Mini pig sucking

Question
My 3 month old mini pig is continually sucking on my Neapolitan Mastiffs mouth and I can򴠧et him to stop. Most of the time Zelda (dog) puts up with it but she does get sick of it as he does it all of the time, even to the point he goes to sleep with her lips in his mouth. Her poor mouth is getting a bit sore and she can򴠧et away from him to get a break. He has a teddy bear but is not interested in that  and I he doesn򴠬isten to NO from me either. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers

Answer
This is an unusual, and potentially serious, problem. Sooner or later the dog will get tired of this behavior, and when that happens, piggy could be seriously hurt. Piggy does not understand this.

Pigs see the world as a ladder with each person, pet and pig having his or her own rung. Pigs show dominance over other pigs by making the lower status pig move. Often, the higher status pig will accomplish this by pushing his face into the lower pigs face. So one possible reason for this behavior is that piggy is trying to use pig language to tell the dog that the pig thinks the pig should be on the higher rung. This can happen when the pig is assertive and the dog is submissive. Feeding pigs with dogs seems to make the problem worse, always separate the pig and dog at meal time until both have eaten.

Another possibility is that due to early weaning, piggy has fixated on the dog. This is a problem that will eventually fix itself, as piggy will outgrow the behavior. The real problem in this situation is getting the behavior under control until piggy can outgrow it.

Still another possibility is that the dog is eating something that leaves a tasty residue around his mouth. If that's the problem, then keeping the dogs face wiped off should help a lot.

If piggy is not neutered, that could be the root cause of the problem. Intact male pigs do not make good pets, getting him fixed will solve the problem.

The only safe course of action is to keep the dog and pig separated completely for a few days. It may require setting up a separate "pet space" where one pet can go when the other is with you. This break from each other will force piggy to find something else to do and give doggy some relief.

When you bring them back together, do it with both pig and dog on a harness. If piggy is not harness trained, this time apart is a good time to start. It will give piggy new stuff to think about and help the two of you learn to communicate with each other. For training, I highly recommend the book Pot-Bellied Pig Behavior and Training by Priscilla Valentine, and the dvds There's a Pig in the House and Amazing Pig Tricks by tophogs.com

Watch the two of them closely. If piggy tries to get at doggys face, distract him by asking him to perform a trick for a treat. Repeat this a few times. Don't leave them together too long, separate them again until the next day. Keep putting them together more often, for longer periods of time, watching them very carefully. When piggy tries to get at doggys face, separate them right away. That's easier to do when both are wearing harnesses.