Bunny started peeing on sofa!!!!

Question
Our 8 month old lionhead lop bunny,Gremlin, has been really good using her litter tray. We may have the odd accidental poop on the carpet but up until last week she has always peed in her tray. Now all of a sudden she has started jumping on the sofa and peeing on it !  We can't work out why, her diet hasn't changed and she has the same routine as usual. She isn't doing it anywhere else just the sofa so this week the sofa has been out of bounds. Please help, it's really hard keeping her off the sofa. Also is it normal for her to like to wash my partners face, she likes to lick it all over like a dog and follows him around the house.  She is rather bigger than we thought she was going to be and got mistaken for a dog by a workman who  was very shocked when he realised she was a rabbit.

Answer
Dear Susan,

Is your bunny spayed?  It sounds as if she's marking her territory (unfortunately the couch!), and that's typical of an intact bunny.  Please read:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/spay.html

For now, you might have to simply put rubber-backed 100% cotton bath mats over the spot she's chosen to pee, or even put a litterbox there to protect the couch.  If you can block her access to the couch, that would be better, since you want to discourage her from peeing there and making it a habit.

But spaying should help the situation.  I'd find a rabbit-savvy vet ASAP:

http://www.rabbit.org/vets

and schedule that promptly. Then you can use this to help re-train her litterbox habits:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/training.html

Hope this helps.

Dana