Commanding is one sided. Communication is two sided. To make your interactions with your goat communication you first need to learn how to understand what the goat is saying and why it is doing what it is doing. I think I can safely say that there are two main reason a goat does things; two states it can be in when it is acting. One is fear, the other is confidence (which can be broken down into littler pieces but not now.) . A goat can run because it is scared or run because it is having fun. A goat can resist having its hooves picked up from fear or because it just doesn't want you doing that right now. In the hoof example you can see how much it matters whether the action/reaction is fear based or not. If the goat is scared you should back off, go more slowly, and give it time. If the goat is just resisting because it wants to be dominant you need to keep holding the hoof (even if the goat rears etc.) until it complies so it will respect you. That is why you should be able to read your goat. How do you do it?
Firstly: I've had people ask me if a goat wagging its tail means the goat is happy. The short answer is no, with the qualifier: not necessarily. The way I think about it is that you look at the rest of the goat (ear position etc.) for the emotion and then at the tail for the magnitude of the emotion. This is because I've seen my boys wagging their tails furiously both when they are drinking a nice bottle of milk and when they are fighting.
The emotion shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Ears back means that the goat is either paying attention to something behind it or not particularly thrilled with life at that moment. Airplane ears mean a goat is just chilling. Ears pricked forward can either be about being happy/interested or really focused on something in front of it. You should also look at the position of the head and neck to get more information. A level neck/lowered head is a relaxed goat. If the goats head is held up high then it is looking out for danger/scared. I think the optimal position if you are playing with a goat would be with the head somewhat up.
You should also look out for a goat that is licking it's lips/chewing without having eaten anything... they are learning.
I get asked these sort of questions all of the time, especially the one about the wagging of the tail. My goat, Bill, always wags his tail when he sees me. He's done it since day 1, although he doesn't wag his tail towards anyone else, or for any reason unless we are playing.
ReplyDelete-Autumn
We also look for tail-wagging as signs of a doe in heat, for those training does. I have seen goats licking and chewing, and wondered if it meant the same thing in goats as in horses.
ReplyDeleteAutmmn's goat, Bill, from her comment, must think she is his momma. That is pretty cute.