Snow...

Cold; not enough to have fun in... just enough to be uncomfortable. I've been trying to figure out next summer... next year... how I will get into college... how I will take the classes I need to take... I've never had to think about so many tests at the same time.

On the bright side I have been doing more with my goats of late... mainly trying to get some hooves trimmed... Neither of them enjoy it... Pippin least of all. Step by step I go. Trying to keep my principles aligned with my actions. In all things.

For want of anything more interesting to post here is an essay I wrote for english a month or so ago... about my 16th birthday.

Sixteen

They call it sweet sixteen... Maybe bittersweet is more accurate. The day itself was not particularly anything. Another birthday which I used, as I often do, to make my family do manual labor that might not otherwise get done. In the evening my grandfather told me that I was now “farm manager.” The next day we went to church and, in the evening a goat farm. But the day before my birthday....

I had been at AB-tech all morning. Mum called as I was waiting for Dad to pick me up and take me to get my Learner's permit, she told me that they had found Mama, our chicken, in the barn; alive but with a gaping, maggoty wound on her led. I called the vet's office on the drive to the DMV. They said that I could get antibiotics for the price of $24. I said I'd call them back. We got my permit and drove home. I went to look at Mama. The wound was moving, crawling, as maggots of all sizes ate her alive. She couldn't recover, and yet she didn't seem miserable, at least, she was eating and standing up. But I (and my mother) doubted she could last much longer. I called the vet again and said that we were just going to let her die peacefully. I described the wound and Ann said “That isn't a peaceful death.”

Then followed a conversation on how to kill her. We could break her neck, cut her head off, or take her to the vet's gas her down and then do either of the above. We chose to cut her head off. We though the knife was sharp. We thought we were starting from the right side and so would slit her jugular. Somehow it didn't work quite right. She didn't die on the first try, or the second. I think the third did it. I hope so at least.

If I'm going to be a vet I will need to kill, but not like that. I will have tools. I can try to save first and then let them slip unconsciously into oblivion. In humanity's great fight for life or a dignified death the score in my battle is one: nil, and at sixteen I'm on the losing side.

M.

Walking

Walking. It seems to be one of the easiest ways to experience the dominance dynamics in your "herd." Maybe this is because movement is one of the things that herds do together. From pasture to water; from water to pasture... I like walking with Kip and the goats. It is so interesting to see their reactions to each other, to me, to mum, to the world. Merry is calm for the most part. He doesn't mind Kip unless she is actively nipping (not literally) at her heels, his hackles are mostly down, he is focused on eating. Pippin eats less, he is always aware (and often unhappy) of Kips position in relation to himself and likes doing that sideways canter thing down hills. Kip does her thing... but has learned that sometimes close to Pippin isn't good... or really, most of the time close to Pippin isn't good.

In relation to the humans the goats are funny -- and annoying. They want to be ahead always and at the same time stop and eat. They will try and run ahead and then stop, blocking your path, to grab some honeysuckle. It drives Mum crazy. Especially when I tell her it is a dominance game. Her strategy today, and it worked excellently, was to take the two empty mugs in which we had had our tea, and, one in each hand, walk along in front swinging her arms fairly energetically. If the goats tried to get by on either side they bumped into the mugs. It was uncomfortable and eventually they decided that it was easier to stay behind. This is a wonderful example of what I would call unemotional consequences. The person swinging the mugs doesn't let their emotions get mixed up in the knocking on the nose and so, instead of being a negative punishment it is just an uncomfortable consequence of an unwise decision. The goats seem to get this.

Another thing Kip does on these walks (apart from run around like a maniac) is learn new tricks. So far she knows how to jump onto things, jump up and then sit for a treat. Today Mum and I started to teach her to jump over things. The difficulty is that she generally, if she can, thinks she should be jumping onto things since that is what we taught her first to I have been using my goat training stick (carrot stick) and stick it out in front of me and ask her to jump it. She did it really well at least twice. In training her it is really interesting to notice the similarities and dissimilarities compared to what I do with the goats. For on thing I us my voice a lot more. She knows her name and to come (at least sometimes) and if she is doing something wrong she gets the "game-show-incorrect-buzzer-sound." Amazingly enough she gets it! I didn't formally teach it as in "hear this sound and something not great happens." I just started using it and she started responding. I would love to know why. One similarity in the way I interact with her is when she is/used to be frightened and when I am trying to catch her. I use the same sort of reverse psychology and low/turned away energy and it seems to work! I guess animals are most united in fear.

