VIDEO: Family training rabbits to hop in competition

Training a rabbit to hop competitively is harder than it sounds.

Rabbits may hop instinctively, said Joan Knoebel of La Porte City, but trying to get one to follow a course and jump over obstacles of varying heights is another story altogether.

“Rabbits like to zigzag, they don't hop in a straight line,” Knoebel said.

Over the last year, however, Knoebel, her daughter, Cassandra Brustkern, 8, and nephew, Bradley Ryan, 11, have trained or are training some two dozen rabbits first to walk on a leash with a harness and then to follow a straight jumping course, hopping over poles stacked from one to five high or higher.

Once Brustkern and Ryan got used to getting their rabbits to hop, they started teaching others, going to schools and 4-H meetings to get other kids interested in the event as well. Rabbit hopping is now an event at the Black Hawk County Fair, going on now, and Brustkern and Ryan will compete against other 4-H members at noon Saturday.

Training initially begins with getting the rabbits accustomed to the leash and to being lead. The rabbit is then gradually taught to follow the trainer's lead and stay on course.

Eventually the rabbit is introduced to the obstacles.

Ryan said he likes the rabbit hopping competition more than showing because he gets to work with his rabbits more.

“They're not just in a cage looking good, we get to interact with them more,” he said.

“You get to actually spend time with your rabbits,” Brustkern said. “It's fun to just let them out and work with them.”

The humans have learned about as much as the rabbits: It's against the rules to nudge a rabbit with your foot if he won't hop over the bars. The person on lead must stand or run to the side of the course, not in the course behind the rabbit.

And you have to be careful about who your rabbit is competing against.

“We've learned not to do bucks and does together,” Knoebel said, “because the bucks get really stupid when there are does around.”

Rabbit hopping as a competition started in Sweden in the 1970s and is growing in popularity in both Europe and the United States. Knoebel said most of the American popularity comes on the east and west coasts, but that she is working with a friend in Colorado to bring the sport to the Midwest.