Which fence?

[kdogg331]

Didn't think about gas thank you for the reminder.

And your idea sounds like a good one but with as many trees as we have, they would likely get snagged right away.

But I do think I will go with the permanent pen thing. Do you recommend not letting them out at all for a month or just bringing them back myself at first? Babies can't eat too much browse at first anyway, right? Don't want scours

 

[Latestarter]

Lot of variables there; breed, age, location, thickness of the underbrush, your willingness to catch them, their willingness to be caught...

I'd say keep them penned for the first month. You can always cut tree limbs and give them to the goats in their pen. Getting snagged is the whole idea... they can't run away that way. Makes it far easier for you to catch them when that time comes. That's why you stay out there with them. If the goats are conditioned, friendly, not scaredygoats, the trailing lead won't normally snag unless they wrap it around a tree trunk. But if you can get within 25' of them, you can step on the end of the lead and bend over and grab it, and hence them. If they ARE scaredygoats, attaching one to each end virtually guarantees they'll get wrapped up around something, again, making it possible for you to grab the lead and catch them.

 

[kdogg331]

All good points, thanks. The underbrush isn't too thick I don't think but in some places it is. And the trees are fairly close together but not too close. There are also lots of fallen logs from the storms this spring. But honestly I think if we just clean it up a bit it wouldn't be bad. I will make a video of the woods, started to today but didn't finish it.

In the meantime...

Apologies on the VERY long video but here is the whole yard. And lots more brush/browse than it looked like

Still need to do woods tour but the property lines confused me when I tried it (we recently had it surveyed so stakes still in) so I need to get a map to make sure we don't build on the neighbors land. And then I came back for the dog and just walked him through it instead. But tbh no one goes in the woods or cares if anyone is in them so I could browse/walk the goats and no one would notice. Used to walk Gator through them all the time but now he's older so he was struggling a bit today. But just want to be sure I'm not building on someone else's land of course.

 

[kdogg331]

And I will upload the pictures I took soon in case anyone would rather not watch the video but right now I need to go pick up the pizza.

 

[CntryBoy777]

There are 2 things that I will add to all the good advice already given.....if ya get weaned goats around 8-10wks old it will be much easier to get them used to you and their pen/safety area....and it wouldn't be difficult to train them on the lead....also, offer them pellets or some sort of treat, it doesn't have to be much, but if the do get spooked it will make it much easier to get them to walk up to ya and ya can get the lead.....make sure ya always have some in your pocket, it will come in handy. We walked our goats everyday for a year and a half while I was working on the fence, so have had some experience with those situations....just be aware that there could be predators in the woods, so be prepared.....ours would alert and run to get behind me if they were startled, because I'd protect them. There were a few times when loose dogs were confronted and they would smell something in the air and turn while we were walking....we always heeded their signal and would take them back to a different area.....on windy days they just wanted to hang close to their pen. Hope ya enjoy yours as much as we have ours.....

 

[kdogg331]

There are 2 things that I will add to all the good advice already given.....if ya get weaned goats around 8-10wks old it will be much easier to get them used to you and their pen/safety area....and it wouldn't be difficult to train them on the lead....also, offer them pellets or some sort of treat, it doesn't have to be much, but if the do get spooked it will make it much easier to get them to walk up to ya and ya can get the lead.....make sure ya always have some in your pocket, it will come in handy. We walked our goats everyday for a year and a half while I was working on the fence, so have had some experience with those situations....just be aware that there could be predators in the woods, so be prepared.....ours would alert and run to get behind me if they were startled, because I'd protect them. There were a few times when loose dogs were confronted and they would smell something in the air and turn while we were walking....we always heeded their signal and would take them back to a different area.....on windy days they just wanted to hang close to their pen. Hope ya enjoy yours as much as we have ours.....

Thanks for the advice! Definitely planning on getting babies and will work on training them early on. I love training and working on becoming a dog trainer so it can't be much different. And nothing can be harder than training a cat!! Which I have done. Not much but sit, up, high five, come.

 

[kdogg331]

Okay, pictures. Part 1.

 

[kdogg331]

Pictures part 2.

 

[kdogg331]

And the final 2. This 10 picture limit thing is really annoying lol BYC finally changed it this year so I am now used to that. But oh well.

 

[kdogg331]

Oh and now my dad is saying this winter he wants to clear all along all the property lines and put metal posts in and then he wants to fence in the whole property so the dog can run free. So I think we are going to do that or at least fence in the grass part. I will talk to him because none of the neighbors have fences and we all kinda share the woods, no one ever really goes in them except us, and I love the wildlife so I'm not sure I want to put in a fence and block the wildlife out. But we'll see. Maybe just do the grass. Idk. But I looked at the survey map and calculated the total number of linear feet of our property. So this is theoretically how much fence we'd need for the whole property, obviously way less if we only do part of it. And we'd probably buy an extra roll maybe or something.