Enough of my random/often disconnected musings. I mun to bed. Happy Thanksgiving to all! Enjoy your turkey. We are having Indian food. No, not Native American; I mean Indian curry... wish me luck as a non-spicy eater in a spice loving family... I am comforted solely by the thought of pumpkin pie...
G'night,
M.

Games today

I went out to formally "play" with my boys this afternoon. With the frozen chestnuts I had gathered this fall they were very happy. I had been worried because, when I had tried to play a little bit at liberty a couple feeding times ago, things had not gone very well. However when I put the halter on Merry, he was willing to have it on and once the chestnuts came into play, very enthusiastic about figuring out what I wanted him to do. This consisted of jumping through a window, (it was only two feet off the ground... don't worry) some touch it, hindquarter yielding, and backing up a small (but relatively steep) hill.
Then I put the halter on Pippin and did some touch it, backing, sideways and jumping through the window.
Here are some things I noticed. Using treats, chestnuts, I felt that Merry, at least, got almost frantic trying to do everything he could possibly think of to figure out what I wanted him to do. I suppose you could think of this as good but it makes me rather uncomfortable. I feel that his brain isn't really there and he can't learn anything, and, if he was larger then his moving that fast without his brain in the right mode could be dangerous to me. Don't get me wrong. Treats can entirely change a goats attitude for the better, especially those of this goat-anality. The important distinction to make is between a reward and a bribe. A bribe is holding the treat on the side of the jump to want the goat to go to, a reward is when you ask them (or tell them) to do something first and then, 'oh wow! what a coincidence!' they get a cookie.

Also I think I have taught Pippin to assume that when he goes to a fence he is going to do sideways and it is hard for him to let go of that... I haven't yet figured out how to change that (possibly some backing) but if you are just starting out with your goat I would suggest you be careful not to teach those assumptions. It had to do, I think, with my desire to perfect sideways. If instead one day or minute we had gone to the fence and done sideways and the next just backed up alongside it things might have worked out better...

And one last thing... I think backing can be really good for a goat... not so much that that is all they do, and not always on the same piece of flat land in the pasture, but up hills, over rocks, through gates, across streams etc. As long as the environment is not one in which they might potentially injure themselves I can really get there brains in gear. Of course as with anything do it too much and you risk it becoming an automated reaction to stimulus which is useless but under certain circumstances there is nothing like it!

That is all for tonight.... I'm not sure I've done a post on the yo-yo game but if not then that comes next... it's only fair after that backing rant :)
M.

Here is an episode of radio lab to compliment my last post... find out more about this program at their rather pythonesc website http://www.radiolab.org/

Enjoy!
M.

Watch it...

I cordially request that you watch this.... all the way through... If you aren't laughing at the end I will send you a free halter :) :D have fun!
M.

Fun game for Bored goat

Most people may not have this problem but my goats get bored very easily. However there is one game that Pippin especially really enjoys and that is the touch it game. The idea is that you point to something and the goats touches it, either with his nose or feet. It seems like it would be mind numbing but, because of all the things in the world to be touch and the different degrees of difficulty you can find it give the goat purpose and something to use their brains for. I would start with something really obvious, a cinderblock or even something a bit larger. I think it would be good to have it off the ground so it stands out from the normal topography. Point with the hand that has the lead rope in it towards the block and with your other hand put rhythmic pressure just behind the shoulder blade. When the goat takes a step in the right direction release and pet them. Continue in this way and any time the goat touches the block praise. You could also give a treat but I would be inclined to reserve them for when the goat touches it with his brain there is a big difference between randomly bumping into something and intentionally looking at/touching it. reward the intentional because that is what will stick and it encourages them to use their brains. I will diverge and say that one thing I have noticed with some animals that are clicker trained (although it may have worked really well for some people) have a tendency to move fast and somewhat frantically as if they are just trying everything they can think of as fast as they can to get a treat rather than trying to figure things out. Of course this is not an overarching statement... just an illustration of why I prefer to reward only the brain. Once you master large objects there are infinitely many smaller things... I have even managed a large piece of gravel on days when Pippin is really engaged... Anyway, something for you to think about. I would really love to hear if any of this works for you or if you disagree with any of it... Otherwise I feel like I'm writing a blog to thin air.... which isn't very motivating...
M.

