# Sputnik: My Personal Assistant



## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Can a goat be a service animal? Sputnik thinks so! In early December I started teaching Sputnik a new trick. I thought of it one time when I sat down under a tree and discovered that my trick knee had gone funny and wouldn't support my weight. I was able to pull myself up by grabbing the tree with one hand and a goat's neck with the other, but I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be easier to have a goat lift me up with his horns?"

Well a few weeks ago I decided to start working on it with Sputnik. Disclaimer: I DO NOT recommend training a goat to do this unless he is full-grown with a solid background in trick training. Pulling on a goat's horns can make him aggressive and/or headshy. Never train a young goat to do this while he's still figuring out his role with people. It's important to stay safe! Sputnik is a mature goat with a solid foundation of clicker training that has prepared him to handle this trick without feeling threatened.

Sputnik "got it" within about two lessons and we sporadically worked on it in brief sessions for a couple of weeks after. Yesterday was the second time in the last two weeks that I've had time to try the trick again, and he did very well. We do it twice in the video, and the second time he got a little too eager and kept trying to lift me before I was ready. But overall I'd say we have this trick almost locked up. What a good goat! Think he can get "service animal" status?


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## SandyNubians (Feb 18, 2017)

That's so cool! I wish goats could get service animal status, but i think they changed laws because of people with "crazy animals" peafowl, turtles, goldfish, bearded dragons etc. Maybe they didn't. But boy if they do allow it i think you should apply for it with him, lol! That trick would be so useful, especially for older, or disabled people.


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

Very neat! He is such a handsome fellow.


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## WhiteFeatherFarms (Jun 29, 2017)

That is awesome!! He’s a very handsome guy!!


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## elvis&oliver (Jun 28, 2018)

That was amazing! What a great Boy he is and applause to your training.


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

That's great! You're definitely gifted when it comes to training animals. Sputnik is such a good and handsome boy. It's such a pleasure reading your posts.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

What a smart boy!!!!!


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

SandyNubians said:


> That's so cool! I wish goats could get service animal status, but i think they changed laws because of people with "crazy animals" peafowl, turtles, goldfish, bearded dragons etc. Maybe they didn't. But boy if they do allow it i think you should apply for it with him, lol! That trick would be so useful, especially for older, or disabled people.


I think you're confusing service animals with emotional support animals. Service animals aren't licensed in the U.S. You have to have doctor's verification that you have a disability, and your animal has to provide a specific service to help you with that disability. I don't think service animals are limited by species. I don't have a disability--just a trick knee that likes to play up on me from time to time and a fat bottom that doesn't like to heave itself off the ground.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

That is great!


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

And thanks guys! Sputnik is indeed a smart boy! I can't believe how quickly he learned this new command. It has two parts. First, he has to present his horns at a level where I can easily grab them. As part of the first step, he has to wait while I get a good grip (this is the part we need to work on most). Second, he has to brace himself to either lower me or lift me. Lifting came naturally and he learned it almost at once. Lowering me has been trickier. He either wants to back up or walk toward me. It's taking him a little time to figure out that I don't want him to move. I simply want him to brace and hold so I can steady myself as I sit. 

To train him to present his horns, I used a tennis ball between my knees as a target while I sat on a stool. Spuntik learned to target (touch his nose to an object) last summer and is very good at it. The tennis ball provided a visual aid at first so he learned where to put his head. It took him only a few tries before I was able to remove the tennis ball and have him target my knees. 

The next part was getting him to tolerate having his horns touched. He wanted to back off immediately whenever I first reached for them. But this is where clicker training really came in handy. As soon as I would touch his horn but before he could react by backing away, I'd click my tongue to indicate that my touching his horns was a good thing that would result in a treat. The beauty of clicker training is that it tells an animal the exact second they do the correct behavior. If they move before you have time to fish out a treat that's ok because their brain knows what their body was doing when you clicked. Repeat it a few times and they have it dialed. Then you just have to work on getting them to hold their position longer while they wait for that click. Once Sputnik knew that I wasn't grabbing his horns to be aggressive, or to restrain him, or give him medicine, he was suddenly very ok with it. 

