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Unlike Sabine, I think there is a place in the trainer's toolbox for negative reinforcement. When I taught our goats to drive, I started by carrying a whip when leading so I could teach them to move away from a tap on the hindquarters. If a goat balked when being led away from home (Sputnik was particularly bad about this), I would reach the whip behind me and tap him on the hindquarters or hind leg to get him moving rather than pull on the halter. If a tap didn't get him moving, a swat did. Pulling on the halter is useless for a strong goat (as you've found out!), and it also reinforces the idea that "move forward" commands originate from the front. When driving, the move forward commands come from the back, and you need to introduce this when leading. I put the lead in my right hand and carry the whip in my left with the tip pointing toward the ground behind me when not in use. I rarely have to "swat" with the whip. Once the goat knows the "swat" is there, a light tap or even a tickle is usually all that's needed.
The initial purpose of the whip is to provide "back up" to your voice commands. As the goat progresses in his training, the whip provides a way to communicate by touch when voice commands are useless, such as what happened to us at the fair last fall when we had to drive in an indoor arena with horrific acoustics. Our goats were inexperienced and we'd worked so much off of voice and so little off of whip that we were unable to communicate effectively and our goats were confused. The whip can also be used to create a "personal space" barrier for a goat that likes to walk on your toes, push into you, or mob you for treats. If I were leading Koby and he dove toward a tasty plant, I would pull his head toward me while using the whip on his hindquarters to move him over. If his hindquarters move away from you, his head has to come toward you and your tug-of-war is over. Once he comes back to you, always reward. Once your goat learns that diving into the shrubbery without permission is an uncomfortable experience, he will be a lot less likely to try it.
Once again, Sabine is right on the money when she says to reward Koby by allowing him to eat that good stuff on your terms. We did this with an apple tree last fall. The goats wanted to eat the fallen apples on the road, but I drove them past. Later on we got back to the same spot and I stopped them before we got there so I could lead them over to the apples and let them eat. We don't want to be miserable ogres who never let our goats have fun, but we also don't want them running roughshod over our commands when we give them. I'm not one to ignore "bad" behavior because then how is the animal supposed to know it's "bad"? Some "bad" behaviors such as diving into the shrubbery are self-rewarding (and possibly far more rewarding than anything we could offer), so ignoring them gets you nowhere. You either have to remove that distraction until such time as your training is more powerful than the distraction (can certainly be done through positive-only training, but it takes a lot of time and requires a distraction-free area to work), or by making the distraction less appealing through negative reinforcement. I don't think either method is "wrong" or will mess up your goat. Much of training comes down to personal style and what works for you and for that particular animal.
The initial purpose of the whip is to provide "back up" to your voice commands. As the goat progresses in his training, the whip provides a way to communicate by touch when voice commands are useless, such as what happened to us at the fair last fall when we had to drive in an indoor arena with horrific acoustics. Our goats were inexperienced and we'd worked so much off of voice and so little off of whip that we were unable to communicate effectively and our goats were confused. The whip can also be used to create a "personal space" barrier for a goat that likes to walk on your toes, push into you, or mob you for treats. If I were leading Koby and he dove toward a tasty plant, I would pull his head toward me while using the whip on his hindquarters to move him over. If his hindquarters move away from you, his head has to come toward you and your tug-of-war is over. Once he comes back to you, always reward. Once your goat learns that diving into the shrubbery without permission is an uncomfortable experience, he will be a lot less likely to try it.
Once again, Sabine is right on the money when she says to reward Koby by allowing him to eat that good stuff on your terms. We did this with an apple tree last fall. The goats wanted to eat the fallen apples on the road, but I drove them past. Later on we got back to the same spot and I stopped them before we got there so I could lead them over to the apples and let them eat. We don't want to be miserable ogres who never let our goats have fun, but we also don't want them running roughshod over our commands when we give them. I'm not one to ignore "bad" behavior because then how is the animal supposed to know it's "bad"? Some "bad" behaviors such as diving into the shrubbery are self-rewarding (and possibly far more rewarding than anything we could offer), so ignoring them gets you nowhere. You either have to remove that distraction until such time as your training is more powerful than the distraction (can certainly be done through positive-only training, but it takes a lot of time and requires a distraction-free area to work), or by making the distraction less appealing through negative reinforcement. I don't think either method is "wrong" or will mess up your goat. Much of training comes down to personal style and what works for you and for that particular animal.