naughty buck

[SuburbanFarmChic]

Our older buck was like this except for the escaping. When we had to go in the pen one person stood guard with a shovel or a chain link fence pole or a baseball bat and the other did the chore. He met the business end of a large object on many an occasion until he was sold. When he was sold, the guy that bought him knew full well his history and temperament. He was beautiful, papered, great lines, threw nice kids.. but the raging butt nugget personality was not worth dealing with. If we hadn't found a willing buyer he was going in the freezer. The only reason we even attempted it was that he didn't have horns and he respected the fence.


If this buck has horns I'd say it's not worth it. He'll be able to do 12 times as much damage as a disbudded buck. If you want to try it though, get a SOLID pen and give him his own electric fence charger on real clean strand. Absolutely never turn your back on him. Ever. And until you know he's not going to escape, don't let the kids out in the yard w/o you. An angry buck can seriously hurt or kill a child.

Remember if he gets off of your property he is still your liability. Not saying ZZOMG SHOOT HIM NOW!! Just saying.. be fully aware of what you are deciding to try. It may be that you just bought X lbs of walking goat burger.

 

[Queen Mum]

I TOTALLY DISAGREE with all of you. Unless something is horribly wrong with him he is probably just a scared, untrained unmannerly kid. Nobody taught him the rules! Bucks that are dominant are just acting that way because they don't know you are the boss. You need to teach him the rules.

RULE NUMBER ONE:

You are the people and he is the goat.

RULE NUMBER TWO:

You are in charge and he is NOT! ]

THE MESSAGE IS:

I own you, you are mine, I will NOT HURT YOU, but you will not hurt me either and WE ARE IN CHARGE! WE CAN BE TRUSTED and YOU HAVE NO CHOICE but to trust us.


He needs to be taken down TO THE GROUND!

Next time he chases your husband, he needs to grab him by the front legs, and lay him out flat on the ground and sit on him. Keep him ON THE GROUND! DO NOT let him up. PERIOD. Until he is NO LONGER STRUGGLING. He will bawl and cry and protest and struggle. He will scream and wail and knash his teeth and struggle. Then he will settle down and admit defeat. Keep him down until he is docile.

While he is down, you should be touching him all over. His face, his feet, his head, his butt, his tummy. Talk to him soothingly, but touch him. The kids too!.


Then let him up. But make sure you have a halter on him by then.

If he makes a move to get aggressive, take him down again. When he is behaving, give him a treat.

Sounds cruel? Well there is nothing more cruel than eating him because someone failed to teach him the rules.

Sara
Queen Mum

 

[kstaven]

On a much younger buck I think Queen Mom has the right idea and tend to agree with her summation. But at 3 years old and full grown he has incredible strength and trying to pin him and keep him down is a recipe for a person getting seriously hurt. A buck that age and in rut will fight it out until he is exhausted or dead and retaliate at the first opportunity.

If he is OK with you and the does get him well contained, let him breed the girls and then sell goat burgers. And hope this isn't a characteristic he passes on. The problem here is with a doe that doesn't yield to him could be in for serious damage and that includes you if he decides to dominate you as part of his herd.

Personally I would save myself the trouble, stress, potential danger, and get another buck with better temperment.

As to getting rammed by a buck. Give me a horned one any day. The impact is distributed and absorbed over a larger surface area. This is one thing I learned from personal experience.

 

[redtailgal]

Goat burgers?

Havent thought of that!!!! I'll have to try that when Freezerburn is slaughtered.


What you say on the horns makes sense, though I'll admit I never thought of it like that.

But, I'm too chicken to breed anything that aggressive! We are careful with the cattle and cull (slaughter sale) anything that is difficult to handle and have been rewarded with a easy to manage well tempered herd. I'll do the same with my goats.

 

[Queen Mum]

A friend of mine took down a 250 pound buck who was 6 years old. He had to take him down twice. Admittedly, it was difficult. HE DID NOT struggle till he died. HE just struggled for a little while. The buck never ever did it again and he's a pussycat now.

Goats have personalities. If the goat is mean, it's one thing. If he's just acting unmannerly it's another. You HAVE to evaluate his personality.

IS he mean to when he's not trying to be in charge? Is he approachable at other times? Do the other goats stay away from him in the field when he's grazing? Does he bite and kick them and chase them at other times? If he's mean, get rid of him. If he's just unmannerly, correct it.

If you don't want to be bothered, why take him on in the first place?

Dominance can be a good trait if it's managed. Usually it means you are getting a bigger animal, stronger breeding traits, healthier and better survival prospects.

Sara
Queen Mum

 

[Mamaboid]

Our family laugh at us all the time because every dog we have ever had, every cat even our parrots were all "problem" animals or "the bad one of the litter". We do it intentionally. I find that animals that think for themselves are usually the ones that misbehave. They are also usually the smartest ones in the group, litter or herd. It takes patience, hard work and a good vocabulary of swear words, but we end up with some of the neatest animals ever. We approached our goat herd with the idea that this time we were going to do things differently...we tried, but all the ones that I like their personality were our normal kind of animal...bad. Our buck is only 9 months old and was almost wild when we got him at 4 months. It has taken us 5 months, but he is a doll. Well mannered, gentle with the girls and us and absolutely loves the nieces and nephews. He is a full blooded fainter and when full gown his horns will probably be huge if his daddy is any indication. He already knows that he is not allowed to use them on anything but the trees and barn door. (gotta give em something) lol. The fact that your buck is good with you and not with your husband may be that he was mistreated by a man. It might take a long time and a lot of work, but with time he should be able to make him trust him....but he HAS to stand up to him and show him who is boss. Good luck with him and I hope he can be straightened out.

 

[Queen Mum]

Thank you Mamaboid. I agree.

There is a great author. Temple Grandin. She writes some amazing work about animal behavior. And people behavior. She is autistic. Read her books and you get a whole new perspective on why animals behave the way they do.

Thinking in Pictures is about autism, but it's also about animal behavior.

Her other book
Animals in Translation

is an absolute eye opener and explains TONS about animals that are acting up.

Check them out.

You won't regret it.

Sara
Queen Mum