Auditory commands

[Woodsyfeller]

I have a question about goats ability to be trained to whistles or hand signals. Due to an illness i have lost the ability to speak. The best i can do is a grunt and with some effort i can actually bleat like a goat. Thats about it for voice commands. 

What i would like to know is has anyone trained their goats to whistles or hand commands? Is there someone who i can refer to on this subject specifically or is this a whole new frontier when it comes to training goats.

[Nanno]

This is an excellent question. I've actually noticed that goats are more visual than vocal and train very well to hand signals and body language. My husband and I teach our goats tricks, and with every trick we include some type of hand signal along with the verbal command because it greatly speeds the process. Goats usually tune into the hand signal much more readily than to the voice command. I've noticed that if two of my goats' names are similar, they don't always distinguish. When I call either Sputnik or Sonic, both Sputnik and Sonic usually respond because they hear the two syllables and the "S" and "K" sounds at the beginning and ends of their names, but the middle is clearly lost on them. Finn and Scout don't respond to that call because their names are different enough. Goats have very good hearing, but I think their brains aren't wired to receive verbal commands easily (although they certainly do learn them with time).

I have also found that clicker training works very well with goats, and most people can make a click with their tongue or fingers even if they've lost their speaking ability. I will be fascinated to hear how your training experience goes. Please keep us posted!

[blackie's maiden]

I agree w/ Nan, and take it a step further. I believe most animals recognize body language more easily than verbal since it is part of their natural comm7nication with each other. I worked with some hearing impaired people who had their dogs trained to respond to hand signals. Even tho our horses understand several voice commands, they respond well to pointing and other hand signals even better.