The Steps of Goat Aggression

[Nanno]

Yikes! This IS scary and it sounds like your wethers need some very real behavior modification! The most difficult scenario is when you buy several baby wethers at the same time. They learn nothing about herd hierarchies from that situation but tend to become bullies. Make sure when you go in to feed that you carry some kind of "weapon" with you for self-defense. I always recommend a riding crop, but a spray bottle or squirt gun works very well on some goats. When they challenge you, get big, get loud, and get aggressive. Face them full-on and put your hands in the air. Yell and clap and stomp. Make them think you are 10x bigger than you are. I will sometimes throw things as well. Sticks, pinecones, horse poo... whatever objects come to hand that won't actually injure them (rocks are not a good option except as a final resort when it's your safety vs. theirs). Your goats must not only respect you, but they must also respect any humans that are with you, especially children.

Best of luck with your herd. I hope you can get their behavior turned around. Read through all the posts in this thread. I've typed up a lot of detailed info here about body language and goat social interactions that will help you understand why they do what they do and how to interact with goats in a way that they understand and can respect. Also, I'm sorry it took me so long to approve your post. For some reason it didn't show up in the "today's posts" list yesterday when I was approving new members. Your future posts will not need approval to show up.