Mr. Moon Explores the World

[Nanno]

Moon is so CUTE! What a little chunklet! I'm sure he'll get used to people very quickly once he's had more exposure. He'll also get more comfortable in the car once he realizes it's his ticket to adventure. :-)

I need to get some photos of Pongo soon.

[MellonFriend]

I bet Pongo's looking bigger too these days! I'll be on the lookout for your pictures.

[MellonFriend]

I finally was able to get Mr. Moon out for an Adventure today.   For a while there it was just too hot and he was being housed with some intact bucks who were making him very smelly, so it would not have been fun to have him in the car.  We went for a walk on the Western Carolina University campus and then walked over to the post office to see our postal worker who loves goats, lastly we hit up one of our farm stores.   

He's really doing well when he's out and about.  It's clear he loves the adventure.  He gets that jaunty walk.    Still not too happy while in the car, but he's learned to jump in when I ask him to which is awesome.  He is just so wonderfully behaved.  Goats are so much more fun to walk than dogs.     We're hoping to get him on some real hikes here soon.   
   
   

[Nanno]

What a lovely boy! I'm glad he's doing so well for you. Keep up the good work! I'm sure he'll warm up to the car eventually. My Pongo is afraid of cars too. I didn't think he would be since he's been riding in them since he was a young tyke, but he's scared of moving traffic and he looks at the truck with deep suspicion as if he's sure it's going to start rolling and drive over him at any second.

[MellonFriend]

What a lovely boy! I'm glad he's doing so well for you. Keep up the good work! I'm sure he'll warm up to the car eventually. My Pongo is afraid of cars too. I didn't think he would be since he's been riding in them since he was a young tyke, but he's scared of moving traffic and he looks at the truck with deep suspicion as if he's sure it's going to start rolling and drive over him at any second.

Oh yes, Moon is scared of traffic too.  Weirdly he tries to walk on the outside of sidewalks where we're near roads.  I keep him on a very short leash when near moving cars and he always tries to get on the outside of me instead of being farther away from the vehicles.  It's sort of odd.  Although I will say that the sidewalks we were on were line with some dense shrubbery so maybe he was scared of walking right next to the hedges?  I'm not sure.

[dragonmaker]

I love seeing Mr. Moon!

[MellonFriend]

Mr. Moon and I have been having a few adventures recently.  We've done a few walks at some local greenways, but yesterday, since it was his birthday the day before we went on his first true hike. It was four miles total and he did pretty good.  It was uphill on the way in and he had to stop quite a few times to rest, especially on the last bit which was quite a push to get to the summit.  The way back was a whole other story.  He was going darn near too fast for me on the way down.  At the beginning of the hike, I tried to put a dog pack on him that I bought for a dog a while ago, but I couldn't get the fit right.  This pack has removeable bags so I just had the saddle on him, but it kept slipping to one side.  I'm not sure if I had it too loose, too tight, or what, but I'm going to have to figure out how to manage that.  The biggest thing Mr. Moon learned from this trip is that bridges are not scary.  When we first encountered a narrow footbridge he needed to be greatly encouraged to get on it, but by the end of the trip he wanted to go across the bridges multiple times for fun.    I am shocked by how much this little guy pees!  He had to stop like every ten minutes for a potty break, and that's on top of the whole minute of peeing he did when he first got out of the car.  It's crazy.  And then he doesn't want to drink the whole time were away from home.  I have a travel water bottle/dish combo for on the trail, but he won't drink out of that, and at the car I had a gallon with a bucket he's familiar with, but still he doesn't want to drink.  Is this normal?  I mean even when he got home, he didn't run to the water bucket.  So what's with that?

Here we are at the summit of the hike.  There was a big rock face there that he seemed to enjoy climbing on, showing his mountain goat ancestry.  
   

[MellonFriend]

Here's a picture with the view up there.
   

[Nanno]

How pretty the view is! It sounds like a fun adventure. Mr. Moon is almost the same age as Pongo. Pongo turned 1 year old on Feb. 26.

Dog packs are notorious for sliding off to one side because they don't have a rigid tree to prop them up. Goats aren't symmetrical because the rumen bulges out to the left side and it changes size and shape throughout the day as they exercise. Dogs don't have that business going on so the packs stay put better. If you could find a way to shim the pack with some rigid or semi-rigid pieces along the bottom on either side of the spine it would stay in place better. Some polypropylene plastic sheeting (like the kind my PolyDomes are made of) could be cut with a jigsaw to make some shims, but I'm not sure how they could be attached. Dog packs are nice because they are inexpensive and lightweight, but they definitely have their downsides. You can't really tighten them very well either because the lack of a rigid tree means you could compress your goat's spine and you don't want to do that of course.

As for the peeing, yep, we've all experienced that with green and unconditioned wethers just starting their first day of hiking! It's like they have an endless bladder! Most of them also won't drink when they're young and inexperienced. You could try adding some Gatorade powder to the water to see if it tempts him. My goats go nuts for that stuff. Otherwise I go by the mantra that when they're thirsty they'll eventually drink. Some youngsters go a couple of days before they will dare to drink unfamiliar water. I cheat because I have older, wiser goats who are experienced and will drink at almost every opportunity, which sets a great example for the youngsters. They usually copy their elders on the trail, so it's been a long time since I've had a young goat that wouldn't drink. However, I haven't forgotten those days when I did have youngsters who peed bucketloads but wouldn't drink a drop for 2-3 days. They sure get skinny when they do that, but as soon as they start drinking again they plump right back up.  

[MellonFriend]

How pretty the view is! It sounds like a fun adventure. Mr. Moon is almost the same age as Pongo. Pongo turned 1 year old on Feb. 26.

Dog packs are notorious for sliding off to one side because they don't have a rigid tree to prop them up. Goats aren't symmetrical because the rumen bulges out to the left side and it changes size and shape throughout the day as they exercise. Dogs don't have that business going on so the packs stay put better. If you could find a way to shim the pack with some rigid or semi-rigid pieces along the bottom on either side of the spine it would stay in place better. Some polypropylene plastic sheeting (like the kind my PolyDomes are made of) could be cut with a jigsaw to make some shims, but I'm not sure how they could be attached. Dog packs are nice because they are inexpensive and lightweight, but they definitely have their downsides. You can't really tighten them very well either because the lack of a rigid tree means you could compress your goat's spine and you don't want to do that of course.

As for the peeing, yep, we've all experienced that with green and unconditioned wethers just starting their first day of hiking! It's like they have an endless bladder! Most of them also won't drink when they're young and inexperienced. You could try adding some Gatorade powder to the water to see if it tempts him. My goats go nuts for that stuff. Otherwise I go by the mantra that when they're thirsty they'll eventually drink. Some youngsters go a couple of days before they will dare to drink unfamiliar water. I cheat because I have older, wiser goats who are experienced and will drink at almost every opportunity, which sets a great example for the youngsters. They usually copy their elders on the trail, so it's been a long time since I've had a young goat that wouldn't drink. However, I haven't forgotten those days when I did have youngsters who peed bucketloads but wouldn't drink a drop for 2-3 days. They sure get skinny when they do that, but as soon as they start drinking again they plump right back up.  

 Thanks for all the great info!  It's good to know that the peeing and lack of drinking is normal.  I'll have to think about what I have that I could use to alter the dog pack. I already figured I'd have to do something to keep it off his spine when carrying a load, but I didn't realize it would slip to the side like this without it.   I can hand sew, so I'm sure I could figure out a way to sew some pockets to slide a rigid material into.