that should affect the way that you train it. He said that some horses liked repetition, and will happily repeat a skill until they get it right. Other horses get bored with repetition, get antsy, and then misbehave. For those, training must be interspersed with variety and challenges. I had to laugh to myself, because the same can be said for bunnies. One of my bunnies, Chubasco, was a quick study, but learned through repetition. Cosette, on the other hand, is easily bored and distracted. Any training attempts must be made via NEW and EXCITING opportunities. With that in mind, we purchase this toy from Dr. Fosters.
It actually comes with three options: one where the rabbits lifts off the little tops, one where the rabbit slides the tops around to reveal the holes, and one where the rabbit pushes a knob to shift a piece of plastic and reveal a hole. We really appreciate that it comes with multiple options, increasing the longevity of use. The entire toy can be taken apart and cleaned - helpful when banana is smeared all over it. Our first attempts with this toy took place in the inside enclosure so the bunnies were more focused. The results were hilarious and very consistent with their personalities. Tonto tried hard, and was able to find half the pieces of banana before losing interest and begging to be pet.
Our first attempts with this toy took place in the inside enclosure so the bunnies were more focused. The results were hilarious and very consistent with their personalities. Tonto tried hard, and was able to find half the pieces of banana before losing interest and begging to be pet. Spring acted uninterested and spent her entire time trying to get US to put our hands on the toy and do it with her. She clearly was most interested in hanging out with us. Cosette smelled around and quickly assessed what needed to be done to acquire the precious banana. She nosed or pulled all of them off quickly. We decided to limit round 2 to Cosette and make it harder by taking her outside. As you can see in the picture below, her surroundings provided limitless temptation and most of her time was spent exploring.
Once we finally had her in front of the toy, she focused long enough to remove several pieces. She seemed to prefer the shoving method this time, resisting the effort it took to actually pick up the blue piece with her teeth. Ha ha. that's typical Cosette.
Next time we will try the sliding option and do it inside where there are less distractions. Either way, we can see that this is a good option for keeping bunnies like Cosette, busy and happy.
