Chat
01-29-2017, 01:04 PM
That's a very interesting story, HunterImagery! We've spent a lot of time "loving up" or old, cranky wether, Cuzco when he's been aggressive but it has never done any good. Cuzco has never been aggressive with his horn, but he growls and body-blocks and puts up his hackles. Loving him up has never worked, but to be fair, neither has anything else we've ever tried (except taking the other goats away), so at this point we just manage him. He's too old to be much danger to anyone by now anyway, so we let him feel tough.
I've not (yet) personally worked with a goat that had "poking" problems, but after watching goat behavior these last few years and after hearing from a lot of people who have had goats much longer than me, I've decided that it's probably best to leave their horns alone as much as possible. From observing them, goats never, ever touch each other's horns as a sign of affection. If a goat ever initiate's contact with another goat's horns, it's always to start a fight. It's good to keep that in mind when interacting with a goat's horns. It seems to me that goats put a great deal of pride into their horns and they want you to respect them. A docile goat tolerates having his horns handled and even played with by people, but I've never seen one that looked like he enjoyed it. For that reason, I've kept away from my boys' horns except when I have a specific goal in mind such as when I have to twist their horns around a little to get their head through the breastcollar. The boys understand my goal so they don't resent my help in getting their horns through, and in fact they've both learned to twist their own horns through so I don't have to touch them so much. I guess what I'm saying is that touching horns affectionately is not something goats understand by nature. I know goats can be trained to tolerate having their horns handled regularly, but for most goats I'm not sure what purpose this serves in the long run. If you're not very careful in the way you train, you run the risk of accidentally teaching the goat to initiate horn contact because he thinks he'll be rewarded for it.
Sanhestar would be a good person to chime in on clicker training your goat to not touch people with its horns because I'm not sure about that one.
The problem of dodging away from hind end contact is a really good behavior to work on with positive reinforcement techniques though. I've had to work through that one with several of my goats. After watching the way goats interact, I'm convinced that hind end handling problems are related to dominance issues. Either the goat is young and/or low on the pecking order and is afraid of an attack from behind, or the goat is maturing and gaining status in the pecking order and now sees your touch as an assault on his high position. Either way, it's self-defense. Dominant goats butt or mount subordinate ones from behind. Your goat is probably not afraid of you since she's been touched all her life, but she's maturing and now thinks that you are initiating aggression when you touch her. Luckily this issue can be overcome with some pretty simple desensitization using a combination of positive and negative reinforcement.
It's important for you not to "release" Liesel from your touch when she moves or tries to swing around at you. That will only reinforce her behavior. Tie her head short so she can't whack you, and wear sunglasses (safety first always!). Touch her gently but firmly (don't be timid and tickle her!), and keep your hand on her while she dances around. The second she stands still, take your hand off (negative reinforcement) and give a reward (positive reinforcement). She needs to know that jumping around and showing aggression does not get her what she wants. If she wants you to stop touching, then she needs to learn that standing still is the fastest way for her to get that. Pretty soon she'll relax and realize that she gets rewarded, not only for standing still, but also for getting touched and she'll forget why she hated being touched in the first place. It should not take your goat long to realize that a touch from you is not a form of aggression against her and she'll stop the self-defensive behavior.
I've not (yet) personally worked with a goat that had "poking" problems, but after watching goat behavior these last few years and after hearing from a lot of people who have had goats much longer than me, I've decided that it's probably best to leave their horns alone as much as possible. From observing them, goats never, ever touch each other's horns as a sign of affection. If a goat ever initiate's contact with another goat's horns, it's always to start a fight. It's good to keep that in mind when interacting with a goat's horns. It seems to me that goats put a great deal of pride into their horns and they want you to respect them. A docile goat tolerates having his horns handled and even played with by people, but I've never seen one that looked like he enjoyed it. For that reason, I've kept away from my boys' horns except when I have a specific goal in mind such as when I have to twist their horns around a little to get their head through the breastcollar. The boys understand my goal so they don't resent my help in getting their horns through, and in fact they've both learned to twist their own horns through so I don't have to touch them so much. I guess what I'm saying is that touching horns affectionately is not something goats understand by nature. I know goats can be trained to tolerate having their horns handled regularly, but for most goats I'm not sure what purpose this serves in the long run. If you're not very careful in the way you train, you run the risk of accidentally teaching the goat to initiate horn contact because he thinks he'll be rewarded for it.
Sanhestar would be a good person to chime in on clicker training your goat to not touch people with its horns because I'm not sure about that one.
The problem of dodging away from hind end contact is a really good behavior to work on with positive reinforcement techniques though. I've had to work through that one with several of my goats. After watching the way goats interact, I'm convinced that hind end handling problems are related to dominance issues. Either the goat is young and/or low on the pecking order and is afraid of an attack from behind, or the goat is maturing and gaining status in the pecking order and now sees your touch as an assault on his high position. Either way, it's self-defense. Dominant goats butt or mount subordinate ones from behind. Your goat is probably not afraid of you since she's been touched all her life, but she's maturing and now thinks that you are initiating aggression when you touch her. Luckily this issue can be overcome with some pretty simple desensitization using a combination of positive and negative reinforcement.
It's important for you not to "release" Liesel from your touch when she moves or tries to swing around at you. That will only reinforce her behavior. Tie her head short so she can't whack you, and wear sunglasses (safety first always!). Touch her gently but firmly (don't be timid and tickle her!), and keep your hand on her while she dances around. The second she stands still, take your hand off (negative reinforcement) and give a reward (positive reinforcement). She needs to know that jumping around and showing aggression does not get her what she wants. If she wants you to stop touching, then she needs to learn that standing still is the fastest way for her to get that. Pretty soon she'll relax and realize that she gets rewarded, not only for standing still, but also for getting touched and she'll forget why she hated being touched in the first place. It should not take your goat long to realize that a touch from you is not a form of aggression against her and she'll stop the self-defensive behavior.