Here’s Willy Wonka, the pot-bellied pig that I wrote about in yesterday’s post. He was such a smarty and caught on to clicker training so fast. He had clicker training and targeting mastered in about five minutes flat!
I started with a short session introducing him to the sound of the clicker and then clicking while he was standing in front of me or turning his head away, to start to show him that he’d get treats for things other than sniffing me and mugging me for treats. Then, we jumped straight into target training. We did three short sessions with the target, each about a minute or two. By the end, he totally understood the game.
I’m hoping that this summer I’ll have some time to visit the sanctuary some more with my friend who volunteers there. I had a lot of fun and would love to get to do some more pig training. Training is not only great for teaching useful behaviors, it’s also great enrichment and “mental exercise,” especially for a smart and social critter, like a pig.
Watch on YouTube: Willy Wonka Learns to Target