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"Goats as Pets (Part 3)"

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Goats as Pets (Part 3)
by Gary Pfalzbot
About the Author

Photo Courtesy Carletta Robinette, ©2013 Just as dog is mans best friend, a goat can be a close runner-up. My wife and I frequently take our goats on walks through brushy areas. Our goats enjoy this immensely and make several stops along the way to see what there is to eat. If we decide to move on without our goats, they sense that they are alone and soon run to catch up to us. Perhaps this is a domesticated behavior from being continually handled. Not all goats will respond as such. The more you are with your goat(s) on a daily basis, the more they sense you are the master and they treat you accordingly. Many people use goats for hiking, placing a pack on their goats to do the work of carrying the load. Goats are extremely sure footed making them very suitable for this purpose. It is a great characteristic of goats that make them very good as an outdoor hiking buddy type of pet.

I should stress here that disciplining goats is not an easy task but I subscribe to the theory that just about any living animal is more apt to respond positively to positive behavior modification than to negative behavior modification. What I mean is that you should never strike your goats with a hand, foot or object. Likewise, throwing objects at goats in particular, is not recommended as it only serves to spook them and make them run. While I personally must admit to throwing a rock or two or at an unruly goat now and then, the result is never positive and thus the goat(s) never learn...they will soon be back to doing what you did not want them doing in the first place. We've obtained our best results by using a can of grain than we have by using any type of sudden action or movement.

Photo courtesy of Carletta Robinette. © 2013

When around your goat(s), be gentle. Don't move suddenly or make any unexpected motions. Use gentle, loving touch and your goats will respond better. I recently attended a goat and sheep show and the judges were impressed with the persons who showed their goats by using a gentle approach rather than the person who just "forced" the animal to bend to their will. Talk softly to your goats. I have found that if you give a goat a name, it will learn to recognize that name and though it may not always come up to greet you, it will turn it's head and look at you. It would be interesting to discover just what the intellengence quotient of a goat is. I personally believe that they have the capacity to learn a few words but again, one must be willing to invest time with their goat(s) to be able to produce noticeable results.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

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About the author: Gary Pfalzbot is a Service Connected Disabled Veteran and the web master of GoatWorld as well as some other web sites. He has raised goats over the years, been involved with 4-H (as a young boy) and currently resides in Colorado where he and his wife Pam raise a few breeds of goats and other animals, and primarily author the GoatWorld web site to continue to inform, educate, and promote the industry.

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