The sloooooow track

For you Buffy fans out there, we're happy to report that our slow track strategy is going quite well - we're now spending long sessions (movie-length!) downstairs as a furry family together, with the bunnies in their pen and Buffy relaxed in the room off-leash. We've graduated from 'treating' her continuously while downstairs, to treating her initially and periodically, and then treating her only when we first get downstairs and then when it's time to stand up and go upstairs together. Sometimes we'll give her a treat that she can savor for a while, like a dental bone or a frozen marrow bone, but she seems to have learned at this point that downstairs time is for laying down and optimum relaaaaaaxation. In that state, she gets nice pets, massages, and tasty treats.

Buff chillin' in the den - the bunnies' pen is off to the right

 

Buffy HAS developed an occasional taste for the wayward bunny poop nugget that is flung from the pen, and if she's feeling especially snacky she'll cruise about for a bit looking for morsels (she also likes a strand of hay now and then). She won't consistently listen to me when I call her away from her doody patrol, which means that I'm not 100% in control at all times downstairs. As such, I still feel there's work to do before we have the bunnies released when Buffy is in the room, even when she's starting in a down-stay and on-leash. She rarely even pays attention to the rabbits, but we are still cautious. We are strategizing a next step, with Buffy on-leash, being treated while in a down-stay (we still put the leash on her downstairs occasionally just so she's still used to it) and with the bunnies allowed to emerge from the pen. We'll keep you all posted!

 

Buffy's diet is also going well, and she has now been transitioned to high-quality food via slowly reduced portions. We're keeping her treats nutritious and relatively "micro" as well.

In other fuzz family news, LaFeet still detests being groomed, Athena loves strewing strands from her trough of hay, and Buffy is busy friending all of the neighborhood doggies.