# Need advise for goat anxiety with separation



## madcow (Aug 20, 2013)

Okay, I've decided that I want to train my wether, Waldo, to walk on a leash and later graduate to a harness and pulling a cart.  He's about 6-1/2 months old and still nurses his momma occasionally.  The problem I have is all 4 of my goats are related and whenever they are separated, even on the other side of the fence and can see each other, they get upset and the only thing they can think about is getting back to the rest of the herd.  Even if I take him out of sight he will yell and carry on wanting to get back to the others.  I guess I could drive him to the school parking lot or some place else out of sight and ear shot, but he will be upset at having to haul him someplace else and probably won't be good at training sessions, even over repeated times.  How do you deal with a goat to get them over the idea of being away from the herd for short periods of time and be calm enough to train?  Anybody got any experience with hints or ideas to do this or any websites I can check out for information concerning begining training of a goat?  Even my herd queen and her grown daughter (almost 2 years old) get upset when I separate them, so I'm thinking age really doesn't have a whole lot to do with it.  They are just a really tight-knit group with a really strong herd instinct.


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## chicken pickin (Aug 20, 2013)

I don't have any experience training a goat though I plan to start training my ND doelings soon. Im not sure if this would work but what if you take a another one of your goats out to be near him while you are training him. Maybe having another herd member close by will calm him enough to get some training done and slowly get more distance from the other goat until he is comfortable being with just you during his training session. Again I have no experience but just a thought. Good luck.


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## SheepGirl (Aug 20, 2013)

When I take one sheep away from the rest of the flock, they all yell at me to reunite them. I can usually shut the one im working with up with feed. If their mind is distracted with grain they usually wont be thinking about their buddies.


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## madcow (Aug 20, 2013)

SheepGirl said:
			
		

> When I take one sheep away from the rest of the flock, they all yell at me to reunite them. I can usually shut the one im working with up with feed. If their mind is distracted with grain they usually wont be thinking about their buddies.


Hmmmmm, maybe attempt to train him at feeding time?  Might try that.  He's definitely a little pig when it comes to feeding and will always follow me back to the gate within the pen away from the others so he can have some hand-fed treats without the bossy does keeping him from eating his treats in peace.  I did take him out of the gate at noon today to see how he would do with treats outside of the gate and he panicked and forgot about the BOSS, but if he was hungry enough he might forget about his herd for a few minutes.  Sadly, goats are so darn smart they figure things out pretty quickly, and I'm not sure how long this might work.  I've separate them for 24 hours not too long ago and he and his cousin ET, whom I separated at the same time too, refused to eat the entire time of the separation.  They were pretty upset.  Had to finally reunite them all after 24 hours to get them to shut up.  I'm wondering if I might have to try training a goat that is new to the herd and not so attached to the group or take him to a place that is far away from the herd in order to get him to think I'm the herd.  My goats are really socialized and think I'm part of the herd to begin with.  I'm thinking he might need to be far enough away from the main herd that he will have no choice but to be attached to only me in order to train him.  Thankfully he's a pygmy goat and probably only weighs about 40 pounds at this point, and that makes putting him in a carrier and loading him in the car not be that huge of an issue right now.  Waldo is my favorite of all our goats, mainly because he is just so laid back compared to the does.  I'm sure that comes partly from the fact he's been wethered and knows he low man on the pole so to speak.  He's just pretty darn cute too.  I can see him harnessed up and pulling a small cart.  Now how cute is that? I think I might have to find a book on training goats and see what kind of suggestions they have to get them started.  Thanks everyone for your suggestions.


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