Train Goats to be led

[Claire]

Hello,
My name is Claire. My husband and have about 90 acres in a hilly area in Queensland, Australia.  We spent some time in Washington State U.S.A. when our daughter lived there.  We intended catching up with Pack Goat people on our next trip, but covid intervened.  We have 6 feral/boer cross does at the moment.  They are very quiet.  One, having been bottle fed, is particularly so.  We use them for reducing vegetation load as part of our bushfire strategy and intend buying another 6 (kids) in September.  We use temporary electric fencing for laneways and for the area to be worked.  This works well as they can return to their night paddock without any dramas.  We have had an unusually good rainy season after 6 years of drought and need to move the goats further than is practical to set up laneways. It is a short walk and, as the goats are quiet and usually follow me I thought it might be relatively easy to train them to be led to the new electric fenced area.  I thought of buying a halter to attach a rope lead to but would like some advice as I'm not totally confident that all of them will follow me without a lead to the various areas we want them to reduce vegetation in. I would also like to train the kids with small packs in the future.  Thank you for reading this far.  I look forward to any advice. Best wishes,

[Nanno]

Hello and welcome! I apologize for the delayed response. I've been away from home this past week.

The easiest way to move goats to a new forage area is to shake a bucket of grain at them. Leading goats away from home can be tricky, especially if there is forage along the way to distract them. My goats like to follow me, but they usually see little reason to follow me into an enclosure until bedtime.

My husband and I take our goats for a walk around our property every day, so they are very accustomed to following us. We've always done this since they were kids so we've never had to halter them. It's just part of our routine. For goats whose routine does not involve walking with you every day, I think the grain bucket option might be easiest. However, if you train your lead goat to wear a halter you can move the herd by taking the lead goat and the rest will usually follow.

Training your kids to wear packs is easy. The main thing with our kids is that they are all raised to follow us on daily walks, so walking with us as adults just comes naturally. Then as they get older you can put packs on them and you have packgoats!