Crosspost: How do I keep rabbits out of my garden?

I have a fence but they squeeze through. Now they've taken up residence under my garden cottage. Last spring and summer they ravaged everything. I had an electronic owl. They were probably laughing at it. I put up extra netting around special areas but they figured out how to get under or over. UGH.
I am willing to get a cat but the cat may not like rabbits. My dog (toy poodle) caught one last year and all he wanted to do was sniff it. We've already seen signs of their activity. Please help me!

I don't have a full season on it yet, to confirm its effectiveness, but I put an electric fence around my garden, with one wire 3 inches off the ground, a second at 6 inches off the ground and a third at 30" (for the deer). So far, no squirrel, rabbit or deer damage.

I don't like to hurt the rabbits so I have used exclusion tactics with good success. I have a 6 foot wood fence, but they would go under it, so here is what I did. I used chicken wire that was bent into a large "L" shape. Then, I put the bottom of the L along the ground beside the fence, and the upright part of the L against the fence. I affixed the upright part to the fence (wood) with a staple gun. You could use other methods. The bottom part of the L can either be placed underneath the sod (just lift it and slide under) or on top of the sod, but underneath is better. This is because when the rabbit starts to dig, to get under the fence, it can't dig through the wire. It can dig a little bit into the grass, but then it hits the wire and it can't go further. The thing with this tactic is you have to make a big L. You can't make it just a few inches away from the fence - that isn't far enough. I would suggest at least a foot away from the fence. If you have a neighbor there, they probably won't mind but ask them first. It takes some effort to get this set up, but it's effective for years because the chicken wire is galvanized or whatever, so it doesn't rust away. The trickiest part is the gates, because you can't use this tactic there otherwise you would not be able to open the gates. I kept the gates as low to the ground as possible, and then used a rubber sweep along the bottom. I also planted lots of things that rabbits don't like near the gates, such as lavender and perennial salvias. They seem to dislike highly aromatic things like that (similar to deer in my area).

Best of luck.
Claire

Electric fence doesn't hurt any animal. The shock is mild and gives them the message that this area is not something they want to deal with. I have never seen a wild animal approach an electric fence twice, but I have seen them attempt burrowing over and over again.

The only problem with electric fence is whether your community allows it, which many don't. Like mine. :-(

Not sure how big your garden is, but you might consider simply protecting individual plantings with row covers or netting....a real pain to do, but the only thing I've found that actually works!