Teaching Nutmeg

Looking back, teaching Nutmeg tricks has been one of my favourite projects that I’ve ever worked on. I had my reservations when it came to deciding on a topic for my free inquiry project, I mean could I really teach my guinea pig tricks? It seemed a bit crazy but I’m so happy I decided to embrace this project. It ended up being such a wonderful experience for both me and little Nutmeg. To review Nutmeg learned:

Paws Up:

Paws up was the first trick Nutmeg learned and probably one of the cutest in my opinion. I think this was a great trick to start off this project with and although I didn’t know it at the time, Nutmeg has taken her paws up trick and applied it to many other situations. She regularly likes to put her front paws up on other objects and reach for the sky.

Spin:

Spin was a harder trick for both of us to learn. It took some practice and lots of patience but Nutmeg was gotten so good at her spins! Nutmeg is so enthusiastic and now does her spins all by herself, I just love watching her do it.

Hurdle Jumping:

Jump was an easy one for Nutmeg! She was already used to jumping over things in her cage so she picked it up right away. She does have a maximum height she’ll jump over however and I learned that pretty quick when she kept knocking the higher jump over.

Hoop Jumping:

I had a lot of fun teaching Nutmeg to jump through a hoop. It took some time before she was comfortable going through the hoop but once she accepted it, she had no problem. Having learned how to jump just before this trick she had already mastered the jump part which made the learning process go much faster!

I learned so much from this experience and I’m very grateful for the relationship Nutmeg and I have developed since starting this journey together. Nutmeg was never much for cuddles and was generally a bit untrustworthy of everything. Despite her craziness and energy, she was a shy little piggy. However, since we started this project Nutmeg has become so much more comfortable with everything, and she loves snuggle time now. I think learning tricks allowed us to develop a very trusting relationship that she is much more comfortable with. Even though this may be the end of this project, it certainly won’t be the end of training Nutmeg. She is such a smart guinea pig and very willing to perform for treats, I plan to continue teaching her tricks in the future to see what we can master together.

Nutmeg’s Tricks

Check out a final video of everything Nutmeg learned during this project! Nutmeg’s sisters Coconut and Cinnamon joined her in this video to help demonstrate how much Nutmeg has learned and how far she’s come!