Question About Lead Training

[AcanthaRose]

Thanks everyone for your great input! I have been busy continuing to work with the goats, and they are improving. When I got Elsie this past March, she was very shy and had basically no training. Now she is responding to the clicker as a reward system and is definitely much more tolerant of various "scary" things, though that tolerance is still a work in progress. It took her a while to understand what the clicker meant, but now that she does, I have been able to teach her to target to my hand. She is very good at this when we are at home, but we still need to work on it when there is something distracting in the vicinity. We recently took her and Liesel (her kid) on a backpacking trip, and both of them did very well on and off leash. Elsie even carried a little weight in panniers, and has been getting used to maneuvering around obstacles with them. Elsie is also doing better at speeding up when I tug on the leash, and at giving in to pressure in general. I think the willow switch technique was helpful with this a the beginning (though now Elsie has progressed beyond that), along with the clicker+treats which I am continuing to use and which she now understands better than she did at the begining. Also, both goats are now responding well to the "wait" command, because they know it means treats for them if they stop. I now need to work on lengthening the time I ask them to stand still. Liesel, being more advanced with her clicker training, also knows to stand in one place while I walk away when I give the "stay" command. I am still working to lengthen the time and distance from me that she will continue to obey. Have any of you trained a goat to stay in one spot without being tied up? She is getting pretty good at it, but if I walk behind something she will come find me.