Behavior Guinea Pig Training Camp

@spy9doc - Here is a little information about the training camp.

Thank you! I read your thread and I was very interested on this topic! I will be going to Florida as a vacation over summer (hopefuly) and it would be nice to go to a seminar.

that's interesting, i haven't been to such a seminar but i did cover learning and conditioning back in university. piggies are so bribe-able it's fun.

lovely picture of Chip by the way

I live like 45 minutes away from Orlando and being a person who shows/fosters/trains dogs and owns guinea pigs, I would have loved to attend

lol chip is my dwarf hamsters name

2198lindsey said:

I live like 45 minutes away from Orlando and being a person who shows/fosters/trains dogs and owns guinea pigs, I would have loved to attend

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@2198lindsey - The seminar kind of caught me off guard. I take my foster dog to Doglando twice a week to help him build his confidence. I got into a discussion with one of the dog trainers about my guinea pigs and she briefly told me about the seminar. I was called the morning it started because they wanted to know if they could borrow my girl Stella, but ended up getting invited to stay when I was dropping her off. It felt like one of those weird things in life that was just "meant" to happen. Everything worked out so perfectly.

In the future, if they hold it again I will definitely let everyone on here know. It's likely to be held at Doglando again, as the owner is good friends with Dr. Abrantes.

Wow that is so cool! I would love to attend one of these as well. How lucky you heard of it!

spy9doc said:

So, was Stella a part of the camp as well? In reading about the "camp", I had the impression that people worked with cavies with whom they were NOT bonded? I believe that you met Chip at the camp and took him home afterward? What did he learn insofar as any "tricks' are concerned? What in the world did you do for four days with him? They are asking a lot of money to train a guinea pig.........or is it to train the owner?

No wonder Chip is such a studly boy! He's a former SWAT team trainee. Apparently, you didn't acquire enough discipline to be able to control him in the current situation.

I see no more seminars listed for cavies. Yes, please do let us know if there is anything upcoming. I read through a couple of the articles on Dr. Abrantes site. Did you read the one on sex? This guy has a terrific sense of humor!

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They were concerned they wouldn't have enough guinea pigs, because it was supposed to be groups of 3 people per piggy and initially on the first day they only had 3 piggies. Chip was one of the original 3.

Like I said, I was invited to stay when I was dropping Stella off, so there was no intention in the beginning for me to work with her. So you are correct, groups were to work with piggies they weren't bonded with. Even when I did get to stay, I didn't work with Stella. That's how I ended up with Chip. He was my partner piggy, while Stella worked with another group.

The first day was all about bonding with our piggy. Holding them for 15 minutes at a time to let them settle and hand feeding them to build trust. The problem the US training camp ran into is the pigs being acquired from the snake food lady. They obviously had zero socialization and no trust for humans. When they had the camps in Europe, they got the pigs from breeders 3 weeks in advance of the camp so an assistant could handle them daily.

Day 2 & 3 we worked on agility tricks. The guinea pigs learned how to go up on a podium, go up and over an A-frame type obstacle, jump over a small hurdle, and go in and out of weave poles.

On the last day we scratched the surface of learning scent detection. We were teaching them what gunpowder smells like and how to alert the trainer if they smelled it.

The camp wasn't really about training guinea pigs. It was about teaching people how to be better trainers. A guinea pig is only going to do what you properly ask it to do. I guess people who do dog training spend a lot of time and money going to conferences and seminars to learn what others are using as successful techniques and how to implement them into their own programs. Two people there flew all the way from California for the 4 days. I was the only one that had a guinea pig and was lucky enough to learn how to train my piggies just for fun.

I didn't read the article, but it doesn't surprise me. After meeting Dr. Abrantes in person, he is quite the comical character. Pretty easy going and personable for a scientist.

I live in Orlando and would love to check this out. Please keep me in the loop if it happens again!

mufasa said:

I live in Orlando and would love to check this out. Please keep me in the loop if it happens again!

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I messaged Dr. Abrantes to see if he could let me know any upcoming camps on his schedule or if he could direct me to a website with the information. The only place I knew to look before was Doglando, but they aren't affiliated. Doglando just hosted the seminar and advertised for their purposes of having people attend there... not at other places.

Will keep everyone posted on what I find out.

For those of you who were/are interested...

Dr. Abrantes responded to my request with a link the the Guinea Pig Camp facebook page. There is a tab called "Events" that shows currently scheduled sessions. One just passed in Montana and the next 2 are in the UK and Spain.

Here's the link if anyone wants to keep up and see if any session will be offered near them.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...=3&uploaded=8#!/GuineaPigCampsByRogerAbrantes