Winter Conditioning?

[Nanno]

If you snowshoe or ski, your goats can walk along behind you unloaded. Their hooves tend to posthole down so they get a very heavy workout if the snow is deep. As for the less snowy trail, yes it can be a pain to deal with dogs when you have young goats, but once your boys are big you shouldn't have a problem. My goats are not scared of dogs and usually if a dog comes too close my boys will stare it down. If a dog continues to advance, my boys will smack it or hook it. If you see someone approaching with a loose dog, ask them to leash it. Also get a leash on your goats. Even though my boys are big and not scared of dogs, I still always leash them when I see a dog because it's better safe than sorry. Encountering dogs is a necessary hiking skill so use that dog-popular trail to your advantage!

One final thought is to teach your goats to pull sleds. Mine haul firewood, hay, and water around the property. Sometimes it seems like more bother than it's worth to hitch a goat up to a sled, but once they're good at it, it really comes in handy for those times when the hose and the buckets all freeze and you need to get warm water out to your pens!