In every pig group, when someone asks what to do about a “bossy” or “aggressive” pig, someone invariably pipes up with “show him/her who’s boss” and “Move the Pig”. The problem with this strategy is that it doesn’t make you the “boss”. Let me explain why.
Dominance is an ethological term to describe who has priority access to resources. In many animal species, dominance is fluid, based on the individual’s attraction to the particular resource at that moment. This is why you may see a conflict at a small water trough sometimes; more than one pig is thirsty and only one can use the water at a time so they may squabble for priority access, whereas at other times they don’t. When we keep animals so they can only access limited resources, there is more conflict than there would be if they were in a free-ranging situation. This is increased even more when the resources are extra high value, like grains and tasty treats. Another thing domestic pigs have to contend with, that their feral counterparts don’t, is who they live with. Many species of animals kept in captivity who live in human-contrived groups show a marked and unusual amount of aggression. Particularly notable are wolves, as the entire concept of an “alpha wolf” is based on a flawed study of a composite wolf pack. Feral or wild female pigs live in small family groups, the males are mostly solitary, though they will meet in over abundant feed conditions and when breeding.
“Move the Pig” is a technique where the pig is taught to move away from people. It uses negative reinforcement (adding something to the environment that the pig wishes to avoid) to get the pig to move away from you. It is suggested that you use your body to achieve this.
Pigs are very tactile creatures, they love to be touched and to touch each other, they frequently snuggle and hang out touching each other.
If the pig does not move away it might be because they don’t really mind you coming and crowding them, or maybe they have learned that standing their ground has been successful for getting space before when they have felt nervous or uncomfortable. You then need to escalate the situation to make your presence more aversive for the pig.
This is where the story turns into a pick-a-path depending on the pig’s learning history, the pig’s fears, the pig’s personality, the person’s learning history, the person’s fears, the person’s timing, their ability to read the pig, and their own personality! Hence why the author of the “method” says it doesn’t work for everyone.
Say the pig is very defensive and the person does not feel comfortable escalating the pressure on the pig, this teaches the pig to react in an aggressive-defensive way when it feels conflict. This is quite the opposite of what we want, we want our pig to be calm in our presence.
Pigs, as prey animals, will move into pressure when they feel cornered. When pigs have a conflict between conspecifics (members of their species) they generally push at each other and squeal, sometimes biting. This is not at all the kind of behaviour we want them to use towards us!
Instead of getting into conflicts and antagonising our pigs, we can teach them how to perform the behaviours we like by using positive reinforcement. Target training in which the pig is taught, in little steps, to orient their nose to touch an object, can be used to move animals around or to stay in one place. Standing on a mat or another “station” when asked. If the pig has a history of behaving aggressively, training should be done from behind a fence!
Look out for the second part of this blog, which will focus on how to teach these things to your piggies. 🙂