Greetings from Australia

[Sanhestar]

I started clicker training our goats last January (2015) after years of absence.

Just couldn't figure out how to work with the enormous food orientation and mugging that would soon develop.

Had the luck/good sense to enlist in the online clicker course offered by a horse clicker trainer - Alexandra Kurland - and have started anew with incorporating some of her basic lessons into the new approach:

- protected contact
- clicking for "leave me alone" or as she calls it "grown-ups are talking, please dont interrupt"
- feeding for position

I had focussed too much the first time on the "trick" component and missed that you can basically enforce EVERY behaviour, even standing still and keeping a polite distance.

So far I have made enormous progress with the formerly most laid-back and shy goats in the herd. While I started with the simple goal of making every day live and management for them and me easier I am now at a stage where I can realisticly start to train two of them to pack.

This might seem like a long time, when I write January 2015 but I made long breaks in between when life just got in the way and for the one goat - Freddie - who was my main project, it took 15 sessions to become completely comfortable around me, starting to engage in social interaction, looking for scratches (and not hiding in the farthest corner) and 15 more sessions (only two spend on introducing the saddle) to be able to be saddled and walk out of the paddock alone with me on a lead rope.

What he also tought me is that I need to split down my wishes small enough for him, maybe even just a minute movement at first and then asking more the next day. If I rush him, he will refuse the treat - then seeming uninterested but in truth not able to chew because of inner tension - or even walk away.