***EDIT, some sort of glitch happened with the photo upload, photos 2 and 4 do not correspond to their caption, it's not even a photo I meant to upload 🤔 anyways, don't think reddit will let me fix this, at least that I know of****

Hello I've been working on bonding my two rabbits for the past month and a half or so things have been going very well but unfortunately last night there was a bit of a kerfuffle. I'm very bad at keeping things short and a part of me feels the need to give all of the context of how thing have been going so fi you want, you can skip to the end where I describe the fight and my questions

Context

Béatrice :

• my first rabbit I've had her for 4 years
• sterilized
• free roams
• Friendly and curious
• Takes a while to trust people and accept pets. Despite this she will always come see people when they visit and nudge their legs
• curious about the new rabbit, taking her time to warm up

Émile :

new rabbit sterilized under one years old Friendly, curious and affectionate, loves pets. Since introduction has been begging for Béatrice's affection

TIMLINE

Two week quarantine in seperate rooms. I was surprised by how little Béatrice was upset from being barred from the bedroom, she usually stops about if I have visitors and I guve them my bedroom and they close the door on her. She's used to having access everyqhere but the washroom introduction : a friend's house a few blocks down. It went well, Émile humped her which surprised me becaue Béatrice can be quite bossy. They loafed together. I walked them back home in the same carrier.

• week 1 :
  • Living side by side.
  • I divided my large bedroom in two using an X-pen to make a double wall.
  • Did a few play dates in the bathtub and then the bathroom floor. Émile constantly tried to get Beatrice to groom him, put he's not pushy about it. Makes himself small and lowers his head and waits. As of date two Béatrice started grooming him given enough time. As of date three she was sneaking small bites in, I only know because I saw him flinch. I try to pet then for most of these dates and when I see Béatrice starting to sneak bites I get in the way.
• Weeks 2+3 :
  • I began alternating what side of the bedroom they lived on every other day. On their last bathroom date I sensed they were feeling trapped in such a small space and perhaps the agression was coming from feeling pressured from the small space, I decided to move them to an x-pen in the livingroom which had been cleaned from Béatrice's scent the best I could. I then realized I would have to cover every x-pen panel with cardboard because, Béatrice would be immediately pissed by the sight of the x-pen and spend the whole date agressivly trying to break it, alarming Émile. Once I covered up metal grids, things seem to settle down again they spent a lot of time just kind of ignoring one another eating at opposite ends. I had a litter box set up in corner and a box of hay in the other and then a few small niches they can somewhat go hide in but I can still see them. I try to end a real third date on a positive note or a neutral note. Despite the progress post moving them to the living room Beatrice would still occasionally sneak a little bite while grooming Émile. Again I'd often be petting both of them and trying to get in the way when I noticed this behaviour starting. In the last you play dates Émile started grooming Béatrice in return. They would swap grooming rolls within minutes of each other. Béatrice seemed to like being groomed, wouldn't try to nip him. I think at this point it's a struggle for dominance because once Béatrice goes to groom Émile after he stops she will still sneak in a small bite here and there. It's ironic because Beatrice doesn't lower her head and ask to be groomed. Émile just started this on his own. She also doesn't melt the same way he does when she grooms him. She's relaxed, but eyes stay opened. The last few dates lasted upwards of an hour, most of it spent ignoring one another or mirroring.

THE FIGHT: – Feeling like things were stagnating I decided to switch things up and do their next playdate in a new space : the hallway. It's a bit larger than their usual space. I hadn't realized the biggest issue was the length. The X-pen being more of a square made it easy to reach them no matter where I sat. So when the fight broke out it was harder to intervene. I don't know how much they actually bit one another. I didn't see any blood or injuries, just a lot of chasing. I sprayed them with water to get them to stop. Despite my best efforts this repeated twice more. I didn't want to end the play date on the negative so I then position myself next to Beatrice who had put herself in a corner and I just petted which woul get her to lie down and stopbnovibg around the space while Émile was at the other end of the hallway grooming himself. I would occasionally swap between the two of them but just make sure I was always really close to one of them to be better able to track their movements and also actively petting them to have them move around less so that it was easier to intervene. I did this for about another 15-20 minutes until one of them would approach the other which I was petting and then I would pet both of them and they didn't really interact they would get their noses close for a second I could see one of them move too fast and the other fliinch scared another fight might start I suppose. I wasn't too sure if this was enough of a positive note to end on so I decided to scoop them up and bring them to the bathtub. In their past bathtub playdates I always layed out a towel. This time I did not. I want to get this done quickly and I just wanted it to be a 2 minute thing and then I'd bring them back to their separate spaces. I put them down on the glossy surface of the bathtub having heard of this being a thing that people do for stress bonding. I've done a bit of stress bonding but I'm really hesitant towards it because it feels a little cruel. So anything I've done that might be considered stress bonding I tried to makenit comfortable (towel in the bathtub) and short (short walk in the carrier, which I jad dome twice). I don't think I would put them in the bathtub without a towel again. Both rabbits were highly stressed by it and Émile teeth were chattering so much so that I could hear it. I pet them both in the bathtub for a few minutes, they stayed close to one another and then individually I brought them back to their separate spaces in the bedroom. Looking back, I probably should have ended their date in the hallway after having pet them while they kept their distance for the last 15 minutes.

MAIN QUESTIONS :

• How to proceed? Do I have to take a break for a few days? Am I restarting the bonding from zero? Do I have to reset their playdate zone to neutral and clean everything up all over again.
• With the context given of how the bonding had been going prior to this incident and how I felt like things were stagnating, what would you have done to help progress the bonding ? What else could I have done in the case of Beatrice biting while grooming ?
• Should I be doing a bit more stress bonding between the play dates? And by that I mean putting them in the carrier and going for a small walk as opposed to the bathtub because I felt like the bathtub was far too stressful on both of them.

Thank you all in advanced!