Meet the deaf pet pig who wears a ‘magic belt’

Karen is a very special pig. She has a magic belt. Yes, you read that right: a magic belt.  It’s actually a vibration collar snugly wrapped around her adorably fluffy, rotund tummy that caregivers use to communicate with her. They use clicker training with the other pigs, but Karen is deaf so she can’t hear a clicker.

Karen and her two sons, Corwin and Colin, are kunekune pigs who arrived at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary after they were found wandering the wilderness about an hour away. Native to the temperate, more humid climate of New Zealand, kunekunes are sensitive to the sunny, desert environment of the Sanctuary.

Karen and her boys are highly susceptible to skin cancer, so applying sunscreen every day is a must. “I trained the boys to allow us to put sunscreen on them every day with clicker training, but we needed something different for Karen since she’s deaf,” explains caregiver Hailey Adams.

Hailey explains that the clicker is what's called a bridge. A bridge can be anything from a whistle to a word. It's something that lets the animal know they did the right thing the moment they did it.

“I researched what others have used as bridges for deaf animals and decided on a vibrating collar since that’s something she can feel,” says Hailey. “We wrapped it around her belly because pigs don’t have necks like dogs or cats.”

Karen quickly learned that the vibration of her “magic belt” meant she’d get a treat from her caregivers. Next came target stick training. A target stick is a lightweight rod with a brightly colored tip that the pig learns to touch with their nose.

[How a camera flash is helping a feisty deaf cat]

“When we’re training our pigs, we use the cue ‘touch,’ so the pigs touch the stick, we click the clicker, and they get a treat,” says Hailey. For Karen, it was about associating the collar’s vibration with touching the stick.

This helps shape behaviors like walking calmly, stepping into a van, or even holding still to have sunscreen applied. It’s an effective and fun method of training, especially for intelligent animals like pigs.

“This is also free-choice training, so she can opt out if she wants,” Hailey says. And opt out she sometimes does. On their first walk, Karen found an apple and ran off at full piggy speed with it in her mouth. She eventually went back to her cozy barn but ignored Hailey’s attempts to get her attention, as if to say, “This is my apple, and you can’t take it from me.” “I really, really did not want her apple,” laughs Hailey.

The next walk was a different story. Karen found another apple but opted in this time, responding to her collar. She touched the target stick, got her treat, and happily returned to her apple, realizing Hailey wasn’t an apple thief — just focused on training.

After mastering the target stick, Karen moved on to staying still for sunscreen application. “The ‘touch’ cue involves placing the target stick on the ground for her to touch with her nose,” Hailey explains. “With a ‘hold’ cue, the stick is held in the air, and she’s expected to hold her nose to it and stay still.”

[Fun and games for pigs]

Karen, being the smart pig she is, picked up the “hold” cue quickly. “Now, I ask her to hold, and someone rubs their hands down her sides and applies sunscreen,” Hailey says. “Then I vibrate her collar and reward her for staying still, which is exactly the behavior we want.”

Thanks to her training and magic belt, now Karen basks in the warm desert sun safely, with plenty of sunscreen and without a care in the world — besides the occasional apple thief, of course.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill in 2025. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.