DANTAisms

Whole breakfasts can be made out of them. Yet there is a disconnect between the farm and the table. Sausage, milk, scrambled eggs and bacon all come from farm animals. According to the Human Society of the United States ninety-five percent of all the animals with whom humans interact with are animals that are used for meat, eggs and milk. Today September 16^th starts National Farm Animal Awareness Week (NFAAW).

The third week of September has been traditionally NFAAW, which was first started by the Human Society in 1993. It was created to direct attention on the harsh conditions and growing animal welfare concerns associated with factory farms. To find out more about factory farms, I am sure a quick online search will give you more than enough information to turn you vegetarian or vegan. I, on the other hand, want to use this column to talk about training farm animals and how I learned how intelligent they are.

In the critter companion world I believe it is common knowledge that pigs are smart. Many years ago I was able to train two Berkshire pigs starting when they were piglets. Berkshire pigs are a rare breed of pig that was first produced in the county of Berkshire, England. They are said to be one of Britain’s oldest pig breeds dating back to the 18^th century.

We acquired Dwight and Jim, I am a huge fan of the television show ‘The Office’, when they were around 30 pounds each. They were around a month old and within 180 days they gained an incredible 210 pounds. Which means once they are born they can gain over a pound a day! Usually they are butchered at this time, but the facility I was at was going to keep them until they lived out their comfortable life in their comfortable barn.

We fed them standard piglet chow, found at all major farm feed stores and for treats …they were quite picky.  They were not the biggest fan of vegetables or fruit, but we did find that they enjoyed “Fruit at the Bottom Yogurt”. With the yogurt we mixed Cheerios to increase the volume of our treats. This allowed for longer training sessions. In addition to the food, they also seemed to enjoy rub downs. This was where I could give them a lot of scratches on their head and neck and they would freeze as if they were in a state of nirvana.

We started by training them how to target. This was done by adding a tennis ball to the end of a PVC tube. Every time they touched the ball they received a spoonful of yogurt. Soon we increased the time required for them to target to the ball before their delicious snack was delivered. Training sessions become very messy, very quickly. Pigs salivate often when creamy, sweet yogurt is involved.

After they were trained to target, we were able to train them to spin to the right, turn to the left, stand inside a hula-hoop on the ground and jump (walk really, they were 200 pounds) through the hoop. The nice thing about it was that anyone could hold the target pole and they would follow it. This allowed us to talk to visitors about animal training and show them how to move an over 200 pound pig from one stall to the pasture back to a holding area on their own will. No coercion necessary. They were doing it all voluntarily.

Another group of farm animals I was able to train was four sheep. We trained them to perform the same behaviors as the pigs, in addition to giving kisses and jumping over hurdles, just like a dog in obedience class. Having a sheep put its muzzle on your cheek or forehead was precious.

The best comment I heard over and over again from guests was that they were so impressed by the training that the farm animals were exhibiting. Many times they would say that these animals were better trained than their own critter companions at home. This week I hope you celebrate farm animals who display not only intelligence but affection.  They’re more than breakfast.