Help with walking my pigs

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Shellyf83
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Help with walking my pigs

Post by Shellyf83 » Mon Jul 31, 2017 11:24 am

I have 2 show pigs. Our show is in September. One weighs 130 and the other 113. They are penned separately and we walk them separately. Well we "try" to walk them. When we let them out of their pens, they are ready to go. They run and run and run. Everything I've read says after about a minute or 2 they should calm down but ours don't. Every once in a while they will calm down some and obey the whip but most of the time not. Does anyone have any suggestions on what we need to do? Thanks

oldbrickhouse
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Re: Help with walking my pigs

Post by oldbrickhouse » Mon Jul 31, 2017 2:09 pm

Pigs are still young with your show being in September. What has worked for us is have someone walk along you with a sorting board on one side while you walk the pig up along a fence of some sort on the other side. Continue this for a while and see if it helps. The person with the board needs to be on their toes with making moves as the pig will want control one side and forward. Usually, the pigs we have had in the past have grown out of what you describe with age and work.

Shellyf83
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Re: Help with walking my pigs

Post by Shellyf83 » Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:44 am

Right now we "try" to walk them in the open. We haven't gotten a pen set up. Do you think the bigger they get the less they will want to run? I'm just at a loss as I have never done this before. This is my daughters first year showing so I'm just watching videos and reading up on everything.

oldbrickhouse
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Re: Help with walking my pigs

Post by oldbrickhouse » Wed Aug 02, 2017 12:45 pm

From my experience they do mellow out as they get heavier. Some of our pigs would make the quite sprint but them calm once let out of their pens. They are still fairly lightweight. For training purposes, I do think it is best to start with a sorting board along a fence if you have a fence to guide them with. It just limits their direction. It is good you have started working with them at a young age. They can almost be trained like a pet where in the past I have had show pigs that would just follow me around the yard. One mistake people make is walking together...in the show ring you want your pig not to be dependent on his buddy being there. Also individual holding pens are good as well.

Shellyf83
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Re: Help with walking my pigs

Post by Shellyf83 » Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:31 am

my husband finally put some panels up to try and keep them contained so we can keep up with them while walking them. only one day in so far and they did really good. I know it's not going to be an over night thing to train them but we going in the right direction. We do walk them separately and they are penned separately but their pens are beside each other. thanks so much for your insight. :)

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