The instinct to run after a loose rabbit is strong and almost always wrong. Rabbits are prey animals with a hair-trigger flight response, and a large shape bearing down on them at speed triggers exactly the panic that sends them squeezing under sheds and through hedges. Worse, every failed grab teaches the rabbit that hands mean danger, so the next attempt starts from further away. The rabbit loose in a garden is usually not trying to leave — he is grazing, exploring and startled. Your first job is to make the garden safe, then make yourself boring, then let curiosity and appetite do the catching.
First, make the garden a closed box
Before anything else, move slowly — not after the rabbit, but around the boundary. Close the side gate, block the gap under the fence, shut the shed door he could slip behind, and bring any dog or cat indoors. Walk the fence line once at a normal pace, checking for the hole he found or the one he is about to find. A rabbit contained in one garden is a rabbit you will catch today; a rabbit who slips into the next garden becomes a neighbourhood search. Only once the exits are sealed does the actual capture begin, and it begins with you sitting down.
Get low, get quiet, get patient
Sit or crouch at ground level a few metres from where he is grazing, side-on rather than facing him directly, and let several minutes pass without moving towards him. Nervous rabbits watch a still human and visibly relax — ears come forward, the body unfreezes, grazing resumes. Scatter a line of his favourite herbs or a few pellets between him and you, with the richest pile beside you, and let him work his way along it at his own speed. Rustling the bag his treats live in is often the single most effective sound you own, because it means food and has never once meant being grabbed.
Build a funnel, not a chase
If he will not come close enough to lift, herd him with barriers instead of bodies. An exercise pen, a line of boards, or two helpers holding a sheet low to the ground can form a gentle funnel leading into his open carrier or back into his run, with hay and herbs waiting inside. Everyone moves at walking pace, from the outside in, and nobody lunges — a lunge resets the whole exercise. Work him towards a corner or the pen in small stages, pausing whenever he settles. Once he steps into the carrier, close it calmly and let him eat before you move him anywhere.
Afterwards, and if he is still out at dusk
Check him over for cuts, thorns and torn nails once he is secure, offer water and hay, and let him decompress in his own space before handling him further. If he is still loose as light fades, do not give up — rabbits are most active at dusk and often return to a familiar run or hutch left open with food inside, so set that trap with his own bedding and check it quietly and often. Help makes the difference on a long evening: KinsLe's Circle of Love links you with nearby pet lovers who can take up quiet watching posts around the garden, so a rabbit who moves at dusk is spotted instead of lost.