# Introducing Puppy to goats and baby goats



## zevy (Oct 10, 2011)

Hi I have a 4 month old asl gsd I once introduced him to a cat, he sniffed it, backed away and barked. He did that a few times and I left now my brother in law has about 4-5 full grown goats and an additional 4 new born goats super tiny my question is if I introduce my pup to the goats will he likely attack them? I don't want him to hurt any of the baby goats or anything. When he plays with puppies he does nip a little but not too much with small toy dogs he usually just sniffs which is pretty good.


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## zevy (Oct 10, 2011)

do they have some kind of instinct not to attack livestock or the opposite? he is after all just a puppy (4 months)


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

No, he won't go up to the goats (baby or adult) and attack. I would suspect he'll back off and bark, as he will be a bit frightened by them. Then if he decides they look like fun, (or if they are frightened by his barking and run) he might decided to give chase. 

It's up to you to decided how he should react to the strange new animals.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

Mature goats will likely put your pup in his place pretty quick. The baby goats will either run away or see the pup as a playmate; either way, it's probably going to excite the puppy so have him on a lead and don't let him chase or play with them. If the babies have a good mom, she will keep the pup away from them.

When I have young kids, I hold them in my arms and let the pup see and sniff, but not touch. It's important to teach them that babies are OFF LIMITS. You'll still need to supervise whenever they are close to each other (hopefully separated by a fence). Have you taught a "leave it" command? If not, this is an excellent opportunity to do so.


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## zevy (Oct 10, 2011)

Great I think I'm going to go for it. Ill bring some treats and teach him leave it.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Keep him leashed for it all.


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

I good "mother goat" will likely stomp and/or bash your puppy into the dirt!!!!! And could either REALLY hurt him. Or at the least, scare him badly. Goats tend to be more aggressive in general than animals like sheep.

Personally, I would keep the puppy AWAY from mother goats with babies.


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## zevy (Oct 10, 2011)

Well the mothers have always been very docile and don't think twice when a human handles the babies even when they were just born and the mothers are small goats most pygmies


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

I can't respond concerning the mama goats with babies but with Beau I kept him on lead and always gave the goats who were a bit skitterish and escape route. I rewarded him for obedience in the presence of the goats and corrected moving towards when they moved quickly. Free range chickens live with the goats so we had that as well.

My goals were to simply ignore them. I also did a lot of offlead recalls outside the fence.


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

zevy said:


> Well the mothers have always been very docile and don't think twice when a human handles the babies even when they were just born and the mothers are small goats most pygmies


The way the goats act towards humans has nothing to do with their reaction to a dog. Are the goats used to having dogs around??

Personally, I would still just keep the puppy away from them. Why stress out the mothers by intentionally bringing a strange predator around their small babies??

If you want to have your pup learn to not mess with goats, I would wait until they (the babies.) are older.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

You could hold one of the babies and show it to the dog but it may stress out mama.
We've had our goats attack an 11lb. Dachshund (boy that was interesting -as a side bit of free entertainment for you, this particular dog was an escape artist and one day managed to get through that side of the fence that separates our yard from the goat area, he thought he was big clever stuff, escaping our yard that way but the goats managed to put him in his place - he was okay but quite traumatized mentally - plus it was more than a few minutes before we could run get him out of the pen!) but generally are afraid of larger dogs. 
That said, this is a puppy they are meeting, plus mama with new babies may indeed be more protective.

It could go either way - attack the dog, or stress the mama out if she's not inclined to attack. Neither scenario is really delightful so it may indeed be better to wait until the babies are older. Or if there's other goats that aren't mamas let him meet them on lead - always on lead! 
Even herders can be rough on prey animals. Herding breeds have a higher prey drive but they are supposed to "turn off" instead of completing the kill (so to speak). 
Our sheltie x Libby never remembered to "turn off" and in fact almost killed one of our goats quite a while back, and most recently did actually kill a kid (bottle baby) we left in the house, in another room in a pen and locked behind a gate 
We don't trust her with anything nowadays


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

BlackGSD said:


> The way the goats act towards humans has nothing to do with their reaction to a dog. Are the goats used to having dogs around??


