Questionable Buck Behavior

[Ridgetop]

Head rubbing with his scent glands is a sign of dominance. He is marking you as one of his does. Yes it stinks, and I never allowed any of my bucks (or rams) to head rub me. There are also scent glands behind his knees and during rut he will rub his face on them, pee on his beard, and then try to rub that delicious smell all over you. To the does it is delightful like an expensive perfume. To me GAG! I don't allow any of my animals to jump on me, rub their heads on me, paw at me, or otherwise assert any dominance over me. I am 70, not getting any younger, but getting a bit weaker and less sure footed so don't need to be knocked over.

 

[bethh]

Head rubbing with his scent glands is a sign of dominance. He is marking you as one of his does. Yes it stinks, and I never allowed any of my bucks (or rams) to head rub me. There are also scent glands behind his knees and during rut he will rub his face on them, pee on his beard, and then try to rub that delicious smell all over you. To the does it is delightful like an expensive perfume. To me GAG! I don't allow any of my animals to jump on me, rub their heads on me, paw at me, or otherwise assert any dominance over me. I am 70, not getting any younger, but getting a bit weaker and less sure footed so don't need to be knocked over.

I thought it was probably a sign of dominance. We are working on it. I come in smelling to high heavens. The bucks don’t jump on us. Our girls are a different story. We bottle raised them and they are nuts.

 

[Ridgetop]

We bottle raised all our kids, does and bucks, in our dairy program. None of them were ever allowed to jump from the word go. No matter how cute they are, when dealing with young livestock always visualize them as 150-200 lb. adults (even if they are dwarf breeds) and immediately stop any behavior that would be unacceptable at that size.

It is hard to do when we love them, but you have always to remember that they are livestock and train them accordingly. I never let my children throw tantrums, or climb on grocery store shelves, it is the same idea. You have to train them from babyhood to be well behaved livestock.

 

[bethh]

We bottle raised all our kids, does and bucks, in our dairy program. None of them were ever allowed to jump from the word go. No matter how cute they are, when dealing with young livestock always visualize them as 150-200 lb. adults (even if they are dwarf breeds) and immediately stop any behavior that would be unacceptable at that size.

It is hard to do when we love them, but you have always to remember that they are livestock and train them accordingly. I never let my children throw tantrums, or climb on grocery store shelves, it is the same idea. You have to train them from babyhood to be well behaved livestock.

We are definitely learning.