They do make good pets. After Max passes, I doubt we'll get another one. Max has been an outside pet for going on ten years. One reason, the scent gland, it really can stink. Looking back, we should have had it removed when the vet had to surgically remove one of his his nuts (it never dropped), but we didn't know about it. The other reason, like dogs, they are social animals. He wanted to be where we were. He would follow us up and down the stairs (our family room is in the basement) and climbing on the bed/couches. Pigs aren't really designed for that. He developed a shoulder problem going down the stairs. We finally got that cleared up with steroids and calcium/gloucousomine, but our vet recommended not letting him climb the stairs or getting on furniture. We eventually moved him outside. He still gets to come in, but for the most part he's an outdoor animal. :(
About their intelligence. When we litter box trained him, we used cedar shavings in a cat box. After a few months, we housebroke him. He was maybe 6 months old when he was fully house broken. Fast forward 13 years, our neighbors tree fell on our fence during an ice storm. I had to bring Max into the garage until I could repair the fence. Just for reference, Max pees like a beer drinker, seriously, he pees for like 5 minutes. I didn't really want him peeing on the garage floor, so the next morning I went to the COOP and bought a bag of cedar shavings and put it in our plastic kennel tray, tossed in a couple of his turds and hoped for the best. About an hour later, I went to the garage and there he was, using the "litter" box. Even though it had been over 13 years...he still remembered...