I'll have to be careful in our training to make sure he doesn't become a pest every time I sit down. His natural inclination will be to come over and start waving his horns in my face in an attempt to be rewarded. This is a big no-no, so I'll have to work on dismissing him as much (or probably more) than getting him to come over and assist. Whenever we train one behavior, it's important to think about the unwanted behaviors that might crop up. "Shaking hands" is a similarly "risky" trick. It's very easy to accidentally train a goat (especially a male) to paw you incessantly in an attempt to solicit treats. Teaching them to wait for the actual command before lifting their hoof is much harder than training them to shake hands in the first place. Training a goat to shake hands takes about 15 minutes. Training him NOT to shake hands until asked can take weeks or months of consistent schooling.


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## Dwarf Dad (Aug 27, 2017)

That is so cool! I agree with @GoofyGoat about your being gifted with animal training. That about teaching not to shake is affecting us on one of our dogs.
Thank you for the pointers.


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## Nigerian dwarf goat (Sep 25, 2017)

Thats so sweet! He is a good boy! And Kudos to you with the excellent training you have taken time to do!


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## SandyNubians (Feb 18, 2017)

Yep, thats what i was confusing it with! I remembered seeing so much last year about ESA. That's so cool otherwise. You are very gifted at training your goats!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Really neat.


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## MadCatX (Jan 16, 2018)

Sputnik is such an awesome goat! You can tell you spend a ton of time with him.


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## 15WildTurkey (Apr 13, 2015)

What a stunning animal. He’s really breath taking. And the work you have put in has paid off in buckets. That’s a great trick to have taught him.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Thank you!


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

Just fast scanning the thread (will read it better some other day!), I wonder if blind leader dogs are service animals? In that case I have heard of at least one small horse doing the same job, I think it was as far away as the USA  .

Privately, I know of more than one cat/dog, able to alert the owner that "Now you must eat something, your blood sugar is very low!" Some of them even sit there checking that the human actually does eat!


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

@ReNat Martin is wonderful! What breed is he?

@Damfino That is such a wonderful "trick" to have taught him. Fantastic.


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

@Damfino I have heard of dogs trained to pick up dropped things, to turn on and off lights, etc. I think they were called service dogs, and I THINK they can be trained by an interested private person, although maybe the professional trainer is doing it better.

When thinking of blind guidance dogs, I feel rather bad remembering that the person who gets such a dog has no obligation to treat it well. That is a weakness of the system here. How is it over there, in the US?

And thanks to Damfino for sharing a bit about clicker training. We get inspired to try!


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

@Trollmor 
Official service dogs here are so expensive, that it pretty much guarantees the recipient will treat them well. However, that does not necessarily go for everyone around the recipient.


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

@mariarose I meant how are the rules? Here the dogs are paid for by the blind peoples' organization, so the private blind person only pays for its food, etc.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

I know that most people have to pay for their own animals, either directly or through insurance. There may be organizations that help.

I'd say that here service animals are some of the least abused by their owners, because of the expense, and also because of the deep dependency upon them.

The organizations who train the animals have the right to refuse to replace a service animal. and in areas where there is only 1 source it can prevent a disabled person from ever getting another.


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

I agree, the service animals are usually like valued family members. (There are always exceptions,of course).


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## cristina-sorina (May 4, 2018)

Thank you for sharing! It never would have occurred to me that was even possible with a goat! I'm amazed and think it's so incredibly awesome that you're training him!


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Trollmor said:


> Just fast scanning the thread (will read it better some other day!), I wonder if blind leader dogs are service animals? In that case I have heard of at least one small horse doing the same job, I think it was as far away as the USA  .


Yes, blind leader dogs are service dogs. In this country, an animal is considered a "service animal" if the owner has a documented disability AND the animal is trained to do a specific task to help the owner with that disability. There actually is a miniature horse named Panda who is a seeing eye horse for her blind owner. 





I've actually never heard of a service animal that was neglected or abused. They are very expensive, highly trained animals and their owners depend on them for their very lives. An abused animal cannot do good job if the one it is trained to protect does not treat it well. As an animal trainer I can say with certainty that animals do not perform well or consistently if you treat them cruelly or unfairly.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

cristina-sorina said:


> Thank you for sharing! It never would have occurred to me that was even possible with a goat! I'm amazed and think it's so incredibly awesome that you're training him!


