Where would you place goats on intelligence list?

[Dee]

On a farm, where would you place a goat? Figuring human is on the top of the list (except for teenagers), then dogs and pigs would tie for second, depending on the type of dog. I figured cats would be second, followed by goats. Last is rabbits, cows, then chickens. What do you think?

[Patt]

Personally I think our cows are smarter than our goats. Cows seem able to learn from their mistakes but goats will get their heads stuck in the fence in the same spot 5 times a day every day!

[Jen H]

I put my goats up there with the dogs. They're sure smart enough to keep me on my toes!

[debitaber]

my goats are the smartest thing on the homestead, way above the hogs.
debi

[GoatsRus]

I don't know, but mine are pretty smart. I've always been told that they can think as good as a 7 year old child. That puts them right at the "I can do things but don't think about the consequences" age. I have to watch when unlocking gates or putting things away, as they can mimic the process some of the times. They sure know enough to touch the electric wire handle with their nose and not the fence itself.

[trixiwick]

On our place, I'd rank everyone as follows:

Goats
Rabbits
People
Ducks
Chickens
Turkeys
Geese

[JoyKelley]

You left out donkies.. MY list from around here is

Humans ( hanging on by a thread )
Donkey
Dogs
Mule
Hog
goats
cats
Horse
geese
*
This is a wide space, I love 'em but the ducks are just seriously mentally challenged

*
ducks

[Cygnet]

Having worked with pack goats that are more socialized and handled than most goats, I'd place them wellll above horses, and horses are considered to be equivalent to dolphins on intelligence testing. (Horses can be taught to understand grammar and syntax in "language" testing.)

My favorite goats-are-smart story is teaching one wether to spin around in a circle for a treat. (I was bored, and the goat was happy to learn anything for a treat.)

I got him spinning good, and went to get his twin out to teach the twin -- my eventual goal was to have both goats spin around at the same time, choreographed kinda.

Well, the twin brother had LEARNED the command by observation. I never had to teach him anything -- he'd learned by watching his brother that if I twirled my finger in the air and spun around, he got a potato chip. That takes a bit of intelligence, to observe a command by me, a response from another animal, and a reward from me, and then do the same himself on the first try ... BRIGHT animals!

Leva

[Nancy_in_GA]

I've had goats for one year and am still amazed every day by their behavior.

It seems like they can learn to DO complicated things very quickly if they want to, and they are extremely curious. So if these are signs of intelligence, they are above any animal I've ever been around.

OTOH, you (or at least I) simply cannot teach them to NOT DO bad things. They seem to be reincarnations of the devil at times. Maybe it's just those eyes that can peek at you from the side, with that "...as soon as she turns her back I can do it again..." look. And they do, do it again.

But since it's more difficult to teach an animal to stop doing something using food as an incentive, maybe it just boils down to FOOD! In that case they may be only slightly above chickens.

Still haven't figured them out. Probably just as well. That's the magic for me.

Nancy