With regards to ignoring food when they spot a rabbit, one important thing I've learned with Millies recall training is that she is not to have food at any other time. And if she ignores me (she's on a 30m rope as well) then she simply doesn't have that meal. Slowly but surely we're getting there - I hope 
.
If I am reading this wrong I'm sorry - but are you saying you actually skip one of her meals
or do you use the meal as training treats?
When training my two don't get fed before hand but will always get their meal after
I use half of their actual meal as training treats (they get the other half in their bowls as their meal) and then have a high value treat for recall only - if they do a 'I'll come back but when I want' they get a piece of kibble when they actually come back, as I always praise for a recall even if it's been a couple of minutes later
If they return as soon as the whistle has been blown then they get the 'High value' treat
I was really happy the other day, we were out walking in the forest and Fern went off after a deer - I blew the recall whistle - she stopped looked at me and then looked the way the deer had gone and returned to me
(she was definitely in the 'Hunt mode' she got so much praise off me along with 3 pieces of the high value treat
and then we had a game too
)
Ok tbh I think this was a fluke but I was still soooo proud of her
On the case of rabbits, books can only got so far in my opinion. Hands on experience works better in my opinion. It might well be worth investing in a day in a gun dog trainers rabbit pen. I have access to a very rabbity bit of land up in Cumbria and there I can use the dogs to find live rabbits sitting in the dry stone walls. I take the live rabbit out of the wall, tell my dog to sit next to me and then I let the rabbit bolt from my hands. I let the dog watch the rabbit exit the field and then I ask the dog to heel in the opposite direction to where the rabbit went. Then I do some fun ball retrieves etc... After doing this many times the dog becomes less excited by bolting rabbits and soon you are able to sit your dog at a distance and have a rabbit bolt from your hands and then call the dog back to you and heel etc...
I then use a long lead and allow the dog to "hunt" through a bit of rushy ground that I know will have some rabbits sitting in it (I usually do this in the corner of a field so that if the dog does give chase he can't go far). As soon as the dog finds a rabbit I pip once on my whistle which is my stop/sit command and I put my foot on the trailing long lead. This way the dog understands that he should stop and sit when he finds rabbits or any other game, but if he does get tempted into giving chase he can't because you've go the other end of the long lead. Pip again to get the dog to sit once he's calmed down a bit and then praise him. Again, repeat this as many times as you can and soon your dog becomes "steady" on live bolting game.
I hope this all makes sense!
Best wishes
Mary
Mary makes total sense to me and IMO I agree that the OP would be worth investing in a day in a gun dog trainers rabbit pen, along with the help of the gun dog trainer
(I would say it is money well spent to help deal with this and better than trying to learn from a book or off us over the internet
)
