training goats

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Rule Number One: Don't ever chase a goat away from the scene of its crime. You can not catch it and the goat knows it. Just making it leave the areas is not a correction. In the goat's way of thinking it won the confrontation and you may actually be teaching the goat to play games in which it tries to see how much stuff it can get out of the bag before dancing away just our of reach. To the goat this is fun, but to the humans in camp it leads to thoughts of goat murder.http://www.northwestpackgoats.com/index.htm

I've been researching goat training. Goats are good draft & pack animals. Their browsing is excellent for "weed eating" the yard. In fact, many communities are now hiring herds of goats to remove unwanted brush from freeway onramps, empty lots, etc.

I'm deciding whether to train my goats to collars or harnasses. Harnasses seem more humane; goats, as prey, are uncomfortable about restraints to the neck. But a chain collar can't be eaten by the other goat; a harnass can.

At any rate, I'm thinking my goats can pull a cart to the store. I can outfit them with panniers (saddle bags), too.

As with any animal, the earlier one begins training, the easier it'll be.

I've been letting my doe get away with a behavior I must stop. When I'm sitting on the bed, she'll try to climb my back. As they say on the website, it's cute when they're babies, but who needs, in my case, a fifty pound goat running up and jumping on my back?

I laughed at the above quote; I've been through similar experiences with dogs and cats. They're all faster and more cunning than I. So, training will be necessary.

They're certainly not satanic. They're clever, that's for sure. They're tricksters. But that's not to be confused with evil. What kind of church looks at intelligent mischief and immediately labels it "evil?" mercy! Any creature who thinks differently than they do is automatically damned. The history of human imperialism.

Well, I'll soon have goats and a roommate to feed (they're all, mercifully, asleep right now). Then, I'll pack the goats into their dog carrier for safekeeping while I'm off on the bus to UNM to work more on my pottery. I can only work short days now. I have to come home and feed goats.

I'm feeding them on THEIR schedule. They seem to eat about every three hours during the day and not at all at night. By 9pm, they hit the sack and can be persuaded to sleep in until nearly 8am, if we're quiet. They're eating about four ounces of formula/cows milk at a time. Their poops aren't runny. Their kidneys are CERTAINLY functioning. Their eyes are bright. They play a lot and then just collapse in a ball for about two hours.

I haven't any names for them, yet. Contenders are: Beevis and Butthead, Tristan and Isolde, Oscar and Gertrude, Burns and Allen or Billy and Nanny. So far.