Training to the pack

[Sanhestar]

With a well bonded, tame goat I usually show them the saddle, place it a few times on the back without closing the cinch, then closing the cinch and let them walk around a bit.

Same with the pack: empty panniers: showing them, putting them to the saddle, walking around. Then adding load.

Last year I started a very, very shy goat to packing resp. the packing evolved out of training him with positive reinforcement to accept being handled by humans without restraining him. He developed so well that I thought about introducing the saddle which he accepted.

But by that time I had reinforced too much that he orients to my hand as a target so he wasn't able to stand still for the saddling process. I had to therefore split down the saddling into very small steps which I documented on video.

So what you can watch will seem very slow going and it is. Because the training goal wasn't to get the saddle on the goat. I knew that he could already tolerate the saddle. The training goal was to teach him to stand still while being saddled, cinched and loaded without fussing around. Especially the standing still to close the cinch was the main criteria because he would move whenever I took a step back or bend down. I also developed a cue that he could give me that he was able to accept the saddle. You will see in the videos that I start with holding the saddle up over his back and wait until he lowes his head a little bit before I click and treat. The head lowering will become his cue to tell me "I'm prepared, go ahead!"

The steps I needed to take to teach him that can also be used - with modifications as needed - with tame goats.

Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5v4KMGSHE8

Part 2, one day later
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPn2_5hGudo

Part 3, fifth training day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk8UQr67qJI