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How to Teach Your Guinea Pig 21 Fun and Easy Tricks!

10/12/2017

There are so many fun and creative tricks you can teach your guinea pig to improve the bond between the two of you and enrich your piggy's life. Some are ideal beginner friendly tricks, such as circle, paws up, or pushing a ball around. There are also some that require a bit more time and practice, but are so much fun to teach, such as basketball, weaving through your legs as you walk, waving their paw, and playing fetch like a dog. The video below shows some examples of what you can teach your guinea pig with a little bit of patience (and lots of veggies!)

All the tutorials shown above can be found on this website (guineapigtricks.com) with detailed step by step instructions and training tips for each trick. The tricks under the Starting Tricks tab are best for beginners, with more trick tutorials like basketball and weave walking also available once your piggy masters the basics. Below is a list of all the tutorials in the video above. Click the links to visit each trick tutorial page and see more information about that particular trick.

Tricks can range from as simple as putting their front paws up on a low object, to more challenging tricks like shooting hoops.

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How to Teach a Guinea Pig to Weave Poles

10/4/2017

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Weaving around poles is a fun and flashy trick for all types of animals. Weave poles are a great addition to an agility course for guinea pigs, or as a stand alone trick. Weaving is usually not the easiest trick to teach though, so it is best to start an agility course simply with some different types of jumps and tunnels before thinking about adding any weave poles or A-frame type of obstacles. Check out the video below for some tricks and tips for teaching the weave poles.

As mentioned above, weaving isn't the quickest or easiest trick to teach, and it does involve patience and repetition to get to the final result. You will likely be working on the weave poles for a couple weeks at least. If you want to make the obstacle a little bit easier, you can teach your guinea pig to go through the poles just once (instead of going down and back) or you can use fewer poles for your finished trick.

It is important that you don't reward the guinea pig at the same pole every time. Sometimes guinea pigs will try to anticipate where they will get a treat, and try to skip other poles so they can get to the "treat pole" faster. If your guinea pig gets certain "sticky spots" where they always try to skip the same pole every time, try to catch them before they run past the pole, and lure and reward at that spot every time until they are better at weaving through that particular spot.

I find that plastic drinking cups work great for this trick (plus, you can stack them for storage when you're done.) I used a set of green jello cups (shown above) in the video, but anything similar works great for this trick.

For more information on teaching this trick, check out the weave poles trick tutorial page.

Thanks for reading!

www.GuineaPigTricks.com

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How to Teach a Guinea Pig to Go Through a Tunnel on Cue

10/1/2017

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The video below demonstrates how to teach your guinea pig to run through tunnels in a step by step process. Tunnels can be as basic as a short open tunnel, to longer tunnels that even bend and twist in different directions. Once your piggy has mastered the open tunnels, you can also use a bit of fleece or fabric to make a tunnel that is collapsed on one end, and teach your guinea pig to go through a closed tunnel. Open tunnels (of all shapes and sizes) and closed tunnels both make great additions to an agility course if you choose to teach your piggy agility at some point as well.

Tunnels are one of the most popular agility obstacles for all types of animals. They are often a fun obstacle for people and animals alike, and tunnels are typically pretty easy to teach as well. Along with jumps, tunnels are one of the best beginner obstacles to start with if you're going to be teaching agility to your guinea pig.

Agility courses provide great exercise and mental stimulation for guinea pigs. The first steps to getting started with guinea pig agility is teaching all the obstacles individually. Open and closed tunnels, as well as jumps, are great to use together when you start to set up your guinea pig's very first agility courses.

You can find some great tunnels to use for this trick at pet stores, online at Amazon, or even just by using your creative side and scavenging around your house. Anything that is 5" or bigger in diameter (and safe for the piggies) can be used as a tunnel for guinea pigs. Small boxes with the bottom cut open work great, and they are super cheap and easy to use.

For more tips on teaching this trick, check out the Tunnels Trick Tutorial page. You can also check out the Agility section for more information about getting started with guinea pig agility courses.

Thanks for reading!

www.guineapigtricks.com

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How to Teach Your Guinea Pig 21 Fun and Easy Tricks!

How to Teach a Guinea Pig to Weave Poles

How to Teach a Guinea Pig to Go Through a Tunnel on Cue

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