Tuesday 13 August 2013

Training a Goat to Stay Put

I have five goats fenced with 4-5 strands of electric fencing (I have some pigmy goats and some normal size so need more strands for the varying sizes) they tend to try to go through the fence at just below their own head height.  

It takes them a day or two to get use to the fencing, and often when they arrive they are disorientated having been moved from their previous home.  I tether them for a couple of days, until I feel they know where there home is, then if they run off at least they have a good chance of finding their way back.  I then undo the tether whilst I am in their paddock, then I step out of the electric fenced area and usually they follow and get zapped.  This happens a couple of times before they associate going through the fence with pain (it isn't really horrendous just uncomfortable).  If they are really stubborn then they have to have a bucket of water poured over their head and be pushed against the fence, a horrid thing to do but it does work, after a couple of times they stop going near the fence and you have lovely goats that stay put.  

I have five that have now been trained for the electric fence, none of them came from place that used electric fencing, so it was all new to them.  

I pop down a couple of times a day and go and do stuff in their paddock or chuck them some corn or other treats so they are use to people being about and associate me with treats, this makes it easier to get them back if they do escape.  

I think at the moment they would only try to escape if they didn't have enough food in their paddock.  I will let you know what happens when I more their paddock and I also need to move the females away from the males in September so they don't end up pregnant too early, that should be an interesting one!

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