older pet pig & socialization

Question
Hey there,
First off, I need to tell you that my piggy can be very loving. She's 2.5 years old, and I hear what she's saying. She's closing in on 90 lbs, and she still wants to get into bed with my husband and me once in a while (we blocked it off to protect her from bone damage). I'm afraid that's really the only time she enjoys cuddling.

Despite hand feeding her, giving her a large, covered dog crate as her "safe space" since she was a 3-mo.-old piglet, talking with her, teaching her a few tricks even...she has not really socialized very well. (I can tell you for sure that she knew HOW to sit for some time before she CHOSE to sit and realized she was going to get a treat for it. I lay down on the floor for about 15 minutes saying sit over and over and finally she walked over, stared at me repeating it...and finally sat. I've only seen her sit and watch things when she first wakes up and wants to make sure she's not the only one awake). It also took 3 months for her to potty train. She freaked out any time I tried to get her into the litter box inside - even with a treat.

She does not like anyone but me or my husband to touch her, and even then, she picks and chooses when it's okay. She rarely asks for tummy rubs, and if we rub too close to her tummy while scratching, she nips. She also NEVER takes a treat nicely. I overfed her for a few days and then gave her a treat, to see if I could stop this behavior (the nipping when receiving a treat), with no success.

Is this our piggy's bossy personality? Where's my cuddly baby? Is she well-socialized, or is there something more we can do to make her trust us more?

Answer
Pigs reach adulthood between ages 2 and 3. Adult pigs can also be quite shy. Dogs love everybody, but you must earn a pigs trust.

Pigs view the world as a ladder, and each person, pig and pet has their own rung. When pigs reach adulthood, they want to "move up the ladder" so to speak. Sometimes they get territorial.

They've also settled into their habits, and, unlike piglets, can get quite grumpy about changes.

Freaking out over the litter box indicates a problem with the litter box. It could be something obvious, like a high step to get in or a slippery floor or no room to turn around, or it could be something noticeable only to the pig, perhaps a faint chemical odor, or the pig had a bad experience with a similar box.

The aggression she's showing over treats has nothing to do with her appetite. It's a sign of a piggy growing up and acting like a pig. The best way to handle this is NO treats at all unless it's part of training. The point of trick training is not to learn tricks, but to help pig and owner establish that the owner is higher on the pig ladder, and to help both pig and person communicate with each other. When training, piggy gets a treat ONLY for performing the correct action QUICKLY. Sit is actually kind of hard, some pigs have hips that make it uncomfortable for them to sit like dogs or cats do.

Pigs in a herd establish and maintain their higher status over other pigs by making the other pigs move at random times. An easy way to teach your pig that you are in charge is to make piggy move at random times. It may seem a little "mean", and it would be wrong to treat other people that way, but it's how pigs communicate with each other.

I think there's two resources that can help here. One is the Yahoo group called PigInfoAndChat. It's a friendly group with a lot of knowledgeable, experienced people. Another is the book Pot-Bellied Pig Behavior and Training by Priscilla Valentine. Pris really understands how pigs think and why they do the things they do. Her book is available from Amazon.