Deb:What was I going to do with Freckles? She was once again digging under the couch and seemed quite determined to excavate her hole. Telling her “no” had done no good. She’d stop for a moment and then return to her scratching at the carpet. I thought about squirting her with water. I’d heard that worked quite well for training cats.
Freckles handles frustration in a very direct way. When she doesn’t like something, she lets us know by thumping her foot. The action is so fast that, even when you’re watching her, you can’t always see the foot move. She’ll thump when she doesn’t like the food on her plate. She’ll thump when the door to her room isn’t open and she wants to come out. She thumped a lot when a friend stopped by with her little dog in tow. The dog’s curiosity and quick movements annoyed Freckles and she thumped (and grunted also -- more about grunting in a future post!)
On the off chance that I had discovered a way to reach Freckles and convey my own frustration at her behavior, I raised my foot and slammed my shoe onto the floor, creating quite an impressive “THUMP,” if I do say so myself.
Freckles handles frustration in a very direct way. When she doesn’t like something, she lets us know by thumping her foot. The action is so fast that, even when you’re watching her, you can’t always see the foot move. She’ll thump when she doesn’t like the food on her plate. She’ll thump when the door to her room isn’t open and she wants to come out. She thumped a lot when a friend stopped by with her little dog in tow. The dog’s curiosity and quick movements annoyed Freckles and she thumped (and grunted also -- more about grunting in a future post!)
On the off chance that I had discovered a way to reach Freckles and convey my own frustration at her behavior, I raised my foot and slammed my shoe onto the floor, creating quite an impressive “THUMP,” if I do say so myself.
3 comments:
ahh, thumping. Lucy thumped last night when I was stringing Halloween lights and they were clanging around loudly. And both my girls thump, sweetly enough, if I start to cry. Even before I start -- they pick up on my anxiety and it freaks them out!
I can hardly wait to hear whether this works any better than any of your other attempts to corral Freckle's behavior. I wonder if it would work with kids?
I've distracted my Betsy girl by "thumping" on the edge of my couch, which makes a very similar sound. It gets her attention, and sometimes she thumps back.
My other bun, Gus, though, is the grunter. He grunts when he's not happy, or when he's really excited (like when it's treats time in the morning).
I personally think a grunting rabbit is the funniest thing in the world, but that's just me.
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