How to Teach a Guinea Pig to Sit Up

Guinea pigs can't do everything a dog can do, but they can easily learn some tricks like sitting up and begging. A guinea pig is very intelligent and learning a trick makes life more intersting for your pet. Your guinea pig needs to be in good health in order to handle the balancing required. Older guinea pigs (over three years old) might have trouble doing this, unless they've learned the trick when they were younger.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Young guinea pig in good health
• Treat
• Patience
• Clicker (optional)

With A Clicker

1. Bring a small clicker and several small pieces of your guinea pig's favorite treat to your guinea pig. Keep the clicker in your pocket at firist, if it's very loud. When your guinea pig looks at you, click and immediately treat. Do this several times. This is to help the guinea pig associate the sound of the clicker with a treat coming. You might have to do this for a few minutes over the course of a few days for the guinea pig to get the idea.

2. Lift a treat up over the nose of your guinea pig. The guinea pig's head should lift up to follow it. Click and reward.

3. Decide which words should be used as a command to let the guinea pig know when to sit up. It should not sound too closely to the guinea pig's name or the names of any other commands you may want to teach in the futire. "Sit up," "Beg" or "Act like a squirrel" are some suggested commands (and ones that have worked with many guinea pigs).

4. Lift the treat slowly up over the guinea pig's nose about an inch, saying your command. The guinea pig should stretch up further and eventually sit up. Click and reward.

5. Now just hold the treat at the high spot and say your command. The guinea pig should pop up or try to. Click and reward.

6. After your guinea pig has gotten the hang of that, just say your command and the guinea pig shoud sit up. Be sure to give a huge reward!

Without a Clicker

7. Bring an object the guinea pig has never seen before but would like to nibble, such as a card, a piece of paper or a new treat.

8. Keep the object on the ground until the guinea pig comes over to investigate.

9. Very slowly lift the object to just over the guinea pig's nose. If the guinea pig runs away, hold still until the curious guinea pig eventually comes back for another sniff.

10. Slowly lift up, so the gunea pig is stretching for the object or treat. Lift a little bit behind the guinea pig's nose so it's easier for the guinea pig to follow the object by sitting up, rather than by turning around on all fours. This takes some practice and lots of patience.

11. When the guinea pig sits up, give the object and a treat.

12. During the next training session, when you have your coordination worked out a bit as to how high and how fast to lift the object for your guinea pig, bring a treat like a baby carrot and a command.

13. Repeat steps 1 to 5, repeating the command when lifting the treat. Over weeks (or even days) they get the idea that when you say the command, they sit up and then get a treat.

Tips & Warnings

• All guinea pigs learn at their own speed. Some will get it right away and some will take ages.
• Keep the training sessions only a few minutes long a couple of times a day. Guinea pigs have short attention spans.
• Don't make a guinea pig do this trick if she is pregnant.
• Don't yell or use a loud voice with your guinea pig. This scares them.
• Never hit your guinea pig.

Resources

• Clicker Training for Your Small Pet

[derbyka]

on 6/30/2008 I've been looking for something to do with my guinea pig, I'll have to try this!