Litter Trained

Question
Hi,

My rabbit is about 3 to 4 months old and she is litter trained. Whenever she need to go, she have always run to her litter box even when we are not home. However, a month ago she started to jump on top of the sofa and start pooping and peeing on it(She still go to the little box somtimes). I haev tried yelling "NO", put her poop in her little box, and sometimes picking her up and putting her back on the floor after she poops. Nothing seems to work. She is a house rabbit and we never put her in  her cage. We let her run around the house even when we are not home. Do you have any suggestions how we can stop her from doing it on the sofa? We are taking her to get spayed next week. Not sure how much that is going to help.

Answer
Dear Phil,

You're taking the right first step by having her spayed.  Once she has a chance to recover, you can help her restore her once good litterbox habits with the tips here:

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

But in the meantime, cover the problem areas of the couch with a plastic carpet runner from Home Depot and some 100% cotton bath mats (Marshall's usually has lots of inexpensive ones in many colors) to protect the couch while the re-training takes place.

Good luck!

Dana