mini pig wakes only me up in the middle of the night

Question
Hello,

My mini pig is 4 months old and I have had her for 9 weeks. I spend a ton of time with her and my husband spends some time with her as well. When we sleep at night she always comes squealing in my ears and jumps on me multiple times through the night. I work some night shifts and turns out she doesn't wake my husband up at all when I'm gone, its just me. Do you have an idea what the problem is and what I can do about it? When I'm around shes always by my side and when I take her on walks she will only walk if I'm holding the leash. I was thinking maybe its an attachment issue or she just gets bored and wants attention at night.

Thank you for your time,
Laura

Answer
You are exactly right. Your piggy has bonded to you. She knows you will pay attention to her if she wakes you.

But, when you are not at home, she doesn't bother your husband. Because she knows he will just ignore her. He will not reward her for waking him up.

Pigs learn quickly and unlearn very slowly. They also get unhappy when the rules are changed. So it will take a bit of time and effort to retrain piggy, but you can. The problem is, she will be unhappy about it.

One option is to put her in her own room at night and confine her there. The other is to ignore (as best you can!) her disturbing nighttime visits.

If you confine her to her own room, she will squeal the first night, and maybe for a couple more nights. This is normal. Just let her scream. If her screams are ignored, she will stop. After a few weeks or months, you can leave her out of her area at night.

If you do not confine her to an area, she will jump on you as usual. Tell her "knock it off", and put her down on the floor. Of course she'll try again. And again and again. Don't plan on getting much sleep the first night you try this! But if you do not reward her with attention or food, eventually she will stop.