Oscar learned to jump! Teaching Oscar to jump was more challenging than previous tricks like circle, sit, and stay. Although we discovered during Oscar’s pool party that he can jump when necessary, jumping isn’t as easy of a movement for him as spinning or even shaking. If you’re just starting out with training your mini pig, I recommend starting with simpler tricks until your pig understands the training process and then working up to jump.

Here is a video on how to train a mini pig to jump. If you prefer to just see Oscar jump, skip ahead in the video to 1:38.

Once your mini pig is ready to learn to jump, start by making sure your flooring has good traction. Traction is helpful for all mini pig training, but it’s essential for jump. If your mini pig is sliding around while also trying to lift himself up to jump, he could injure his little legs. So, if you have hardwood floors, tile, or any other type of slippery surface, either do the training on a rug with a rubber backing or go into a carpeted room to keep your mini pig safe.

I always recommend using a clicker and treats for mini pig training, but they’re not required. The training instruction for jump is simple. With your mini pig standing, take a treat and place it above her snout, just high enough that she has to reach up to touch the treat; say “jump” as you do this. As soon as her snout touches the treat, click and give her the treat. It’s not necessary that your mini pig actually jump or lift her hooves off the floor at first since you can build up to that. Once she learns to reach up for the treat, start raising your hand and the treat higher and higher until she is lifting up off the floor to jump up for the treat.

Since we are just using jump training for simple obedience, I only go high enough for Oscar to lift his front hooves off the floor. I want to keep him safe and avoid injuries, so I don’t ask him to jump up too high. However, if you want your mini pig to learn to jump higher than what I show in the video, simply keep raising your hand and continue the training until your mini pig is jumping higher.

Jump training is simple overall but was challenging for Oscar and required many attempts for him to figure out what I wanted him to do. If you’re having trouble training your mini pig to jump, keep trying in small sessions each day until she knows what you’re asking. Once your pig figures out that touching the treat with her snout gets a treat, it’s easy to build up to higher jumps. As always, if you have any questions, just let me know in the comments.