ROME TOWNSHIP— They may not exactly swoon over swine, but they sure know how to make them behave.

Jonathan Dickess of the Helping Hands 4-H Club took home the hog showmanship award in the senior division at the Lawrence County Fair Thursday morning. Joshua Craft of Gingham and Denim took home the same honor in the junior division.

“This is an excellent group of showmen,” judge Kyle Deel of Vinton County said after judging the senior contestants. He repeated that praise for the younger ones.

Dickess has been showing hogs eight years and said they are a good kind of animal to work with.

“I just like everything about them,” he said. “They’re fun to play with and to take care of. They’re just like humans.”

Is there a secret to handling hogs? Dickess didn’t think so.

“Some are crazy and others are just laid back and you can get them to do what you want them to do,” he said.

But Craft did think there a secret to successful hog handling.

“You’ve got to work with them,” he said. “Some people don’t work with their animals, they just run and play. You’ve got to work with them.”

Craft may have a point. In awarding the 13-year-old the top spot in his division, Deel noted that Craft did “an excellent job of keeping his gilt on the move. He did all the right things.”