• Affectionate. Dixie is extremely affectionate. The second night I owned her, she would not go to sleep unless I was beside her!
• Friendly. Dixie is also very friendly. She has never shown aggression to any person or animal (she has been around Rottweilers.) She loves for strangers to pet her.
• Smart. I taught Dixie how to "sit" in 15 minutes. She also understands "no," "out," "potty," "come here," "good girl," and "go."
• Travels well. Once Dixie is in her pet taxi in my car's back seat, she is pretty quiet during car trips, unless she has to potty. The longest trip she has been on is a non-stop 2 hour ride.
• Not adaptable to change. Although Dixie travels well, once she is somewhere new (where I took her to visit) she gets confused and does not adjust well to change. For example, I have taken her to a few of my friends' houses along with her usual litter box. Although Dixie is litter-trained, she absolutely would not use her litter box.
• Routine. Every day, like clockwork, she will awake between 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. and start honking (she doesn't really oink) to be fed. Also, between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., she knows that it is dinner time.
• Noisy.  Dixie is a fairly noisy creature.  She doesn't constantly make noise, but for someone who has only had quiet animals around, she seems noisy to me.  She grunts, honks, gnashes her teeth, and sometimes shrieks.  Actually, sometimes I will grunt and shriek along with her because the noises she makes sometimes are pretty funny.  The most unusual noises come from her while she is in heat (I guess she is trying to attract her nonexistent Prince Charming.)  And ALL pigs gnash their teeth.  So if you have a problem with fingernails on a chalkboard, you might have a hard time getting used to this noise.   Pigs gnash their teeth fairly often, and noone is quite sure why.

How being in heat affects Dixie's personality:
Dixie is a lot more difficult to deal with if she is in heat. She will be neutered soon. This is what you should expect out of a female pig that is in heat:

• More apt to "potty accidents." Dixie is now completely potty trained, but if she is in heat, she has been known to potty on the floor. (Bad pig!)
• More difficult. Dixie is a very good animal because she always responds to commands (i.e. she will come every time she is asked to). However, when she is in heat, she won't obey commands most of the time.
• Moody.  One minute, Dixie can be a happy little pig, and the next minute she seems to be paranoid (as if she's about to get into trouble for something.)