A Review: The past two blogs showed examples where the handler paused for a very few seconds at doorways and corners and gave sows time and space. Willingness to allow that brief pause is often all it takes to keeping pigs moving.
The standing back isn’t about a laissez-faire attitude: about letting pigs lollygag along and take their own sweet time. Sometimes all pigs need is a chance to check back and reassure themselves it is safe to shift their attention away from us so they can move forward comfortably and confidently. Pausing (at about :16 in the video) is a tool that can help us maintain movement.
The diagram included in many pig handling courses is often interpreted to mean that pausing will make pigs stop (as per Points A and B in the diagram). Many handlers don’t understand that appropriate pauses and release of pressure can aid pig movement.
Source: TQA Version 3
In a future blog I’ll deal with when and how to pressure animals that hesitate, but today I want to discuss the effects of physical touch on pig and human responses.
The principles apply through all categories of pigs. I’ll use sow examples this week and show how pig size influences responses to handlers’ touch at a future date.
HAND CONTACT WITH PIGS.
The previous diagram shows the concept of a pig’s flight zone. It can’t be taken as a factual representation of the size of pigs’ flight zones. You also need to understand that:
- The size of each pig’s flight zone constantly changes as we work with them
- As with other forms of pressure, we have to give pigs release from our physical touch
- If we are close enough to touch an animal we are close enough to make it stop moving, especially if we use continuous contact and don’t give it release from our pressure.
The nature of physical contact is critical and tends to reflect the confidence, expectations, and state of mind of the handler. These have a huge affect on pigs’ responses.
Positive contact:
This handler’s contact was typical of someone who is comfortable and confident with moving sows.
Negative contact:
The intensity, frequency, and pushiness of contact on the last sow in this group is fairly typical of handlers who:
- Believe they have to “make sows move” and that contact improves movement
- Expect and are trying to prevent problems
Pigs’ responses are shaped by events prior to the contact:
In this next clip, the last sow’s attention was back – towards the handler (see previous two blogs for details) and her initial response was to stop and lean back into his hand contact before she moved off. If hand contact had started as she entered the hallway, there’s a good chance this sow would have shut down and totally quit moving long before she got to this point.
Handlers often intensify contact unconsciously when moving sows. The same applies to other tools and other categories of pigs.
If they don’t make a conscious, deliberate choice to limit contact and give pigs space, many handlers fall into a problem-creating cycle. We’ll use sows for our example:
- We start with a gentle, occasional tap
- We stay close enough to the sow to maintain contact and without any deliberate decision to do so, our contact becomes automatic, repetitive, and continuous
- We don’t let the sow move away and she can’t get any release so she slows down
- Scared that she might stop, we increase the intensity and frequency of contact to keep her going
- She says “Enough already” and either tries to turn back or shuts down and quits moving
- We call in recruits to help shove and otherwise encourage her forward
- She resists more
- We attempt to match the effort and egos of other team members
- (Let me be clear here. This isn’t about being bad people. It’s about human nature and handlers doing the absolute best they know how until they are taught more effective handling methods.)
- Next time we have to move sows we start with an expectation of problems and with extra recruits to help us
- It is all self-fulfilling. We find / create what we look for.
The same general pattern can be seen in problems related to moving weanlings, sorting and loading market hogs, moving hogs in packing plants…
Summary:
Physical contact can be useful and effective but we need to be very selective and careful about how and when we use it.
If we are close enough to touch an animal we are close enough to stop it.
That’s it for this week.
Take care
Nancy Lidster