So my name is Jenna. I live in Canada and I am an animal trainer, and have been training all kinds of animals since I was really young. Training animals is something that has always clicked with me. It feels more intuitive to me than anything else, and I often learn as I go when working with my pets. I love animals of all kinds and have been told I've always been exceptionally patient (particularly with animals!) I love creativity, unique ideas, and I usually have a knack for crafting and making things. I believe every animal is intelligent and has potential to learn much more than they are given credit for. My goal with all my animals is to teach them as much as I possibly can to show people this potential that is so often overlooked. Animals really are much more intelligent than they get credit for, they just need someone to help them reach that potential. :)

As we progressed in our training, and his trick repertoire grew substantially, I swear he picked up new things faster than a border collie. His last new trick that he ever learned involved flipping up a hoop and going through; he didn't know any tricks that were too similar to this, but I only had to lure him once with a treat to show him what to do. After that, he was doing it all by himself without any further guidance from me. The speed at which he picked that up even surprised me. My other guinea pig, Ceico, who is still with me now, is pretty smart and typically picks up new things fairly quickly in comparison to other guinea pigs, and it took him 3-4 sessions to learn the same trick.
Spartan was truly the most amazing animal I have ever met in my life, and a true trick piggy. Watching him do all his tricks mesmerized me, thinking up new things to teach him was a blast, and watching the videos I put together of his tricks amazed me all over again, even though I was there every step of every trick he ever learned. Most of the tricks I taught Spartan were unique; there were not many other guinea pigs that knew tricks at the time, and even watching trick videos of dogs did not help much, as there are really not very many dog tricks that guinea pigs can learn due to their extreme differences in physical abilities. A lot of the trick ideas I tested out with Spartan were things that I had no idea how he would respond to, or whether or not he would even physically be capable of doing them. He always took on every challenge I could throw at him though, no matter how big or small, even though it was new to both him and me.
My goal for Spartan was always for him to learn 100 tricks; as time passed, I thought he would actually reach it. Unfortunately, by the time his 4 short years were up, his repertoire totaled at 50+. Still impressive, but he had so much potential still..... Another 2 years and I'm sure he would have reached it though. He really was getting closer, and I just knew he would be able to do it. I think his purpose in life was more to teach me though. I'm sure if I had the same knowledge and experience when I started working with him as I have now, he would have been able to learn way more. I was still very new to animal training when I got Spartan, he was with me as I learned everything and taught me nearly everything I know up to this point. It is honestly heartbreaking to know he's gone.... He was such an incredible piggy who I miss immensely. Words really can't describe the feeling....
I unfortunately never got the chance to record and put together a full video of all his tricks though. I was actually in the process of reviewing everything he had learned so we could make a video of it, but that is when he passed away..... I am forever grateful to have had Spartan in my life though. He was my little angel and was so special to me in so many ways. Even with all the tricks he learned, I think I still learned way more from him than he did from me. Working with Spartan showed me that guinea pigs are much smarter than they are given credit for and are capable of learning amazing things, besides super simple tricks people regularly teach them. Believe me, they definitely can learn pretty complex "wow factor" behaviours that are just truly amazing. :) And now that Spartan has shown me what is possible, I will be sure to keep reaching for the impossible....
Below-- A couple of Spartan's most recent tricks he learned before he passed away.....
Anyway, I'm sorry for that insanely long write up about Spartan.... I know that could have been a blog post all on its own. I could honestly write a book about Spartan. I have so much to say about my boy. Especially because I miss him so much still. But there is still one more piggy I haven't yet introduced....

Ceico is a bit more nervous about noises and such than Spartan was (we are working on that :) but he has still developed a decent repertoire of tricks to date, about 35-40+ tricks approximately. Despite this, he seems to be more confident with agility courses than tricks. He seems to enjoy the courses more too, sometimes he doesn't even want to stop, lol. :)
Ceico has helped me to learn so much more about training guinea pigs, as he needed a different approach than Spartan for nearly everything I taught him. His learning style is so different from the other 2 piggies I've had, and it definitely made me more aware of how different animals (whether they are the same species or not) can require totally different approaches for the same trick. Ceico has really helped me to recognize many things and "balance" me out so to speak, in terms of adapting to working with 2 guinea pigs of totally opposite personalities. I wouldn't consider him more difficult or challenging to work with though, but it was very much different than what I was used to. I still love my little piggy, though, and although he picked up a few of Spartan's "silly habits" he knows when he is not supposed to be doing something. (you should see his guilty look when he's chewing something he's not supposed to. Lol :P)
Anyway, if you read through this whole super long monster post, congrats. :) I hope you liked reading a bit about us! 'Til next time, have fun training with your piggy!
~Jenna and the piggies. :)
GuineaPigTricks.com