My Goats are Idiots!

Tam319 · #1 02/13/08, 06:11 PM

Hi everyone,

Last night while examining my meat herd for signs of kidding I realized that a fair number of the does are missing the tips of their horns. There are bite marks on the horns and the tips are chewed off. My LGD have been chewing on them! What kind of idiot animal lies still and placidly while a potential carnivore is gnawing on them? Sheeeeeeeesh. The goats and dogs are all good pals. They snuggle together, the dogs lick their ears, the goats chew their cuds. I can't believe the dogs are CHEWING their horns! ARGH! Is there any way to stop them from doing this? The dogs are well fed and have non-goat related chew toys.

Alice In TX/MO · #2 02/13/08, 06:18 PM

Bonding activity. :baby04:

jordan · #3 02/13/08, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tam319

Hi everyone,

Last night while examining my meat herd for signs of kidding I realized that a fair number of the does are missing the tips of their horns. There are bite marks on the horns and the tips are chewed off. My LGD have been chewing on them! What kind of idiot animal lies still and placidly while a potential carnivore is gnawing on them? Sheeeeeeeesh. The goats and dogs are all good pals. They snuggle together, the dogs lick their ears, the goats chew their cuds. I can't believe the dogs are CHEWING their horns! ARGH! Is there any way to stop them from doing this? The dogs are well fed and have non-goat related chew toys.

A scared idiot will lie still for it! It doesn't sound as if you viewed this going on yourself and I seriously doubt your goats were lying "placidly" while your dog was chewing on them! As much as you may think your dog and goats are buds, in certain situations (such as you describe), they are reverting to prey/predator mode.

How old are your dogs? It sounds as if you are going to have to do some close monitoring and re-training. I don't recommend that you let your dogs lick any part of your goats and they should be reprimanded if they do.

Tam319 · #4 02/13/08, 06:37 PM

Our dogs are 2 yo and have been raised with goats. I have not witnessed this activity but DH has and said the doe and dog were lying side by side, dog with horn in mouth and doe chewing her cud. When he told me this had happened I thought it was an isolated incident. The horns seem to indicate this is an ongoing habit.

ozark_jewels · #5 02/13/08, 07:01 PM

They are letting the dogs do this because they are accustomed to the dogs and are not scared of them. The tips of their horns have no nerves, so no pain involved. Why should they mind?? They are completely comfortable around the LGD's which they should be.
That said, it should be reprimanded for sharply and immediately. You can even walk them over to a well-chewed horn, shove their nose in it and give them a loud talking to. It is not good conduct and they just need to know it.

Ozarkquilter46 · #6 02/13/08, 09:53 PM

You can buy a bitters at the liquar (?) store. I used it on the bottle bull calfs when they would try to nurse on each other. It works great. I I would think that would work also. Or if you have some hot sause in the fridge try that

Tam319 · #7 02/13/08, 10:20 PM

Hmmm, this could be quite interesting! I have 30 does to do so would be quite the production. LOL

wehes5 · #8 02/14/08, 08:08 AM

My dogs are always in the goat yard, i have never had this happen, i only have 2 goats with horns and 1 which is the QUEEN BRAT, you know what I mean rams everyone in her way....she is such a brat and walks like she is among her peasants. I don't think that our dogs could get close enough to her. She demands to be fed first, if not, she will turn her back and walk away without a blahhhhh and ignore you for the rest of the day. She is very spoiled. When I got her she was my favorite and I babied her and now I sleep in the bed that I made!

bloogrssgrl · #9 02/14/08, 09:08 AM

I don't know if this will help or not.

I have two 2yo half-brother geldings and the one insists on chewing the other's tail. To the point where one has a beautiful, long tail and the other has ...well, not a beautiful, long tail.

I finally got some olive oil and mixed a good portion of hot ground pepper into it. I massaged it into the ends of the hairs on the tail, being careful to avoid areas near the "tender parts".

Finally! The tail is starting to come in nicely and big brother has moved on to other hobbies.

lgslgs · #10 02/14/08, 11:52 AM

Sort of a side topic here, but if your goats are that comfortable with your goats be VERY careful if you use a pour on wormer.

We had a dog clean wormer off a few goats and give us (and our vet) a horrible scare. She was essentailly blind for about two days and totally in lala land for over 3 days. There was no antidote available and we just had to wait things out.

She only cleaned a couple of the goats. If she had had more she could have gone into respiratory arrest.

So consider the horn chewing a sign that those particular dogs will groom the goats and the goats are content to let them do it.

Lynda