How to steer a goat

Much to the disdain of our current cat population, we acquired a couple pygmy goats from Craigslist (separate listings) a week or so ago - $75 for Laverne and $50 for Cinnamon - and I've begun to familiarize myself with their habits while walking them around the yard to help 'mow'. I've never really met a goat before - only saw them from a distance. Right now we live in a traditional house on a cul-de-sac in the country - the house Andrea grew up in - while we set up Soulstice Homestead. Most of our neighbors are standard suburbanite types, though the folks across the street that our grandbabies play with have chickens.

We bought the goats mainly to eat up the plants that we want to reduce on our homestead and turn them quickly into rich fertilizer. We're vegan, and have no intention of breeding them or using their milk or eating them. They're there to eat poison ivy (we have a LOT), multi-flora rose and honeysuckle, and a few other things, and to enrich our soil, and our lives (they're pretty cute).

When we brought the two goats together for the first time they started to butt heads. Andrea was having none of it because Laverne is significantly larger than Cinnamon, and Cinnamon has the advantage of horns - and either one could get hurt (enough to generate a vet bill, too). So we decided to separate them at first for a while, especially since they've just been ripped from their homes and thrust into unfamiliar territory. We wanted to ease them into our Homestead gently.

Laverne stayed in the corral, which originally held a horse that Andrea used to have as a child. We repaired some tree-fall damage and cleared out the things Andrea's kids (adults now) brought back there for a fire pit.

We snagged a 10'x10'x10' dog kennel (Craigslist again) for $100 and set it up out back, along with some block and a hay net. We stretched some tarp in each area to keep them and the hay out of the rain. Since we rent, we're limited as to how much we can build here, but everything will move with us to Soulstice Homestead and we'll work out rainwater harvesting systems there, or come up with something portable if we get time - but we're planning a busy summer with the build and all.

So since the pens are a little small, don't hold a lot of fresh greens, and since the yard isn't fenced, we can't really just turn the goats out to 'mow' for us. We hate to mow in spring because the yard is covered with beautiful flowers, many of which are edible, and we don't have to the heart to tear it all up and mow it down, so by summer the plants get pretty high. We do a little chop and drop,  and eventually break down and mow.

But now that we have the girls, in order to get them used to us enough to feel comfortable, part of our bonding with them is taking them out on a rope to chomp down some fresh weeds while we sip some coffee in the morning with them. That way we can observe their eating habits and general demeanor, and they can get used to being around us and see us as a source of something good.

One thing I learned is that goats hate to be led. They will fight you as hard and long as they can. We don't want to use force with them, so I thought I'd use a little psychology on them. Rather than pull their leads and fight with them, I decided to just limit their options. I'll pull the lead just a little taut, then hold it, refusing them any slack to go backwards, all the while coaxing them with "Hu uh" when they pull away - "this way" when I tug on the lead - and  "come on" as I turn my back to them and start walking away, using the same commands every time for each action. As soon as they start walking where I want them to go I loosen the slack completely and they seem to just go ahead and walk the direction I'm going. When they stop I pull up the slack a bit and say "come on" a few more times and turn away - still never pulling at them. No matter how hard they try to pull any way but where I want them to go I hold the lead fast - never pulling, just holding it so they can't go any other direction, giving them no slack. Eventually, the decision to go where I want them to becomes theirs.

Cinnamon already has a bit of a head start in learning this new trick, because she really doesn't like to be left behind, and seems to really enjoy our company. But if she wants to go somewhere she'll definitely put up a little fight.,

I'm hoping a few weeks of this little tugging routine will get them to stop fighting me - but maybe not. For now, I don't have to pick them up and carry them, so I'll take what I can get.