# Boer Wether Showing Aggression



## MeadowVistaFarm (Jan 30, 2015)

Hi all,

Have a question/concern I hope you can help me with. About a year ago, I decided to get some goats and raise them on our farm and I have loved having them around! Hilarious little creatures! I decided on getting Nigerians as a friend of mine raises them and loves them. In my quest to find my goats, someone gave me a young Boer wether, named Curly! I absolutely fell in love with him and he's been the greatest pet until the last few months....

He's probably 1.5 years old now and still has his horns. For the first 6 months I owned him, he was the friendliest, most docile goat of all of them I owned. But in the past 3 - 4 months, he has started to show aggression towards humans he doesn't know, especially young kids and men.

A few things have happened....the first time I ever noticed him being like this was back in August and a very little girl was at the old farm feeding the goats for me and he acted like he wanted to head butt her. He didn't, but tried/thought about it. In October, I took 2 of my Nigerian females to be bred, so it was just him and another goat at our farm. In November we moved to our new farm and then in December the two bred females came back to the new farm.

Now any time there is someone new around him like the kids who visit the farm, he will rare up on his hind legs, blow through his nose and chase them or try to head butt them. A couple of weeks ago, I had the goats running around the farm with us while we worked outside and my dad was there and Curly did NOT like him at all! And he should be somewhat familiar with my dad - nobody new. Is it just him getting older and bigger that he is showing aggression? Or is it because of the move and work, I haven't had as much time to spend with the goats??

Is there a way I can change this behavior? If not and he continues to scare the kids at the farm (I also teach riding lessons, so kids are around a lot) I may be forced to find him a new home, which I really don't want to do as I love him!

Thanks!!!
:sleeping:


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You will probably need to rehome him or put him in the freezer. If you rehome him, make sure you disclose his aggression.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I agree, he may hurt someone.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

I have a doe that behaves this way to new people and especially to children. She was raised as a bottle baby and was taught to play with humans. Her previous owners encouraged this type of behavior, pushing on her head/horns and playing jumping games. Now she is 150 lbs rearing at small children! I have to warn newcomers not to pet/scratch her horn area as that is what gets her started. I carry a spray bottle of water if there is a time when I have to have strange people in the pens. The spray bottle works very well! And she got a hard rap on the nose the one & only time she tried that game with me. I always have to remind my caretaker when we go on vacation to be firm with her.

In my case, the doe has genetics that I can't bear to part with in my breeding herd. But if she was a wether she would be in the freezer. I don't have any children and can manage her the few times my nephews visit.


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