Bonding With Your Pig
Socializing a mini pig all starts the day you bring your pig home. The first thing you are going to want to do is to pick you pig up but I am here to tell you do NOT do that. Pigs do not like to be picked up, doesn't mean you won't pick your pig up, but first you need to bond with your pig. To do this be calm and just sit on the floor while you let your pig wander around the area you are in (this is after you have let your pig get accustomed to her new environment in her pen or crate). Make sure you have baby gated off the other rooms so your pig can't wander all over the house. Have treats and calmly just drop them around you, some farther away from you some next to you. Let your pig approach you to eat the treats but don't instantly reach out and try to pet your pig yet. Repeat this a couple of times until your pig seems to be getting a little more comfortable with you. Once your pig seems comfortable and comes all the way up to your body for treats, slowly start trying to rub the sides of your pig. Do not reach over your pig like you would pet a dog. This will terrify your pig. Slowly reach your hand to rub the side of her belly. If your pig runs away that is okay, put out more treats and repeat the process. Eventually your pig will let you pet her. Repeat this as much as needed until your pig is perfectly fine being touched by you. This could happen almost instantly, or it could take hours, or days of sitting on the ground with your pig. Go at your pig's pace. Once you can love on your pig sitting on the ground then you can pick your pig up. First watch this video from Life With a Mini Pig, here, to understand how to pick up your pig properly. When you first pick up your pig, she is going to scream louder and more high pitched then you ever imagined. But DO NOT PUT YOUR PIG DOWN. If you put your pig down while she is screaming you are teaching her that if she screams when she doesn't like something she will get out of it, such as being held. Hold your pig close to your body, have a blanket wrapped around your pig for comfort, and just let them scream it out. I will warn you, it is an intense squeal where your pig is going to make you feel like they are dying. But they aren't, actually they are perfectly fine. Once your pig stops squealing keep holding for 20-30 seconds then put your pig down. At this point let your pig be do not immediately try to pick her back up, but continue to pick her up throughout the day. But let her come to you, do not chase her around and pick her up. This will make a negative associating with being picked up. Getting your pig comfortable being held is key to socializing and very important. It will help with many tasks such as loading your pig up into a car (while you can still lift them), vet visits, if you have to pick your pig up for safety reason, and many more. It is also a very important part of bonding with your pig because it is building trust. So continue to do floor time with your pig and picking them up randomly as your pig grows up. This will only strengthen the bond and trust your pig has for humans. I pick Winnie up randomly throughout the day but I spend more time on the ground with her letting her come and cuddle up on me, between my legs. This has really helped our bond.
Socializing with Family
Family members all need to do floor time bonding with your pig and pick your pig up as well. It is VERY important and key for herd status that your family is involved with your pig and it is not just you. If it is solely you interacting and bonding with your pig then as your pig grows up she will have no respect for family members and could potentially show aggression to them by exhibiting her natural herd instincts to be above them. They need to interact with her and get her to trust them too. So everyone in the family needs to spend time sitting on the floor with your new baby, putting treats around them, and letting her take her time to get comfortable with them. Each member of the family needs to do this, because every new person is scary to a baby pig at first. They also need to pick her up at least once a day, hold her through her tantrum, and reward her with verbal praise for being calm and quiet. Getting your family involved is key to having a happy life with your pig.
Socializing via Herd Status
After your pig has become comfortable with you and your family members, it is time to start establishing herd status. I will be making a post all about how to establish yourself as the herd leader in the future and you can find that post here. Please read that post as I will go into more depth about this extremely important, if not the most important topic when it comes to owning a mini pig, than I do here. You, your family members, and your guests need to make sure your pig understands you all are above her in the "herd." You can do this using multiple techniques but these are the ones I have found that work the best. The first thing you want to do daily and multiple times throughout the day with your pig is a technique called Move the Pig. The American Mini Pig Association has an article on Move the Pig which you can find here. Basically you want to make your pig move throughout the day. Stomp your feet, walk into your pig's personal space, and make them move out of your way. Do this while they are sleeping in a bed, standing there, eating, anything. Make them move. It may sound mean but it is what the leader does in the wild and it is the most effective way to establish that you are above your pig. Your entire family needs to partake in move the pig, I cannot stress this enough. You do not want a pig that grows up and starts trying to challenge your husband or your kids. They need to do move the pig with her. The second most important part of raising a well-socialized happy pig is to train your pig. Sit, come, stay, spin, back, leave it, and the list goes on and on. Do training with your pig! Not only does this establish your role in the herd but it also helps you have an obedient pig. An obedient pig is a happy pig! Make sure part of that training is your pig understanding what "no" means because as they grow and start testing their boundaries they will need to know the word "no" means stop doing what you are doing. Another thing you need to do to have a well socialized pig is to set boundaries in your home for what is okay and not okay. I go more into depth in my herd status post so please read that!