A Merchant of Venice

I've been reading A Merchant of Venice in Homeschool and after seeing an article in a magazine about the site "wordle.net" decided to do one of the Play.

enjoy! M.

Blood Transfusion

On Monday a goat friend called me to talk about her goatling who was not doing well. She had had coccidia (which they were treating) and also had a huge worm load and (as she found out the next day after the vet came out) a PCV of 8 (normal is close to 30). What all this means is that the doeling (Nibbles) was extremely, critically anemic and needed a blood transfusion. On Wednesday she called and asked if Pippin would be the donor. So Friday afternoon I met our vet (Dr. Erin Purvis) and did the transfusion. The procedure was roughly as follows.

1. Shave and scrub (with surgical scrub and alcohol) Pippin's neck. Then put in his catheter, superglue it in a spot to his neck so he doesn't pull it out and put a layer of soft wrap and vet wrap around it (also so it doesn't fall out)
2. Go down to Nibbles and do the same to her (although it took longer to shave because she was fuzzier). Leave her under supervision so she doesn't pull her out.
3. Go back up to Pippin and prepare to draw blood. This includes removing all the lactated ringers solution from a 250 ml bag, put some heprin in the bag to prevent the blood clotting, then get the blood.
4. The getting the blood gets it's own section because it went v-e-r-y slowly at first. When you are drawing with a catheter (especially in these quantities) it takes some fiddling to find the right syringe to put the right amount of pressure to get out the blood without collapsing the plastic that the catheter is made of. Eventually however we found the magic formula and got all 250 mls of blood. Throughout all this Pippin was wonderfully cooperative, stood still, was sweet etc. As soon as we were done Erin pulled out the catheter and bandaged him up and he was done! Mum and Dad and John took him home and gave him some hay.
5. Meanwhile Erin and I took the blood down to Nibbles hooked her up with a slow drip and so continued for well over an hour. Nibbles was also well behaved (only tried to bite through the line once!) but the same can not be said for her brother... he tried very determinedly to make trouble the entire time. Anyway at last we got it all in her and left her sitting under her heat lamp.

I got some footage that I will be putting on Youtube soon if anyone is interested. Anyway that is my contribution to the blogosphere for the day!
Hope you enjoyed it!
M.

Random Musings

This is mainly a filler until I'm able to post about the blood transfusion I did with Pippin on Friday. I've been thinking about various things like what I'm going to do next summer... The current plan is to travel to California (hopefully via goat farms...if you are willing to have me send me an e-mail please!) and also to participate in the program "Summer Ventures in Science and Mathematics".

I've also been thinking about the morality of the amount of money our society spends on "Healthcare"... especially in animals. It seems that many of the important things in life are a conflict between the rational and the emotional. As I'm planning on becoming a vet one thing that seems to me might be hard to deal with, would be people who want to do chemotherapy for their dog with cancer. It seems so wrong, when there are children starving in the world, our country, my town, people with cancer who can't pay for treatment, and all the other inhumanities, that anyone be allowed to pay for that sort of treatment for an animal. And yet in some cases, for some people, their pets are their children. How can you tell them that there is no hope, that it is time to help them die. In some ways human doctors have it easier. There is never any question of "putting their patient to sleep" whether the condition is untreatable or the patient/owner can't afford to pay. And yet maybe the animals are the luckier. A human with a terminal disease who is in pain can't choose to end their lives (at least not without great inconvenience.) An old dog who is in the same position can have its life ended. 

I don't know what is the right thing. One half of my brain is being rational as my emotions try to shout it down... I'd be interested to hear what you thought.

M.