Teach Your Goat to Lead
Every animals need to at least learn to walk on a lead. It’s much easier to mover
individual animals from one paddock to another, if it walks silently – not fighting
you every step of the way. It’s better to put an animal on a trailer or truck when
you sell it if you’re not pulling and jerking, or worse lifting and carrying it. In
case, your animal requires medical attention, your vet would greatly appreciate having a
well-trained goat to treat.
Once the goat learns definitely we are not going to torture it again and again. You can
put a lead on the goat’s neck and tie it to a fence or gate. Remember never, ever
leave your tied goat unattended; this could lead your goat with broken neck. While tied,
you need to brush them, make them familiar to being handled. Further do rub your hands on
their backs, up and down legs, and give them a good feel by tickling their bellies. You
could also gently rub the neck the shoulders; this has a very cheering effect on the goat.
For smaller goat, you can put two pans of food on the ground about 30 feet apart. Walk up
to the goat to the first pan of food. Just allow him to eat for couple of seconds and then
take the food away and walk the goat to second pan. Repeat the same trip for few times,
after that take a longer route from one pan to another. The advantage of this process is
not to force the goat to go among the pans but to get them to want the reward. And through
this process they learn how to walk.
When the training is over for the show and after the goat has mastered the art of walking,
you can walk several yards then stop the goat and “set it up” so that it is
standing “square”. Through this you make you goat familiar to have others check
their bite or inspect udders. Another technique is to put a long leash or rope on the goat
permitting it to run from you with and you following. This is somewhat easier than
dragging your goat behind you if you could keep up with the goat. Once the goat get used
to you tagging along behind, slowly shorten the lead until the goat walks next to you.
Yet another technique is to use a big trained goat and let it be a trainer to a smaller
one to lead by attaching the two together. To us, this is the anyhow a least effective
method of training. If you try this technique, don’t never leave your goat alone
while tethered; they would get into all sorts of problem that may lead to injury or death.
Once your goat is broken to lead, it does not forget. Teach them when they are young, and
hold them when they are old.
Asai is a copywriter of ww.goatdealer.com. He had written various articles in different
topics on goat for sale.