Thank you! Goats are much smarter than most people (including goat people!) ever realize. Once I was at a dairy goat show and I was waiting for my class in the arena. The Nigerian class was large and was taking longer than I expected so I had about fifteen minutes to wait. I had a little 4-month-old doeling named Pepi with me. I had some treats in my pocket so I taught her to shake hands while we waited.

A man looked over and said (rather dismissively), "I wish I had time for that kind of thing!"

I smiled and answered, "Well it only took five minutes. I trained her while we were waiting here. What have you been doing?"

He had been standing around ringside as well, only he was doing nothing with his goat. He seemed bothered when he realized I'd never worked with Pepi before, yet she knew the trick perfectly in about 5-10 minutes. He walked away and didn't mention it again.

The judge, on the other hand, was very impressed with Pepi's mother, Petunia. He saw Petunia and I practicing her tricks between classes and he called me over to the ring and asked me to put her through her paces.

The judge called everyone over to the ring on the loudspeaker and said, "Hey, look what this goat can do! I've never seen anything like this before!"

So Petunia ran through her repertoire of tricks for a delighted and cheering audience. She's a very clever goat and Sputnik inherited her brains. Petunia is Sputnik's mother and I feel that that line is particularly intelligent. However, I've yet to meet a goat that was just plain dumb (although sometimes they pretend to be dumb if they feel lazy).


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

Seeing eye horse, or dog I suppose, thanks for the word! 

Poor man at the show, I wonder if he ever understood the joy of being with the animals. (Which is what a few blind persons here [they are also individuals, of course] fail to understand, and so just "put the vacuum cleaner into the cupboard after use" when arriving home. Dog in its bed, human listening to the radio and talking in the phone.)

I do hope that some people in the audience were inspired to try some tricks when arriving home with their show goats!

No, goats are not stupid. Now and then they will outsmart you! :inlove:


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## MadCatX (Jan 16, 2018)

@Damfino LOL hats an awesome post.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Oh, I'm sure the man enjoys his goats, but in his own way. Most of the people I meet at goat shows love their goats very much, but they don't ever think of training them to do the sorts of tricks you would teach a dog. Maybe the man was in a bad mood, or maybe he just thought it was silly to teach tricks to a "utility" animal that lives outside and sleeps in a barn. I admit, I spend a lot less time than many folks at the show when it comes to teaching my goats to set up and stand properly, or lead nicely around the ring. I see a lot of parents sending their kids out to work with their show goats and make sure those animals know how to present themselves in the ring. Me, not so much. I admit I find that kind of training rather boring. But then, showing is not really my passion. I enjoy it, but I don't live for it like some folks seem to do. To each his own.


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

Hm, yes, that seems to be a pretty boring kind of training. Hope the goats in question do not find so... Hm, dogs are rutinely house trained, and goats and pigs not, even though it is not more difficult at all!

Btw, did you hear about the very "muslim" men, one after the other, who arrived to Germany with drugs, and refused to be sniffed on by the "unclean" dogs? The officer instantly offered and "alternative", which they accepted. Just wait here, then. And within short, the officer returned with a colleague - with a trained narcotic searching PIG!


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## MadCatX (Jan 16, 2018)

LOL I bet that went over well.


Clyde Geught is young and stubborn, but enjoy teaching him to do things like a dog. I like it more than just leading him around a ring. I want him to do stuff hahah


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## cristina-sorina (May 4, 2018)

Damfino said:


> Thank you! Goats are much smarter than most people (including goat people!) ever realize. Once I was at a dairy goat show and I was waiting for my class in the arena. The Nigerian class was large and was taking longer than I expected so I had about fifteen minutes to wait. I had a little 4-month-old doeling named Pepi with me. I had some treats in my pocket so I taught her to shake hands while we waited.
> 
> A man looked over and said (rather dismissively), "I wish I had time for that kind of thing!"
> 
> ...


You're the Cesar Milan of goats!!


