Chat
02-18-2017, 09:38 AM
The more places you take them, the calmer they will become over time. It just takes consistency. We take our boys many different places and they rarely spook any more. Training them to do things like walk through water and over obstacles teaches trust and obedience. Once they trust you, you can take them almost anywhere and they will stay calm. Even if they don't stay calm at first, if you have a few easy commands to get their focus back then they should settle very quickly if that basic trust is established. My boy Sputnik had a terror meltdown at the Halloween Town festival last October, so we removed him from the excitement for a few minutes and trotted him along a quiet side street to give him an outlet for his excess nerves. I gave him a few simple commands to make sure I had his mind focused back on me before going out onto Main Street again. When he went out the second time he was perfectly settled and didn't get upset or spooked again for the rest of the evening.
Take your goats walking through parks where there are dogs and joggers and baby strollers, on streets with plenty of traffic, and train them to negotiate obstacles that require trust. Phil and I like to work with our goats so they will climb on or jump over unusual "found" obstacles that we happen across. You have to be intentional and look for them, but there are training obstacles almost everywhere you go. Just yesterday we walked past a large culvert that was sticking out 15 feet or so past the road. It was elevated above the dry creek bed and I walked out onto it to see if the goats would follow me. It was slippery and made a weird noise when they walked on it, but both goats came when called. I have them jump over guard rails and through swing sets, I sometimes ask them to walk through puddles instead of around, I've had both of them ride on a merry-go-round, and they've both had to walk over expanded metal bridges where they could look down through the bottom. Doing "scary" stuff builds their trust and their self-confidence. Best of luck!
Take your goats walking through parks where there are dogs and joggers and baby strollers, on streets with plenty of traffic, and train them to negotiate obstacles that require trust. Phil and I like to work with our goats so they will climb on or jump over unusual "found" obstacles that we happen across. You have to be intentional and look for them, but there are training obstacles almost everywhere you go. Just yesterday we walked past a large culvert that was sticking out 15 feet or so past the road. It was elevated above the dry creek bed and I walked out onto it to see if the goats would follow me. It was slippery and made a weird noise when they walked on it, but both goats came when called. I have them jump over guard rails and through swing sets, I sometimes ask them to walk through puddles instead of around, I've had both of them ride on a merry-go-round, and they've both had to walk over expanded metal bridges where they could look down through the bottom. Doing "scary" stuff builds their trust and their self-confidence. Best of luck!