Begging for Food - Training Instructions

I have now taught the "beg" trick to six guinea pigs over the course of my decade having them as pets. The current Cavybeat piggies have just been introduced to the trick.

Aim of the trick: At a given command, in our case "Piggies!", guinea pigs will rush to the front of the cage for food. Treats such as small pieces of tomato are given through the front of the cage. In some cases, guinea pigs might put their front legs against the cage to reach higher, or wheek for food.

What to do:
Optional preliminary step: before you commence this training, you can get your guinea pigs associating the training word ("Piggies!" in this case) with food, by calling it before you feed them their vegetables.
1. Approach the cage with treats, calling "Piggies!" (or your chosen word) in an encouraging voice. If the guinea pigs are familiar with you, this may be enough to get them excited and started wheeking.
2. Sit/stand next to the cage in the place where you will be putting the food. If your cage is big, use the same place each time. The guinea pigs might be confused about why you're just standing there, and may go into their hideys at this stage.
3. Get a small piece of lettuce - a long, dangly piece is more attractive to guinea pigs than a little flake, and hold it through the cage bars. Keep calling "Piggies!" in an encouraging tone (not too shrieky or loud) and wait.
4. It may take a while for the guinea pigs to come out. Once they grab the piece of food, let go of it so they can eat it. Don't worry if they drag the food away to each it somewhere else - this type of training is better done with quickly-consumed foods such as lettuce, so they move back for more.
5. As soon as a guinea pig reaches the edge of the cage, give them a piece of food immediately. At this stage, it's quite important that they get it quickly. Once they realise running to the front of the cage results in lettuce, there is no problem with a small delay.
6. Enthusiastic guinea pigs might hop up onto the edge of the cage with their front legs. In my experience, guinea pigs that are enthusiastic will do this spontaneously, and if the guinea pig isn't, they cannot be trained to.
7. Repeat frequently so the guinea pigs get used to this idea. Generally, the "beg" trick is the quickest and easiest to train - mine got the idea in two days.