My wife and I both grew up on a farm, and when we raised our kids, we wanted them to learn the responsibilities involved in raising animals. Since most of our adult life we lived in town, we chose rabbits. They can be raised in town, and they are relatively cheap to raise.
We were also in 4H, and I was the rabbit chairman and leader for the entire county. We raised our rabbits , both 4H shows and the regular rabbit show circuit.
Showing rabbits take a lot of work. There is a lot of grooming and training involved. You would think that you wouldn’t have to train a rabbit, but you do.
Training involves posing the rabbit in the “perfect” position for show, and spending enough time doing so, that they stay put for a long enough time for the Judge to look them over. And they have to stay put through all kinds of distraction around them. When you show a rabbit you place them on a carpet square, pose them, and then set back and wait for the judge to make a decision.
One year, we were invited to bring our rabbits to a middle school carnival (inside) to show the students. We brought several different breeds. We were there to answer questions about rabbits, which was a very fun thing for me to do.
I set up two carpet squares. On one I posed a Florida White rabbit—pure white, small, and very cute.
On the second carpet square, I posed a Dutch Rabbit—one of those that are white with a black band around their body and some on their face.
Both of these rabbits were used to being posed for the judges. I got the Florida White in perfect position and then turned to the Dutch.
Dutch have a very unique characteristic about them. If you turn them on their back with their feet sticking straight up in the air, they will stay in that position for a long time. The more comfortable they are being showed (the normal way) the longer they will stay in the upside down position.
After posing them I just waited. One boy I’m guessing 5th/6th grade range, came over and looked at the two rabbits. A minute or two later he came back and looked at them again. I noticed that every little bit he would look over at them and see if they were still posed that way.
Eventually, he came back over and asked me “how did you get them to stay that way?”
I just couldn’t resist—I said “Velcro.” He just said “Oh” and walked away. I’m sure to this day, he really thought I had Velcroed those rabbits. I know—me bad. LOL