goats and dogs

[Jubel]

My dog has been acting very aggressive around my goats. When my babies were born, he would come to the fence and really really want to come in.
Today, I was feeding them outside the fence. He was inside the house.. so I thought. By the way, he looks like a rotweiler/shepherd mix. All of the sudden he was there. He wasn't acting really aggressive. I remained calm... a miracle and waited. He was licking them and licking them and licking them, ecspecially around the rear. They are still drinking from the bottles while he is doing this. What was he doing?

[hoggie]

Sounds to me like he was playing "mum"

I had a dog who was a GS mix who would mother anything and everything young. And when I had pigs, all my dogs acted this way with the couple of piglets I had to hand rear.

Personally, whilst I wouldn't leave him alone with them, I would also relax and let him have contact with him as long as you are there and he isn't showing any agression.

Just tuppence worth - enjoy them all

hoggie

[hoggie]

I just realised I mis-read the first line of your post - I thought you said "hasn't really been acting agressive" don't know where I go tthat from - must be late. If he has shown signs of aggression in teh past, maybe a bit more caution is called for.

[RedneckPete]

Dogs and goats are a bad mix. I'm sure it can be done, but both GS and rotties are NOT good livestock dogs, and are both very good at killing livestock.

I've forced my GS dogs to get along with the goats, but when something eventually goes wrong, as it inevitably does, the result is always a dead goat, never a dead dog.

Pete

[MB]

He was waiting for treats to come out.

[beccachow]

My dogs (chow and a sheperd) go ballistic at the goats from the other side of the fence. I have no idea why, but don't want to chance ever letting them in contact with them. Both dogs are very gentle and up to my goat ownership I would never have thought them capable of hurting anything, but after seeing their reactions to these guys I will never let them together. Something about them brings about their prey instinct, I guess. Even if they just want to play, I can see that they would play too rough and a goat would be killed.

[LittleRedHen]

I have a pup who is now locked up til my goat babies are gone. She treats them as toys. Now she is great if we are right there but the moment we are gone, she wants tenderloins. We heard a goat noise (they were supposed to be locked up but not the dog) so my daughter went out and the dog had the 2 week old kid pinned down and she was licking the shoulders as if she was ready to start devouring.

So be very careful. My dog is a lab/collie. She NEVER shows aggression towards any animal around us. She never shows aggression when we are gone. She just pins and starts chewing. I'd take extra care to keep your goat kids safe! My dog is mad and whiney but that is better than her killing a goat kid

[billooo2]

Years ago I had Alaskan Malamutes. They never once showed any "aggression" toward sheep, goats, or rabbits (as we were starting to acquire them). But they would kill them in a heartbeat. There was NEVER any barking or growling.....or any of the behavior that one might expect as a warning. And there was never a bloody mess that I hear about most dog attacks. It was broken necks.........and it was quick, instantaeous!!!

We got rid of the Malamutes.

My grandfather had a theory about dogs killing sheep. Sheep are about the same size as a large dog. He believed that it usually started out as "playing," with the sheep like they would with another dog. But once the blood started flowing, then the "play" turned to killing. And once a dog had killed a sheep, it was his experience, that they would always try to kill again.










11

[Goatdad]

My bloodhounds killed our favorite baby Nigerian. I think they just wanted to play with him. I don't let the dogs near the goats but they got through the fence and went into the goat pen. They now either have to dig through a foot of concrete or go through several strands of electric fence on two fences to get to the goats. I would have never thought my hounds would have hurt the goats. They have been around cats and other small animals. You just never know until you loose a goat.

[crazygoatgal]

My wonderful GSD Baylah is not trusted around my goats or the kids. She will put her whole moutn over a baby's neck and chase them arouind. But let an adult Nigerian mama get loose and that same dog will turn tail and run because they beat the snot out of her when she was a puppy!! And I let them do it. They were protecting their babies and so I let nature take its course. I was always outdoors when the dog and goats were together but when she went after something that didn't have a mama to protect it I used a shock collar to avert her attention. Not super high in strength, just enough to stop her aggressive action. I will never allow my dog to be unsupervised around my goats just to be on the safe side, but training is paramount to protecting your animals too.