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First Registry
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Reno, NV 89506
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IT'S
ALL GREEK TO ME
LEARING YOUR PIG'S PIG-LATIN By Kathy Sperduto |
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I'm often told how easy I make training an animal look and my response to that is; "It is not hard when you speak their language". What do I mean by that? If you go to a foreign country, you will get a quicker response if you ask a question in their language rather than in English. Animals are no different, except for the fact that they don't use words. Instead animals communicate through sounds, visual actions and even smell. Now whether you know it or not, your animal has learned to read you, all you have to do is learn how to read him. If you were not around animals for a good part of your life this may take a little longer but you can do it. Just sit
back and watch your pig's every day activities. Don't limit yourself to
just your pig for this first step. Deeply observe any other animal you
may have in your house as well. You need to observe his or her reactions
to what is going on, don't leave any stone unturned. For each and every
response your pig makes look at the position of their ears and tail, whether
their hair is raised or laying flat. The next step is to relate these reactions to the situation that made them behave that way. If you have more than one pig, or a pig and another pet, your job will be a little easier, simply because you can watch them communicate with each other. Even though they are different species they still communicate with each other in basically the same way. It would be like you physically signing to a person that doesn't speak English in order to get a response. Even though you might be trying to get your point across with your hands, the person is also reading your facial expressions and the tone of your voice. He is reading your body language. The only difference with animals is that they can do it a lot faster. Come Down To Their Level The biggest mistake people make is to bring or try to bring the animal up to their level of intelligence. It is not going to happen no matter how intelligent the animal. The animal is not going to think like you or me. They are going to think like they were intended to think for survival. It is very black and white. Unlike humans, there are no shades of gray here. This is what makes our job of training a lot easier just as long as you can erase the shades of gray from your mind. Your response to an animal's action should be equally black or white, that is negative or positive. There should be no shades of gray. For example, you should not punish begging behavior one day and allow it the next. Your positive response could be a treat, a kind word or even giving them space, depending on the animal. Your negative response might be a hard sharp tone in your voice, ignoring them, or crowding their space, again depending on the animal. |
Now, there are a lot of trainers that say never use the word "NO" or any negative words. Stop and think. Animals do not have the slightest idea what negative words are or what they mean. For that matter, what any word means. They have to be taught. This would be a perfect example of trying to bring an animal up to our level of intelligence. It is the tone of your voice they are responding to, not the word. You could say, "I love you" to your pet in a harsh voice and they would look at you as if they had done something wrong. And on the same note, tell them they are bad in a happy voice and they will think they did something to please you. Whatever words you choose to add to the tone of your voice to give your negative and positive responses is your choice. Most people use the same words so that the animal will listen to more than one handler. It is also easier on the humans to stick with familiar vocabulary. There are some trainers that will purposely make up their own training vocabulary so the animal will only respond to them. This works exceptionally well when in the show ring. By using your own commands your animal will be concentrating on you and only you because he doesn't know what the other trainers are saying. To get them to understand the meaning of a word you've chosen you simply need to use body language first, then add your command word repeatedly. Do not try using the word first followed by body language. And with regards to giving commands, I know we all tend to speak to our pets in sentence form, myself included, but this is only because it is comfortable for us to do so. Please do not think your pet knows what the full sentence means, he simply understands your body language and associates it with the key words you taught him. In our eyes, it appears that they understand the full sentence. I taught my pig, Felicity, how to fetch simply by observing her body language and talking to her with mine. This is how it was done. I sat on the floor looking down with a solemn expression. I had a napkin that I threw on the floor about five feet in front of me. Quietly I observed her response to the flying object. Her curiosity made her walk toward the napkin. My response to that was to sit up straight with a happy and pleased look on my face. She looked at me, back away from the napkin, and as she backed away I immediately went into my slumped, solemn posture. She stopped, observed me and then again she walked up to the napkin, but this time she touched it. Immediately, I responded with even more enthusiasm. She looked to me, then took the napkin in her mouth and my expression was ecstatic. To make a long story short, it took about ten to fifteen minutes and she was bringing me the napkin. The entire time she was responding to just my body language. The process probably would have gone little faster if I had ears that moved and a tail. No matter
what form of training you use, a clicker, hand signal, voice commands,
they all should be applied after you've conveyed your request through
body language. It will all become second nature to you. Of course, a please
and thank you will work with any one, even your pets! |
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