(Not bovine related) Teaching a pig to sit!

I thought this was cute. My daughter taught her fair project, Smiley the pig, how to sit! She used those little Cutie tangerines which the pig LOVES!!! Our fair is the first week in June, I think the pig will make weight without a problem. We have no scale, but I think she is about 200 pounds...

(clapping)

Maybe she outta bust that trick out in showmanship  (lol)

LHB Farms said:

Maybe she outta bust that trick out in showmanship  (lol)

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There's got to be some way she can show it off in the first showmanship round, and not do it in the finals. That would be awesome

when I was in 4H, a pig girl on our livestock judging team had one they taught to roll over and play dead--- with the point of a finger and a BANG> 

Pigs are the smartest of all livestock- without a question.

Our fair is so little (maybe 15 pigs might show up.... the cattle show is much bigger; closer to 80 head of cattle will show up!) that she may be able to get by with it! I will have to ask her, and have her carry a cutie orange in her pocket. Or I can have one by the side and hand it to her when showmanship is over???? Sounds pretty cool. All that work teaching her pig to sit has to be shown to someone, right?  

2 things:

1, that's a freakin expensive treat!
and 2, I'm no pig guy, but thats a DAMN NICE gilt, but judging by pictures, she probably isn't quite 200, what are you aiming for as far as a finished weight? 270ish?

RankeCattleCo said:

2 things:

1, that's a freakin expensive treat!
and 2, I'm no pig guy, but thats a DAMN NICE gilt, but judging by pictures, she probably isn't quite 200, what are you aiming for as far as a finished weight? 270ish?

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Thanks! Cuties are only about $4 for a huge bag of them out here at Sams Club, and my kids eat a bag a week! That is how my daughter found out her pig liked them 

The gilt is a registered Berkshire, but we bought her for a market pig. Not a lot of options around us for pigs, and I prefer Hamps, but she was pretty cheap so we went with it. Our fair is really laid back, so we are just aiming for market weight which is 210. I want to finish her out to 260 since we are eating her  ;D  The guy that bred her shows at state fair each year with his kids and does pretty good. I am not just used to Berks!

Thanks again

Pigs love chocolate. Almost any kind of cookie would possibly sub in for the cutie.

Nice looking gilt...should really compete well. Good luck.
Our four pigs are housed at a lady's house who doesn't have any agricultural background. She absolutely loves the pigs. If one is sick or something, she is the first person to be out tending to it with a little TLC. She purchased sunscreen for them so that the sun would not effect them and she makes sure they always have some on before leaving the barn. Either way, last year she taught the pigs how to sit for marsmallows and nobody believed her until she showed us...it's amazing how smart pigs are.

I agree, she doesn't look like a 200# pig to me either. 

Most pigs will go for anything sweet.  Marshmallows usually work for us.  We have had a pig or two over the years who won't eat a certain cookie or marshmallow like the rest.  The key is to find out what they like best.      They each seem to have their own personality too.  Some we get really attached to and others.. not so much!  One year, my daughter taught her pig to free stack like our dogs do when we show them.  Somewhere I have a video of that.  She would stop and tap her pig and pig would turn around and set up and freeze.  It wasn't necessarily a good thing in the showmanship ring!