PigWatch? Yes, DogWatch Hidden Fences Work for Pet Pigs, Too!

March 1st is National Pig Day, so we’re celebrating our many wonderful pig customers. That’s right – DogWatch Hidden Fences work for pet pigs, too! We reached out to several DogWatch Dealers across the country and internationally to learn about their most memorable porcine customers. Enjoy! 

Snooki-Doodle

Back in 2012, Kirk Nielsen of DogWatch of Santa Barbara worked with a family who needed help keeping their hungry pet pig Snooki-Doodle away from certain areas of their property, including a koi pond, vegetable garden and a tree truck littered with acorns. Kirk says that training pigs is not as challenging as it might seem, as pigs are “extremely intelligent” and fast-learning animals. Kirk writes that Snooki-Doodle now “trots around her property with her four-legged friends – two Great Danes, one Chihuahua, and one Labrador Retriever, who are also trained on the hidden fence. How cool is that?!”

Veruca and Pistachio

Bob Leed of DogWatch of Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania installed a DogWatch Hidden Fence at the home of David & Denise Kreitzer in 2014 to keep the family’s two pot-bellied pigs, Veruca and Pistachio, on their property. The family’s Border Collie used the fence, so they were familiar with the system. When their two pet pigs started wandering into a neighbor’s yard and digging up their grass, Bob was called in to help.

Luckily for him, Veruca and Pistachio had already been trained to walk on a leash, which made training easier. To train the pigs, Bob used DogWatch’s extra large collars to fit their wide necks, and used double the amount of flags to create a heavy visual border. He began work with the pigs using sound alerts only, then after two days transitioned to the correction. Like Kirk, Bob reports that pigs took to the fence quickly. The wandering and digging behavior has stopped, and Veruca and Pistachio are happy and safe in their yard.

Wilbur

In November 2020, our DogWatch Dealer in Fort Wayne, Indiana helped a young pet pig named Wilbur enjoy his backyard safely with a new Hidden Fence. Here is a quick video of our trainer James teaching Wilbur his boundaries.

Penny

After almost 15 years of installing fences for dogs and cats, Jack Goetz, owner/operator of DogWatch of Greater Pittsburgh, and sales rep/trainer Susan Albers had the opportunity to train their first porcine customer – a pot bellied pig named Penny. In August 2016, Jack and Susan helped customers Jim and Sheila of Moon Township, PA train Penny to their existing fence that their Golden Doodle Honey has been on for the past two years.

“The most difficult part was getting her harness on,” says Jack. “She did really well on the fence and was learning to back away from the perimeter after about 20 minutes. They can be stubborn as well, had to let her go about things her way. Guess that’s where “pig-headed” comes from.” Jack said he really enjoyed the opportunity to broaden his horizons, and was delighted to help Penny run free with her canine best bud Honey.

Percy

Most of our pig customers are tiny, however, compared to Percy. Percy is a 500-plus pound pig that uses a DogWatch Hidden Fence to safely roam around Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre in Napanee, Ontario, Canada. Percy came to the Centre as a piglet, and has been using the DogWatch Hidden Fence since 2012. Centre Founder and Director Sue Meech said she needed only about five minutes of training with Percy for him to learn the boundaries. She “put food in a bucket and shook it,” and he caught on right away!

Due to his ample size, Percy wears a special collar that is actually two large collars connected together with one receiver. Keith Bailey of DogWatch of Southeastern Ontario re-installed the fence – used by Percy and four rescue dogs that also live on the property –  in 2014 after some construction required it to be relocated. While there, he snapped this great photo of Sue, Percy and another Centre resident. Enjoy your freedom, Percy, and best wishes to the staff, volunteers, and all of the animals at Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre!

And pigs aren’t the only farm animals that can use DogWatch Hidden Fences! Jan van de Camp of Dogtra Holland, DogWatch’s dealer in the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern Germany, has trained goats, sheep and even deer to use DogWatch products. Ernie Roy of DogWatch of New Hampshire adapted one of DogWatch’s Indoor Boundaries to help protect a family’s chickens from the family’s dog. To learn more about these creative uses of DogWatch products, check out this previous blog post.

If you have questions about how DogWatch Hidden Fences can help your pigs and other pets, please contact your local DogWatch dealer. DogWatch loves helping pets of all shapes and sizes stay happy and healthy while enjoying the freedom of the outdoors!

Cover Photo by David Clode on Unsplash