Chat
11-12-2021, 09:33 AM
I always ignore a trick that is given when I didn't ask for it. Shaking hands is a classic example because I teach it to most of my goats. Once they learn it, they are eager to walk up and paw me on the legs, which of course is a very bad habit. So I never reward an offer to shake hands if the goat initiates it. All offers to shake hands must come from me.
I would encourage you to use something other than your hand as a target. You don't want to accidentally teach them to start nipping your hands. Also, the annoying behavior will start spilling over onto other people because everyone has hands, and if all hands look like targets and treat sources, you could end up with a problem. Over-nuzzling can be a precursor to nipping. The nip starts when they get frustrated because you didn't give them a treat for doing their trick, so I would switch to using a non-hand target as soon as possible. I use a stick with a tennis ball on the end as a target. That way I can move the goats away from my body and get them to focus on something other than my treat-offering hands. Once they learn to target the ball, the treat almost becomes the afterthought. I can move the target even further from me by putting the ball on a longer stick. Once the tennis ball target is gone, the goats know better than to mob me for treats or to zero in on my hands all the time. There's nothing more annoying than trying to pet an animal that is constantly moving away so he can shove his nose into my hands for treats (and this goes for all species!).
Best of luck!
I would encourage you to use something other than your hand as a target. You don't want to accidentally teach them to start nipping your hands. Also, the annoying behavior will start spilling over onto other people because everyone has hands, and if all hands look like targets and treat sources, you could end up with a problem. Over-nuzzling can be a precursor to nipping. The nip starts when they get frustrated because you didn't give them a treat for doing their trick, so I would switch to using a non-hand target as soon as possible. I use a stick with a tennis ball on the end as a target. That way I can move the goats away from my body and get them to focus on something other than my treat-offering hands. Once they learn to target the ball, the treat almost becomes the afterthought. I can move the target even further from me by putting the ball on a longer stick. Once the tennis ball target is gone, the goats know better than to mob me for treats or to zero in on my hands all the time. There's nothing more annoying than trying to pet an animal that is constantly moving away so he can shove his nose into my hands for treats (and this goes for all species!).
Best of luck!