keeping goats fit

[rockman]

well, walking in a packstring is really high art of goat walking. But the exercise alone will be fun and teach you and the goats a lot.

You will spend a lot of time experimenting who walks well behind/in front of who. Take notes which combinations work and which don't.

Halters give you more controll over the head but because of the relatively unstable spine (compared to horses) of goats they can get hurt much easier when struggling against a halter than against a collar. So try, watch and use common sense.

Working a lot with clicker training for about a year, I would train my next packstring something like that:

Teach each goat individually to walk next to me and behind me on a loose lead rope. Teach each goat to walk through lane made from poles layed on the ground (this teaches walking straight from point A to point B). Teach them to walk from one cone to the next cone to a third/fourth, etc. - this gives duration to the behaviour "walk straight".

Take two goats and teach them to stand quietly behind each other. Most likely I would use the pole lane to give the idea of keeping straight. Walk them though the pole lane. Walk them from cone to cone. Observe how this works. Will the second goat struggle, try to overtake the first, butt the first or will the first turn around and threaten no. 2 or try to get away from no. 2, etc.

Repeat with adding goat no. 3, and so on. Change positions in the string as necessary. Praise often for work well done.

Hi that sounds like you have a lot of experience. I have one old goat that loves to try and pull me along so how do you get them to walk beside you. They seem better when they are walking without the leads.