# Training a goat to retrieve



## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

Is it possible to train a goat to retrieve? Today my gal Molly brought me a partially deflated football. Stood nudging my leg with her head.
I reached down and petted her she dropped the football, so I tossed it away. She brought it back 3 times.
Then quit.
Fluke or possible trainable trick?


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Goats are smarter than we give them credit for. I wouldn't doubt it at all. 
Getting it on video would be a sight to see.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

wifeof1 said:


> Is it possible to train a goat to retrieve? Today my gal Molly brought me a partially deflated football. Stood nudging my leg with her head.
> I reached down and petted her she dropped the football, so I tossed it away. She brought it back 3 times.
> Then quit.
> Fluke or possible trainable trick?


If they will do it for fun, they can learn to do it on command! I read a tutorial one time about how to train your goat to fetch, but I don't remember where I saw it. I haven't taught any of mine to fetch, but I imagine one day I will. Awesome that your goat did that! Keep encouraging her and I'll bet you have her trained to fetch in no time!


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

That is awesome!


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

^ HAHA! Timing, timing.


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

Lol. I originally tagged you asking your opinion, but then when I posted you had gotten there first


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## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

I do have a video just as she quit doing it. But it won't upload here.


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

Upload it to youtube first and then post a link.


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## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

You youngsters are so funny. I'm from the rotary dial telephone days. I don't have the patience for learning to do that.


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

You just go to youtube.com, make sure you're logged in (if you have a google account, you have a youtube account - it's the same login and everything). Then at the top right of the page you click the upload icon, and either drag and drop the video from your desktop or download it some other way (drag and drop is easiest I've found). And then you set the video to public and publish. Then when copy and paste the link from youtube the video automatically embeds


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## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

Ok. Hope this works.
My daughter barely got it at the middle just when she brought the ball back to me. Then she didn't do it again after that.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Cute! I'm sure you can train her to fetch on command!

One thing I'm a little nervous about in your video is the kiddo butting heads with the goat. I know of someone who fractured their skull playing like that. Goat skulls are much harder than human skulls!


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## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

I knew somebody would say something about that. So this is why I'm ok with it. The stump is tall. And his dad is behind the stump. They were not really butting heads. It was pushing. The goat is 4 months old. My grandson 6 years old.








This is the dad that was behind the stump.


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

You might still want to be cautious though, the goat is going to grow up and will probably still think butting humans is ok.


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## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

Thanks the grandkids do not have much interaction with the grown goats. Believe me I am very cautious about all kids human and goat. Ask my 28 and 24 year old. They were not allowed to play in the front yard until they were 12.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

The young man I referred to whose skull was fractured was playing "pushing games" with a baby goat. Even baby goats have Very Hard Heads.


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## wifeof1 (Mar 18, 2016)

Wow. I did not know that. So I will curb that sort of play and tell the parents your experience so they are aware of the possibility also.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Thankfully it was not my own experience. Interestingly enough, it was a young man who was being interviewed on TV when I was in high school. I was watching the "X-Games" and the champion BMX half-pipe rider was talking about his win. Apparently it was his first competition after leaving the hospital for a fractured skull. The interviewer asked if he'd injured himself doing bike stunts and he laughed and said, "No, I was playing with my friend's baby goat." As the story went, he was pushing back and forth with the goat and he had his BMX crash helmet on, but the baby goat was so small and cute he didn't think it could hurt him so he took his helmet off. The goat suddenly cracked him a good one and fractured the guy's skull. The interviewer asked if the goat was ok, and the teenager said "Oh yeah the baby goat was fine, but it put me in the hospital for three weeks!"

That was long before I owned goats or had been around them, but for some reason the story stuck with me and I've had a fairly deep respect for the strength, hard-headedness, and hitting ability of goats ever since--even little ones at play! I prefer it when other people learn "hard lessons" (pun intended) on my behalf! Heaven knows I've learned enough hard lessons of my own!

Fetching--now _there_ is a safe, fun activity that can't hurt anyone or encourage bad habits! Go with fetching!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Cute, how the goat brought you the ball. It never fails, when we bring out the video they always stop.

I do agree, with not allowing any kind of head butting/pushing with any goat.
No horn gabbing ect on bucks especially. 
I do grab the does to catch them, but playing with bucks horns is a challenge. 

Goats heads are a lot harder than a human head. 
Have you ever seen and heard 2 mature bucks crack heads? It is really loud and hard.
Years ago, I had a buck who was hit so hard, his horn shattered at the base area on one side, a piece of it penetrated into his scull. I had to get him to the vet. The vet told us one more hit with the piece that was into the skull would of killed him. 
If that can happen to a hard headed buck with horns. Can you imagine what can happen at the wrong place, the wrong goat, at the wrong time to a child or adult? 

Yes, please stop that type of play and any pushing, butting, or play such as that. The goat is not actually playing. 
It is dominance, a pecking order act. 
With bucks, it is a challenge to them and they get really angry. This behavior will only gets worse with age as they get even harder heads, as they grow.


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## Idahogoats (Sep 5, 2016)

Sounds scary. My 3 goats, two are Nubians and they are huge. Their horns are big too. We have a spray bottle of water and they know what "back" means. They hate that spray bottle. I got the book "Raising Goats for Dummies" and I learned a lot about goat behavior. They will test you!! My little Nigerian has no horns but she fends for herself!


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## Idahogoats (Sep 5, 2016)




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