Very true. Human-friendly goats tend to trust humans, but not dogs, especially strange dogs. Even my livestock guardian dog gets butted by my senior doe right after she has kids. The two get into an argument every year about just who those babies belong to, and eventually she calms down and allows him to be near. Which is important for herd security.










If you give mama some grain, then move the baby out of sight and do the introductions that way, it should not stress her too much. Just make sure the baby isn't making a lot of noise.


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

My goats must be freaks of nature. They think nothing of taking on a large dog! Even strange dogs. But they are BIG (tall AND heavy.) goats.


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

Freestep,

That picture is too cute.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

Thanks! That is my Akbash Dog, Beluga Whale. I wouldn't be without him!


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

Welcome.  I thought he looked like an Akbash. His name cracks me up.

What does BWD stand for? Big White Dog?


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## zevy (Oct 10, 2011)

I may try distracting the mother with food and bringing one of the babes to introduce to my pup or what age do you think for the baby goats would be good to wait too to not stress the mothers out?


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

BlackGSD said:


> What does BWD stand for? Big White Dog?


Exactly!! I wasn't sure if anyone else would get that.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

zevy said:


> I may try distracting the mother with food and bringing one of the babes to introduce to my pup or what age do you think for the baby goats would be good to wait too to not stress the mothers out?


When the babies are under 48 hours of age, not much scares them, as they are still in an "imprinting" period. So it would likely not stress the babies, but the mama might still get upset. When the babies are getting close to weaning age around 8 weeks, mama is less likely to get upset if they are taken away, but the babies may tend to be more frightened. Personally, I like introducing them before they begin to act like prey animals, but that's not always possible. 

Luka, my older GSD is great with babies, will sniff and lick them but does not try to play with them. Vinca, the yearling pup, still gets VERY excited when she sees the baby goats. So far she has only wanted to sniff and nose the kids but I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her!


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## Zoeys momma (Jan 5, 2012)

I have a 4 month old ..that we call torturer...she drives my Nigerian goats crazy. She runs after them, nips them..uses her teeth to grab them by their hair to pull them down. Now the goats leap up... On things to get away from her. She drives the white one crazier then the black one, the black one will butt with her head..both wagging tails. But the white one does not like this. Zoey grabs their leggs with her teeth..I know zoey isn't trying to eat them. But boy when those goats move..zoey chases them all over and the goats do not like this.

Good luck


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## Zoeys momma (Jan 5, 2012)

Iam adding more to my reply..as I thought of more
I have a 4 month old ..that we call torturer...she drives my Nigerian goats crazy. She runs after them, nips them..uses her teeth to grab them by their hair to pull them down. Now the goats leap up... On things to get away from her. She drives the white one crazier then the black one, the black one will butt with her head..both wagging tails. But the white one does not like this. Zoey grabs their leggs with her teeth..I know zoey isn't trying to eat them. But boy when those goats move..zoey 
chases them all over and the goats do not like this. I do alot of separating. I do not want my goats to get stressed. Some days zoey just lays outside their pen area. Trying to lick them through the fence. They lay next to the fence as to let her lick them. It's a hit and miss day when I let them all out together. Zoey wants to play and chase everything that moves. Sometimes I have to leash zoey to me so we can all be outside and the chickens and peacocks can be free to roam. She drives the house pig nuts too. Puppy....so much fun...not- at times. LOL..I would not trust zoey with a baby goat. Here's why. One time my momma has a baby animal showed to let her poodle smell it. The poodle snapped the neck in two seconds flat. That image will be with me forever. Poodle never did this before to any baby farm animals. But it did this time. So me- nope would never let any dog smell a baby. But this is me... 

Good luck


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