Pack Goat Central

I want a packaroo! I'd never have to churn cream again--just load it in the pack and by the end of the trail I've got butter!

Hi Rockman, I'm in central Victoria. Interesting to hear about your hunting friend.

Charlie Horse - we disbud all of our kangaroos

I started clicker training our goats last January (2015) after years of absence.

Just couldn't figure out how to work with the enormous food orientation and mugging that would soon develop.

Had the luck/good sense to enlist in the online clicker course offered by a horse clicker trainer - Alexandra Kurland - and have started anew with incorporating some of her basic lessons into the new approach:

- protected contact
- clicking for "leave me alone" or as she calls it "grown-ups are talking, please dont interrupt"
- feeding for position

I had focussed too much the first time on the "trick" component and missed that you can basically enforce EVERY behaviour, even standing still and keeping a polite distance.

So far I have made enormous progress with the formerly most laid-back and shy goats in the herd. While I started with the simple goal of making every day live and management for them and me easier I am now at a stage where I can realisticly start to train two of them to pack.

This might seem like a long time, when I write January 2015 but I made long breaks in between when life just got in the way and for the one goat - Freddie - who was my main project, it took 15 sessions to become completely comfortable around me, starting to engage in social interaction, looking for scratches (and not hiding in the farthest corner) and 15 more sessions (only two spend on introducing the saddle) to be able to be saddled and walk out of the paddock alone with me on a lead rope.

What he also tought me is that I need to split down my wishes small enough for him, maybe even just a minute movement at first and then asking more the next day. If I rush him, he will refuse the treat - then seeming uninterested but in truth not able to chew because of inner tension - or even walk away.

Hi Sabine, that's a really inspiring story, thank you for sharing it. You seem to be a very patient person I, too, have had the same issue with being mugged for food with clicker training. However, I think it's my ineptitude with this method rather than anything else that's causing the problem. I might do some more research and give it another go.

Patient - me? Not particularly. But I'm getting better at it :-)

Great post about clicker training, Sabine! Thank you! I bought a clicker last year but only used it a few times. I found it distracting to fiddle with, and because I'm not used to it I would sometimes click it at inappropriate times (total user error, I know, but it frustrated me enough to quit before I became proficient). It also got in my way sometimes when I needed to use both hands. However, I think it would be worthwhile for me to take the time to learn how to use it properly because our tricks are becoming more complex. We've been doing fairly well with training the boys not to mob us when we're working with them alone, and right now we're working on making them stay in one place while we walk away or fuss with them. They're learning pretty well without the clicker, but I think the clicker would almost certainly help them learn the command faster and more reliably.

Do you think you might copy your clicker post to the training section? I don't want it to get buried, and I'd love to read people's ongoing experiences with clicker training.

I use a tongue click - many clicker trainers do - this sound that you can make when you put your tongue against the roof of your mouth and then let it "snap" down. Is less invasive especially when you train with other people around you and, as you said, you always have both hands free. And it's always with you.

I'll copy the post and elaborate a bit more. Will take some time, though.

Tongue click is a really good idea. I would need to train myself as much as the goats--usually I use a tongue click only as a "move on" cue.

you can use any easy to produce, short sound.

Freddies much more detailled story can now be found here

http://www.packgoatcentral.com/forums/sh...n=lastpost