Harness and Leash Socializing
After you have built quite a good bond with your pig and it's clear your pig trusts you, the next step before you can start taking your pig out in public is harness and leash training. Watch this video from Charming Mini Pigs, here, on how to put a harness on your mini pig. You can use a dog harness on your baby pig but I really recommend buying an A-Style Harness for your pig. These are specifically made for pigs and trust me, coming from someone who has used both, a pig harness is 10000x easier than a dog harness and more comfortable for your pig. You can order an awesome one from PigGear.Com. Once you have the harness on your pig, treat them so they associate it as being a positive thing, then put treats on the ground for them to eat to distract them while you clip on the leash. Pigs do not like anything forceful or stressful on their backs, its their prey instinct, so a leash can be a little scary. Let your pig drag the leash around for a little bit rewarding with treats good behavior with the leash on such as walking around comfortably. Once your pig seems comfortable pick up the leash and call your pig to you, using come or your pig's name, as they run to you praise them and give them a treat. Repeat over and over and over again. Then once you have mastered that and your pig seems to be walking fine on harness and leash try it outside. Repeat giving treats for coming to you and coming back to you when called due to them pulling. Your pig is smart and will start to understand how to walk properly. This could take no time at all, it could take days, or weeks. The more you practice the faster it will go. Winnie wears her harness anytime we go out of the house, anytime we are training even inside the house, and whenever we go into stores, my work, etc. She has started to associate her harness as positive because it either means that we are going on an adventure or training, which means treats. Once you feel you have walking on a leash and harness down, you are ready to start public socializing work.
Public Socializing
My goal for Winnie is to be a therapy pig, visit schools, daycare programs, college campuses, etc. So I have strived to make sure she is getting the proper socialization she needs to be comfortable going into these public settings where she will be the center of attention. I will not start any therapy work with her until: one, she is spayed, and two I feel confident in her that she is not going to spook, try to bite anyone out of fear, or squeal the entire time. So I started public socializing with Winnie as soon as I could and it is paying off!
Take your pig into pet friendly, and pig friendly stores, and let them explore on leash. You are going to get a lot of attention, let me just warn you now. But I did not let anyone bombard Winnie, rush up to her, reach down and pet her, none of that. The most important thing to remember when you are out in public with your pig is that you have to advocate for them, you are their voice. So I made sure people let Winnie have her space because she is brand new to socializing and anyone approaching quickly and in her space will scare her making it a negative experience. The first trips I just let Winnie socialize herself by sniffing the new territory, walking on her leash, and passing people that we walked by. I gave Winnie treats when people walked by or stopped to talk to us to start associating people approaching as a positive thing. This helped her start to get more comfortable with other people and not run from them when she was near an unfamiliar person. As she started getting more comfortable just walking around stores I started to expand the socialization and started letting people pet Winnie, but ONLY while I was holding her. I also clearly instructed them how to pet her; pet her on her sides do not reach over her head or near her face. I held her properly and let people pet her on the sides of her stomach and Winnie behaved perfectly. When they were done petting her I put her down and gave her a treat to make it a positive experience. This can be a controversial matter because some people will say don't give your pig a treat every time a stranger pets her because she will start demanding it, but I do. With that said, Winnie only gets a treat when a random STRANGER pets her, not one of my friends, family members, someone visiting our house etc. She only gets one out in public, when she lets a stranger pet her, and behaves wonderfully, no squealing, no whining grunt, just patiently lets me hold her while they pet her. This is step 1 to socializing in public. Winnie and I are still on step 1 but slowly moving to step 2 which is letting someone reach into her stroller and pet her on her sides, without me holding her. I will not move onto this step until Winnie is very comfortable in her stroller, and she needs more outings in her stroller first.
I will update with Step 2 once we get there to let you know step by step the process I took for allowing Winnie to let people pet her in while she was in her stroller! Step 3 is letting people pet her while she is in harness and leash on the ground!
Socializing with Friends and Guests
This is an extremely important step when it comes to socializing your pig. If you have a pig who does not let you have guests over you will not be happy with your pig and your pig will not be happy. There are two different situations Winnie has been in with new people that I know personally. One is at my job and one is in my home. Regardless, every person I personally know has sat on the floor with Winnie and treats and let her approach them and get comfortable. I have had clients at work do this and with repetition and more people doing this with Winnie she is warming up much faster than she once was. Just remember don't force your pig to be pet by someone or loved on by someone, let them go at their own pace. Winnie had met a client of mine one time before but the client sat on the floor, let Winnie sniff her, put treats on the floor around her, and let Winnie get comfortable. The second time Winnie met her after a sitting on the floor introduction Winnie let the client pet all over her and even rolled over for belly rubs.
That is how I socialized Winnie with people I know but I don't know very well. With people I know well I have them sit on the floor with her, but also I have them do Move The Pig, and a few commands with her. This is so Winnie understands all humans are above her in herd status. If you have guests over to your house here are a couple recommendations. First is, when you have guest over to your house do not give them treats to give your pig right away. This will make your pig demanding and make her think every time a guest comes over they get a treat. If they don't get a treat they will become angry and start demanding a treat which is no fun. Have your guest come in and say hi to your pig then go sit down somewhere and let your pig acclimate to them. The second is have your guests in your home partake in Move The Pig. At sometime during the visit each guests needs to make your pig move. The third is to have your guests make your pig sit for a treat. This is when your pig can get treats and will start associating guests as a positive thing, but they don't get a treat for free! They have to do a command or trick for that treat first. If you have a pig who is already aggressive the minute guests come into your home then this is not what I am talking about that is a different topic. This is only for socializing your mini pig as a baby so they grow up understanding people are good and positive and behave as a socialized pig in your home. All of my employees at work move Winnie and correct her for bad behavior. But they also spend time sitting on the floor with her, letting her get comfortable with them, and giving her treats when she earns them. Winnie has gained respect for all of them and some she even lets them hold her.
I hope this helps you on your journey to socializing your mini pig! Just remember it takes time and an obedient pig who knows rules and boundaries is always easier to socialize than a pig who marches to her own beat!
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