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02-04-2016, 08:49 AM
Excellent post! Very informative. I agree about goats becoming shy of people when they are bullied by other goats. The goat Pac-Man, who we sold last year, was terribly shy when we got him even though he was a bottle baby and very friendly as a youngster according to the folks we bought him from. They said he became skittish after he was moved to the buck pen. My theory was that he began to associate people and feeding time with getting beat up by the other goats. Luckily since he was a naturally friendly goat it only took us a couple of weeks to retrain him to love people again. The main thing I had to do was make sure Cuzco didn't smack the poor little fella every time he approached us.
I still have a very skittish goat, Sputnik, who is naturally shy for some reason even though every other goat in my herd, including his mother and twin brother, are quite friendly. He has always been on the bottom of the pecking order, and he became noticeably more approachable after we sold his brother. However, Sputnik has a second element to his skittishness, and that is his loathing of touch. He will tolerate it with treats, but I've resigned myself to the probability that he will never enjoy being petted or scratched. He acts as though it actually hurts his skin. He doesn't mind a packsaddle or harness in the least, and he is marvelously well-behaved for hoof trimming. I don't have to tie or restrain him at all. But the minute my hand touches the hair anywhere on his body behind the neck, it's as though he's been hit with an electric shock and he will jump away if he's not tied. He has become far less dramatic in the last six months (unless I accidentally surprise him), but I can tell that his acceptance is only tolerance, not enjoyment. I wonder if he's like those autistic kids that simply cannot bear to be touched but can be interacted with in other ways. He's very smart and loves attention as long as it doesn't involve petting or scratching. I know our bodies have electricity, and some people and animals are far more sensitive to it than others, so I've tried to be sensitive to his touch aversion when working with him.
I still have a very skittish goat, Sputnik, who is naturally shy for some reason even though every other goat in my herd, including his mother and twin brother, are quite friendly. He has always been on the bottom of the pecking order, and he became noticeably more approachable after we sold his brother. However, Sputnik has a second element to his skittishness, and that is his loathing of touch. He will tolerate it with treats, but I've resigned myself to the probability that he will never enjoy being petted or scratched. He acts as though it actually hurts his skin. He doesn't mind a packsaddle or harness in the least, and he is marvelously well-behaved for hoof trimming. I don't have to tie or restrain him at all. But the minute my hand touches the hair anywhere on his body behind the neck, it's as though he's been hit with an electric shock and he will jump away if he's not tied. He has become far less dramatic in the last six months (unless I accidentally surprise him), but I can tell that his acceptance is only tolerance, not enjoyment. I wonder if he's like those autistic kids that simply cannot bear to be touched but can be interacted with in other ways. He's very smart and loves attention as long as it doesn't involve petting or scratching. I know our bodies have electricity, and some people and animals are far more sensitive to it than others, so I've tried to be sensitive to his touch aversion when working with him.