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

MadCatX said:


> LOL I bet that went over well.
> 
> Clyde Geught is young and stubborn, but enjoy teaching him to do things like a dog. I like it more than just leading him around a ring. I want him to do stuff hahah


I know not how it ended, but I think the "muslims" did accept the dogs' sniffing when arriving next time.

(Real muslims maybe remember the story about the Profet Muhammad walking in the desert, meeting a very thirsty dog, and giving it water. The uncleanness is maybe only when putting meat on the table. Dogs and pigs MAY carry tricines, so not eating them can be wise.)

Oh, when young and energetic, I trained my young billy to do some tricks. This was not at all difficult, really. Only, I had to pay with a treat *every* time, or he would just walk away, eating grass!


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## Deborah Haney (Jul 11, 2017)

I wish I was more dedicated to training. I usually do a few five minute lessons in a week and then drop it for like a month. Ruby is quick as a whip, though. Last I heard mini horses were removed from the protection of the ADA. I don't know why exactly but now it's just dogs.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

A few five-minute lessons a week is plenty. Quite honestly, Sputnik has often made his greatest progress when I did a few lessons for a week and then dropped it for a month or more. It's like he thought about it during his long break and came back with more understanding than he had when he left! I taught him to fetch last spring and it was only just starting to come together when I got busy during the summer and fall and forgot about it. It was months before I noticed his fetch toys and brought them out sometime last November. In our first try he did better at fetching that he had ever done the previous spring. I'll have to make a video of Sputnik fetching one of these days. He's gotten pretty darn good at it! 

There is a provision in the ADA regulations that permits miniature horses to be service animals under certain circumstances.


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

A vegetarian fetching, eh? ****, I want to be able to see that film! Must go to a library!


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Well, I have to make that film first! I have a short video of Sputnik fetching a rag when I was first starting to teach him. He wasn't very good at it yet and kept dropping the rag and getting distracted. The rag was also not a good fetch toy for goats. He tried to eat it a few times, and after that it was soggy so he didn't want to pick it up any more (I can't blame him--neither did I!). I ended up buying some dog fetch toys at the feed store that looked suitable for goat-shaped mouths. They have to be easy to pick up with the lips since goats' jaws don't have the scissor shape like dogs' jaws, and goats also don't have top teeth to grasp things tightly. 

Sputnik's favorite toy is a knotted rope. He likes to grap the tassel on one end and then fling the toy up and down as he carries it back, bopping himself in the face with the knot on the other end. I'm not sure why it amuses him so much to whack himself in the face with a rope toy, but it really seems to give him a thrill.


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

Hm, that will be a wonderful video! Hope your husband can be talked into holding the camera!


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## Nigerian dwarf goat (Sep 25, 2017)

what breed is Sputnik?


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Sputnik is an Alpine/Nubian cross (with a little bit of grade Saanen in there somewhere).


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## Nigerian dwarf goat (Sep 25, 2017)

Damfino said:


> Sputnik is an Alpine/Nubian cross (with a little bit of grade Saanen in there somewhere).


I would LOVE to have pack goats (of course still sticking to dairy too) it seems so awesome! I am going to start a thread about it, so i can educate myself a little IF i get any!


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

Would it be possible to combine? Big strong intelligent goats who also produce well without getting sick? Males work, females milk? And meat & skins in addition, when that time finally comes.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Nigerian dwarf goat said:


> I would LOVE to have pack goats (of course still sticking to dairy too) it seems so awesome! I am going to start a thread about it, so i can educate myself a little IF i get any!


I do dairy and packgoats. It's a good combination. In fact, last summer I went on a pack trip and my boys carried the camping gear and food, but one of my does came along and brought the milk! She carried a light pack with her milking equipment. It was wonderful to have fresh milk to drink in the mornings and for cooking. 
Here's my gal, Petunia, leading the pack: 









How often do you get shrimp linguine alfredo with REAL cream sauce made with FRESH milk when you're out in the backcountry?


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## Trollmor (Aug 19, 2011)

WOW!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Oh that looks good, now I am hungry, LOL. :cake:


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## ReNat (Jan 20, 2019)

I also tried once to use a dairy goat for example horses, it seemed to me that it was easy to do Aza


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