showed aggression.

[sagetrecker]

I have a question. my two little girls have always been around the goats. they lost interest and they haven't been going in the pin.  they been on the outside so the goats can still see them I took my two-year-old with me  in the pin one of the goats got a little touchy. It made me uncomfortable so I picked her up and I was walking the perimeter of the corral my alpha got in front of me  stood and went straight back down. I set my daughter down and I tipped him over on his side and I held him there until the rodeo was over. did I handled that right or what should have i done?  my question is if that happens again what should I do? How should I go about reintroducing my kids in the corral I also think my goats are going through a transition of who's being alpha. With increase head butting between them.  so should I let them sort that out before I go back in there with the girls. The goats respect me and have not shown any kind of this behavior before. Or even shortly after I took my daughter out.

[Nanno]

I wonder if it would be helpful to have the kids feed the goats treats through the fence for a while before letting them go in the pen together. I personally do not let small children walk near loose goats any more than I would let them near a loose pony or donkey. The goats are big and quick and toddlers are small and slow with poor reflexes. When we have kids that size near the goats, I make sure I'm standing with the kids so I can intervene. If the kids want to pet our big horned wethers, I halter the goats for control and safety just as I would halter a pony in that situation.

I don't think you were wrong to take your goat down for going after your kid. Mama goats go after herd members that show aggression toward their kids. No one messes with the boss goat's babies! Carrying a water pistol could reinforce this from a distance. But before laying down the law with the goats, I would first try to get the kids and goats to make friends through the fence and then with a halter so at least they are familiar with each other in a controlled situation. If the goats still want to go after the kids after that, start laying down the law with a water pistol, shouting, hand clapping, or whatever it takes to let them know that they don't mess with your kids (or anyone else's either). Hopefully your goats will learn that they get treats and loves when they are friendly, but they get chased off if they are rude. Let us know how things turn out.

We don't have kids of our own, but I've been very intentional about introducing our goats to kids in a controlled environment and making sure those interactions are pleasant. So far our goats seem to love children. But right now with rut in full swing, our big wethers are completely obsessed with the does and have been a lot more careless around people on our walks. I've been keeping a sharp eye out for any aggressive behavior toward people and especially small children. If a goat so much as looks sideways at someone I'll go after him with a stick or I'll throw pinecones at him to make sure he knows that I saw his rude glance and that he's not allowed to "protect" his girls from humans of any size.

[sagetrecker]

Thanks nanno, I have not needed the water pistols or thought i needed out of ignorance and the learning curve. So I went and bought two yesterday. thanks again for the advice.

[Perry]

... "I was walking the perimeter of the corral my alpha got in front of me  stood and went straight back down. I set my daughter down and I tipped him over on his side and I held him there until the rodeo was over. did I handled that right or what should have i done?  my question is if that happens again what should I do? "

If I understand, your goat reared up on his hind legs, challenging you.  I think tipping him over and holding him was the right thing to do.  The question will be: did you hold him down long enough for him to fully submit to you as alpha?  If he challenges you again, in any way, I think you should tip him over again, and likely need to hold him down longer.

Also, watch for any little tests of your authority, then respond appropriately, don't ignore them.  It could be things like lowering his head a little bit and leaning into you/ touching you; standing in your way; 'accidently' bumping into you, being pushy for feed or treats.  Use the squirt gun/bottle, a loud clap and 'no', a pull on an ear, a slap on the nose; something to tell him 'no', I'm in charge here.  Don't over do it, but get the message across.

[sagetrecker]

Correct, he has only done it once and it was when I had my daughter. So when I put him in his side he went wild. Stopped then he started crying went wild then went still and quite so maybe 3 to 5 minutes the other goats came over and watched. They deffinetly cut me off and I make them clear. I have had them push into me before. I grab there noses and blow into it. I deffinetly will try different correction to catch them off guard.

[sagetrecker]

They don't touch me when they cut me off tho they just stand in the way not head on so if I just keep walking I run into there rear end. If I only get that kinda reaction when I have my daughter think I should set the situation up again ? Just to reinforce my alpha.

[Nanno]

When our goats stop in front of us we kick them in the rear end. It doesn't have to be real hard--the point is not to cause pain because getting whacked in the rear is already something goats understand very well. If a goat stops in front of a dominant herd mate, he will get head-butted in the behind. Goats rarely walk in front of the Head Honcho.

By the way, how old are your goats? If they're less than three years old, they are at the prime age for testing boundaries and figuring out who is in charge. Expect them to test you from time to time. Once your goats know that you are the Boss, they will be less likely to mess with your kids. If you can establish child-friendly habits while your goats are young, these should hopefully last them through adulthood.

It's also important to train your kids how to interact with the goats. They should be quiet and gentle but not nervous. Teach your kids not to shy away from the goats. This triggers the goat to step forward into the child's space, making the kid step back, and so on. Pretty soon you've got a goat that has been trained to chase after children! This unfortunately happened with our first goat when we boarded him at a ranch. The ranch hand's son would pet Cuzco then jump back if Cuzco stepped toward him. Before we knew this was going on, Cuzco had already learned to chase kids and was never trustworthy around them again. It's instinctive for most small kids to step back or run away from big animals that walk toward them, so this is why close supervision is important when you've got kids and goats interacting. When a goat steps into your child's space even just to be friendly, push him back to a safe distance so the goat learns to respect personal boundaries. Your kids will eventually learn from your example how to push goats out of their way. Best of luck to you! Hopefully this is no more than a brief episode.

[Nanno]

By the way, do you mind if I move this to the training section? I think it fits better there.

[sagetrecker]

I don't mind at all

[sagetrecker]

An update i took my goats on a walk with my daughter on my shoulders. They showed no interest in her outside of the pin.