An animal lover has trained her two 15-stone pigs to sit like puppies.
Penny Kennedy has taught swine sisters Coco and Gigi to perform a number of unusual tricks including rolling over on command and offering their snouts for a kiss.
Mrs Kennedy, 61, said: “It was really easy to get them to sit – it only took a few days. I just held a treat above their noses, said ‘sit’ and pushed their bottoms down but now they will do it just with the word. I was absolutely thrilled. They are hugely intelligent.
“If I had more time, I’m sure I could teach them absolutely anything.”
Designer and illustrator Mrs Kennedy, who also runs a holiday let business nearKenmore, Perthshire, with her husband Roland, 65, got the New Zealand Kuni Kuni pigs, then aged six months, four years ago from a farming acquaintance of her brother-in-law who was downsizing.
He said: “I’d seen them on the Internet and I’d been thinking about getting them. I put them in the back of my Renault Kanga van with some straw. It took seven and a half hours to drive from Northumberland.
“They squeaked and squealed and tried to jump into the front. When we arrived they escaped and it took four of us seven hours to catch them. They like escaping and climbing. They can find a hole in anything.”
Mrs Kennedy decided to train Coco and Gigi after a friend said pigs were very clever and enjoyed learning.She said: ‘They know their names – if I shout for Coco, she’ll come first if they are not both together. They are also trained to lie down. When they have had their food or their treat, and you say to lie down they’ll lie down.
“I can get them to roll over and they absolutely love having their tummies rubbed. They’ll fall on top of each other and make the most wonderful kind of purring noise. They are so sweet, they really are.
“When they are sitting nice and content after food, you can say to them: ‘give us a kiss,’ and they’ll put their snouts up to you.”
.