Want to know the key to having a great pack goat herd that will follow you anywhere? Have a lead doe who is bonded to you, well-trained, and will follow you, and the rest of the goats will just follow her. Unfortunately, that does not describe Cricket, my little goat with a big voice, an adorable Toggenburg/Alpine/Nubian cross who makes a gallon of milk and is easy to milk and loves me and follows me around the yard...but, she does not like long hikes.
Cricket loves to go out on eating expeditions, but once she suspects that an outing is going to turn into a hike, she'll baaa and stand in the trail with a defiant look, and her kids Tito and Olive will walk halfway to me and not be sure which one of us to follow. Tito and Olive love hikes, but they were handled a lot as babies and given training, so they consider both of us to be "Mom." But Cricket didn't have the training, she ran wild as a young goat until I bought her and trained her to let me milk her, let me catch her, and ride in the car. I'm impressed really with how tame she's gotten, but she just does not have that urge to follow me into unknown territory on a long and grueling forced march, when she could be just hanging out in the safe yard and eating hay.
Any ideas on how to change Cricket's attitude about this? Maybe if I bring raisins in my pocket and give her some along the way (this worked to teach her not to play "chase" with me when I wanted to put her in the pen)? She isn't really an ornery or dominant goat, and isn't lazy, but I think she's just perplexed by why I would do something so stupid as to hike a mile when there's perfectly good food right at the trailhead.
She sounds smart! Like you said, not ornery, just maybe a bit too intelligent and set in her ways. One thing you don't want her to do is to teach her nefarious ways to Tito and Olive, because they WILL pick up on her cues.
I'd suggest halter training her and putting her on a lead. It's much easier to lead a goat by a halter than by a collar (my opinion) because you can prevent them from eating along the trail, which gives them a great excuse to stop and not keep going. I recommend also bringing a dressage whip about 36"- 40" long. Hold the whip on the side of you opposite of Cricket and every time she stops tell her "Walk on!" in a firm voice, tug the leash with one hand, and reach behind you to tap her hind legs or her bottom with the whip in your other hand. As soon as she starts forward, praise and reward with a raisin. You'll have to do that a lot at first and there will be tons of stops and starts (sometimes very abrupt starts until she gets used to the whip). She'll cry and protest at first and she may not want to go on walks at all for awhile (and you might not either!), but before long she should learn that she's not the captain and she has to follow orders. Once you're far enough away from home you can try letting her off the leash. If she stops or turns back then she's not ready to be off-leash yet.
We had to do this with Scout and Sonic for a few weeks (or maybe a few months – I forget) because we hadn't taken them walking enough as youngsters. Once they were grown and set in their ways they got lazy and stubborn until they learned that walking was just our routine and they had to keep up or be on a leash. At first we had to leash them for the entire walk, but soon we were able to let them off at the far end and they wouldn't run home by themselves. Pretty soon we were able to let them off as soon as we were out of sight of the house, and eventually we were able to unleash them as soon as we got to the bottom of the driveway and they'd come eagerly with us. I think we'll always leash them until the bottom of the driveway because we have to pass the girls' pen and it's always a temptation for them to go over there and visit and see if they have any hay left in their rack. We don't want to actively tempt them to do anything naughty so we'll always leash them until we're to the end of the drive, but I'm content with that. You may always have to settle for something along those lines with Cricket as well.
Thanks Nanno! I will try this. Do you think the whip would also help with the running around behavior of the other two goats- my other problem on the trail is that Tito, who's just a big mommy's boy, insists on walking side by side with Cricket, but this is a problem because his horns get tangled in her leash. Also, they both love to head butt Olive, which gets really annoying because it happens in front of where I'm walking, and she's not phased by it and just wants to walk side by side with them too. I'm going to try this today with a willow switch, since I don't have a whip. I won't actually hurt them, just tap them with it (they already know this as a "goatwhacker," because it's what I use if they jump up on fences or on a hay bale).
A whip is like an extension of your arm, so you can certainly use it to expand your personal space. I don't tolerate goats cutting me off, getting in my way, or fighting with each other in my space. If they cut you off, give them a swift kick in the side or hindquarters as they go by and let them know it's not a safe place for them to walk. If they start cutting each other off and/or knocking each other around within reach of your whip, use it to break them up and give them a verbal reprimand. When I don't have a whip (which is usually), I shout, clap my hands, and stomp towards the fighting goats to make them stop. They eventually learn to keep their altercations out of my area (which is fine – I don't care if they fight as long as it's not near people).
Tapping with a whip is usually all that's necessary, but don't make the frog boiling mistake with it! If you slowly up the intensity of your tapping until you get their attention, they soon learn to ignore it entirely. It's much better to make a quick, painful point so you don't have to repeat the lesson. I always start with a light tap, but if a goat ignores it I immediately go to a sharp smack. Next time they pay attention to the tap! Any time someone tells me their goat (or horse) is ignoring the whip it means they were using it incorrectly and desensitized them to it. Unfortunately at that point it could take several hard, painful whacks (in other words, practically a beating) to make them pay attention to it again and that's not what anyone wants! Make sure when you use the whip it means something, and if they don't pay attention at the first tap, make sure they pay attention at the second!
Chat
