Thanks to Don for writing last week’s blog. Besides filling in from time to time, Don is my second set of eyes and sounding board on pretty well every blog.
Don’s message that we need to treat people and pigs differently than we treat things is an important one.
Many of our daily activities follow the laws of physics:
- The more we hurry the sooner we’re done
- The more force we apply the farther and faster things move.
Sports-related skills typically reinforce these perceptions while honing our reflexes, competitiveness, and drive to dominate “the other”.
All of these work against us when we are moving pigs.
While it is the physical bodies of pigs that we want to move, it is in fact pigs’ mental and emotional components: their attention and their need for safety and survival that dictate whether and where pigs want to move.
Attention:
This week we’ll look at the influence of pigs’ attention. Next week we’ll look at the same clip from the stand point of herd behaviour.
Video:
Prior to the start of the clip hogs were moved forward some 20-30 feet / 7-10 m to wait for the gate to open. (This is important re: herd behaviour)
The clip started with Handler #1 to the left of our view waiting to open the gate and Handler #2 behind the hogs waiting to move them out of the pen.
Notice how:
- Hogs’ attention and body direction followed Handler #1 as she moved from left to right across the front of the pen.
- Front hogs, now crosswise, created a barrier preventing other hogs from leaving the pen when Handler #2 started flagging from behind
- Hogs shifted and pointed more forward when Handler #2 moved to (our) left side of the pen
Hogs shift their bodies to keep track of handlers
Notice that hogs shifted and oriented themselves to keep track of both handlers. Many handlers who think only in terms of pigs’ Flight Zones, fail to even notice what pigs are paying attention to and the influence it is having. They create handling problems by sticking to a very rigid chase -from – behind approach.
Next week we’ll talk about the handlers’ actions during and prior to this clip in terms of pigs’ herd behaviour.
Summary:
Pigs want to keep track of all the people around them whether those people are actively involved in moving the pigs or not. When pigs can’t see us, they’ll hold still and listen for us. Even a conversation held well out of pigs’ view can stop pig movement. (People in critical roles such as animal welfare auditors need to be excruciatingly aware of this).
The position, noise, and activity of all people in the work space draw pigs’ attention, influence their orientation, and affect whether and where pigs can go.
The more scared pigs are, the more closely they track us.
You can see related articles on the blog site www.lowstresspighandling.com . Click on the “Categories” tab in the top right corner and scroll to “pigs’ attention”.
That’s it for this week.
Take care
Source: DNL Farms Ltd.