# Newbie Market Goat Shower



## Bonfire98 (May 25, 2013)

This year I have three young Boer does I'm going to be showing. This is my second year showing and unfortunately I'm not making very much progress. The youngest of the three is doing the best so far, she has outgrown both the others and already walks amazing. But the other two have me stumped. 

One cant walk two steps without laying down or just flopping over on her side and refuses to stand up. Its driving me crazy. She also doesn't love eating like the others so I'm having a hard time bulking her up. 

The other, when I get her to brace she just curves her back instead of stretching out? Am I doing something wrong or do I just need to forget about bracing her and just set her up? 

If any of yall have any tips or tricks, im all ears. I'm kind of learning all of this as I go so literally anything helps. Thanks :new here:


----------



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Oh, I definitely understand your frustration! My kids show boer and they get some 'problem child' goats too. 
Are you showing them in market classes where they have to brace or be set up?
Here, in the breeding classes you can use a prong collar, and I tell ya, those things work great on stubborn goats. In fact, we have a couple that would sooner choke themselves into a hissy fit, than walk on a regular chain collar. The ones who walk well on prong collar's seem to learn to relax so much faster. 
My kids train all their goats to walk on a halter/lead before they start them on a show collar.

Now for market/commercial classes I wouldn't recommend the prong, and not even sure if they allow them in those classes.

Just keep trying to work with them, I'd say use food as a bribe to get them to walk, but not sure if that will work well with the one who isn't eating well. This has worked for a couple of goats we've tried it on:
I hold a bucket of feed, let the goat take a few bites, then I take about 10 steps backwards, encouraging the goat to follow the bucket while whoever is working with the goat encourages it to move forward. Let them take a few more bites, and move away again, and just keep repeating. Try to end on a good note. Don't get frustrated, or upset, it will just make the goat act worse, nervous or afraid of you, they can sense your mood 

My daughter had trouble with a wether last year that would curve his back and it was so frustrating. A lot of times she didn't realize he was doing it, or didn't seem to understand how to get him to straighten up.
Her wether this year kind of does that, but I notice if she pushes on him when he does it to sort of get him to put his front feet out in front of him more, that helps get the 'arch' down. Sorry, not very good at explaining it. I hope someone else can give you good advice on how to stop this. I know some people have said to push on their back when they do it, but either we don't do it right <I've tried to help>, or the goat refuses to co operate lol.


----------

