There is an appalling lack of knowledge out there regarding "the bond market"
You are not helping matters much here.
You have not discussed yield versus loss of NAV
You have not discussed GoC versus corporate,US Treasuries or high yield
You have not addressed duration,or laddered bond funds.
You have not clarified how groups of bonds are bundled into a ETF.
You have not discussed inflation adjusted bonds.
You make no reference to the (widely available) "forecast" for GoC bonds,US Treasuries etc etc
You have not discussed the "antidote" to bonds in a rising rate environment;resetting preferred shares. 
(PPL.A just as an example up 25% in the past 8 months)
Perhaps most importantly you have not alluded to how "bond like equities" (T,EMA,BCE,ENB etc) carrying a 4-5% yield will tend to trade in sync with the bond market itself.They are all down in the past 6 months...just as most bond funds are.