Author Topic: Goats fighting (Read 3638 times)

countrywoman · « **on:** May 19, 2012, 07:34:53 pm »

My two adults have lived together amicably all winter after an initial 'sort out' of heirarchy when they arrived. The goatling accepted second place, and all was peaceful with the occasional scuffle to re-assert first place.

A week before kidding, they were separated by a hurdle with access to their night pens which are also only separated by a hurdle. So they were in constant sight, smell, reach of each other. For the last two weeks I have been putting them together for supervised access to forage rack etc and, while hungry and absorbed by greenery, all is quiet. Then a head-butting battle begins with mad chasing and clear aggression from the older (former dominant) doe to the younger, who now stands up for herself more.

The older one's boys are being bottle-fed and do not get turned out with the girls. So I don't think protectiveness is a factor as far as the aggressor is concerned. In all this, the female kid of the younger one gets knocked sometimes (which doesn't seem to worry her but I keep thinking about broken legs etc) and I always separate them again before I leave them unattended.

Is this usual? Should I keep them separate or leave them to sort out their position? Would it be better to wait until the kid is older or would that just make her more of a target? I'd like them to be a unit again but don't want to risk injury to any if time is needed to let things settle down.

Joseph · « **Reply #1 on:** May 22, 2012, 10:57:47 am »

Hi, some people don't like using shock collars for animal training, but after figuring that I used electric fencing to "train" my girls to stay within their boundary (and away from poisonous plants) I thought I would give a remote shock collar a go, to sort out a similar problem to the one you have, when I introduced a third goat to the the herd for their own safety.

Peace returned to the goat shed immediately. The device I used had a vibrate mode which worked as a deterrent instead of the shock after a few shocks associated with the vibration and so all in all I hardly had to use the shock button, and I removed the collar after a few days.

Might be dependant upon how fast a learner the animal is, but it worked for me, and fast!

Dogwalker · « **Reply #2 on:** May 22, 2012, 06:05:49 pm »

If that's the kind of dog collar that you press a button to zap them, I think they're illegal in Wales. I had to warn my daughter and sil when they visited with their GS dog

jaykay · « **Reply #3 on:** May 22, 2012, 06:32:24 pm »

A water pistol works pretty well instead.

I noticed my goats headbutting a bit the other day, they too have been just the other side of a mesh partition from each other and then let out back together.

It seems to have calmed down today, other than the usual stuff of Ellie reminding Rowan that she's the boss.

Skirza · « **Reply #4 on:** May 22, 2012, 07:33:44 pm »

Quote from: jaykay on May 22, 2012, 06:32:24 pm

A water pistol works pretty well instead.

Now you've done it...my OH is demanding a super soaker!

countrywoman · « **Reply #5 on:** May 22, 2012, 08:11:40 pm »

Water pistols! Of course. My preferred method of surprising a dog in the act of transgressing. It changes the focus of attention without damaging anything except maybe ego.

I have met a man near here who used a shock collar to retrain a sheep-chasing dog but I'm not sure whether it would be suitable for a goat. Although I suppose it would make her respect the other one if she thought that was where the jolt came from. I had a puppy whose first over-enthusiastic meeting with sheep was through an electric fence and for the rest of his life he gave them a very wide berth because he thought they were electric.

Tomorrow I'll allow a supervised all-goats-together session and target the aggressor when she is clearly intent on either her friend or the kid. Fingers crossed! Thanks for the help.

doganjo · « **Reply #6 on:** May 22, 2012, 08:24:39 pm »

I have used an electric collar on a dog which was fighting with an other one. It was a long time ago and I wouldn't use one at all now, there is no doubt in my mind they are cruel, unless only the buzzer/vibrator is used - and in any case it only made Clyde worse. The water pistol method is far more to be preferred in my opinion.

Brucklay · « **Reply #7 on:** May 22, 2012, 09:31:33 pm »

I think every situation is different and had to be assessed as such - water make work on one dog or goat but not another - a bucket of water over my GS when she was 3 didn't stop her attacking our 12 year old collie (they'd lived happily together for 3 years!!) it just ended up with a very wet and slippy kitchen floor and me getting my hand bitten!!!