How to Train Your Guinea Pig

Guinea pigs are somewhat stubborn. However, the right guinea pigs with the right trainers can go far in training. It's just like training a hard to train dog at most, but with others it can be almost like training a Border Collie. The rest are more like training an average dog. It is not impossible to train guinea pigs - it just takes time, patience, and most importantly a strong bond with her/him and loving care and it will pay off.Step1

Establish a strong bond with this guinea pig. You will need it in order for this all to work well. This can take a little while but it's worth it. Unless you have one of those miracle "Border Collie Guinea Pigs", it will be difficult, if not impossible, to train her without a strong bond. Think of it as a piece of rope and you're going mountain climbing. Would you want a weak rope or a strong rope? Go with the strong rope. It's like this with guinea pigs too. Weak ropes will demolish faster than strong ropes.

 

Start off with the three important basic commands: wait (stay), no, and back up (come forward you also may want to teach). Not only will these commands help with training, they may very well save your guinea pig's life.

Method 1 of 5: Train the command "wait", or "stay"

 

Choose which command you want to use.

 

Set your guinea pig down on a cleared empty table. Start arranging things onto the table; for example, some igloos or food bags. Does she start moving and running around? If she does, gently pick her up, place her back to the correct spot, and say the command. Then get back to work.

 

Repeat this same process until she does not move while you are arranging things on the table. It is fine for her to squeak or sniff, you can't stop that, just don't let her move her legs. When she knows this correctly and fluently, just say the command before you arrange stuff on a table. She will get the hang of it eventually.
Method 2 of 5: Train the command "no"

 

When she does something wrong just tell her "no". DO NOT change your mind afterwards! Animals learn from our behavior. So do not laugh at it, no matter how much you want to. Save the giggles for other times. If you laugh at the same time you say no, the animal will learn the trick and will do it just to make you happy. Eventually she'll catch on to this.

 

If she comes forward too early during training or something like that, just say "back up" and gently push her backwards. Once you've taught "stay/wait" it should be relatively easy to teach this.
Method 4 of 5: Build upon the basic training
Hopefully by now your piggie's learned all of the above commands. Now you and your piggie are ready to take the giant splash into the wild and wonderful world of training! Remember though, that your piggy will need your support throughout her training career, even if she is one of those "Border Collies of the guinea pig world"

 

Start off relatively easy. Once she knows the three basic commands, she can pretty much do it all, but it's best not to teach a novice training piggie to do something as complicated as, let's say, an agility course. Start out with something a bit hard and a bit easy, like climbing up the stairs.

• Place the pig up on the bottom step and kneel down beside her. Don't let her turn her head to the side.

• Gently push on her rump to go to the next step. If she doesn't go up, place her front feet on the top of the step so she is standing on her hind legs like a person would. Now try pushing her. She should go up.

Repeat this process a few times daily until she will jump up all by herself. Works best with carpet stairs and guinea pigs older than six months. 

Method 5 of 5: Determining Personalities

Determine your guinea pig's personality type. While teaching your guinea pig to go up stairs, you should have somewhat of an idea what her style of training is. If she learns to jump up stairs quickly, then congratulations, you just may have a Border Collie of the guinea pig world. If she is stubborn about going up the stairs, turns her head to the side, and doesn't even try to go up, you do not have a dumb guinea pig it might just need some time. You will need to modify these steps to you and your guinea pig's needs. Remember, not all guinea pigs are alike. Every guinea pig can be trained, whether you want to spend the time training is another story.

Tips

1. When she for sure knows the trick completely, do it two more times. Then reward her with treat and few minutes of play time.
2. Make sure that the guinea pig gets the treat right after he does a trick or he won't understand what he did to get one.
3. Abyssinian guinea pigs are very active guinea pigs and are wonderful for training. They are smart and easily catch onto things.
4. Luckily for trainers, most piggies are food motivated. This means that food can get them to do most tricks. However, to avoid weight gain, gradually decrease the food your piggy gets as a reward. At first, use food. Then as she gets better, decrease the food slowly. When she has learned the trick fluently, simply just reward her with a pet, a cuddle, or even a phrase like "Good Girl!"
5. You truly must want to do this. Just a brush up here and there will not work. If you want your piggie to be a well trained one, you must work with her daily. Once she has learned one trick well, move on to another, but at the end of the session be sure to brush up on each learned trick to be sure she doesn't forget it.
6. Before you teach your guinea pigs any tricks, you should teach them basic commands that may help her in so many ways along the way, not only possibly save her life. The three basic commands are; wait (also stay),back up, and no.
7. Give her a rest! They will need at least an hour of rest between training sessions, which should be around 45 minutes long.
8. Any guinea pig can be trained with patience.
9. Give your guinea pig a treat each time they get this right but not too much, as they will only do it for food.

Warnings

• Be aware that guinea pigs' legs and back are very fragile. The legs can easily break.

• Do not apply too much force when teaching your guinea pig the 'play dead' trick as some guinea pigs do not like being on their backs.

• Do not harm the guinea pig. This includes forcing them to do something they don't want to do, or feeding them so much they get fat.