Annie did not learn from my NOs to stop chasing goats when they come running for apples and tree branches that I throw over their fence. If I'm inside the fence instead of outside when she begins chasing, I can squirt her with the hose and that stops her. But I can't stand there all day with hose in hand. I noticed that Mister McCoy, when he was out in the evening and morning, would stand outside the closed goat gate (closed overnight and opened when I finish morning milking) and bark at Annie when she started to chase the goats. So I decided to open the gate and see what happened.
What happened was a surprise. McCoy walked in among the goats and they paid him no attention. But when Annie started to chase, McCoy growled and ran and stopped her. It only took a few times for Annie to realize chasing was dangerous. I left McCoy out the rest of the day... and every day since. He is ten years old and a little stiff and puts up with no nonsense from the pup. Time will tell what he does when the goats come in heat and jump on each other. He used to aggresively not allow that or any other sort of roughness and scared the goats. I'm hopeful he can now be out 24/7 to keep Annie under control without terrorizing the goats like he did when he was younger.
But McCoy has no magic for keeping Annie from getting too close in front of my EZ Go. She had a very scary encounter with it yesterday. She and McCoy had accompanied me with my load of sticks that the goats had stripped leaves from down to the burn pile (in-the-future-after-the-winter-rains-return burn pile). On the way back, Annie kept stopping to sniff things right in front of the EZ Go. I would stop as quickly as I could but one time I did not stop fast enough. She was squished under the front of the EZ Go as it ran over her. She screamed like she had been killed and ran off holding her right rear leg up. I thought it must be broken. But I soon realized she was running from the horses who had come up to see what all the racket was about. After I shooed them off, Annie let me examine her. There were no abrasions and nothing seemed broken, just bruised. She walked with a limp the rest of the day, but soon was bouncing with a limp.
Today she mostly doesn't limp at all but she keeps a great distance away from my EZ Go. I'm hopeful she will be cautious of cars now as well as EZ Gos.
Today I threw lots of branches and apples over the fence to the goats. Annie bounced over to chase. McCoy growled and lunged at her. Goats kept eating. Annie backed off. McCoy lay down in the corner and watched. When she attempted to "play" with the goats, he charged at her growling. She quit. Goats kept eating. Hooray for McCoy!!
 |
| The brown kid behind Annie is his best friend, other than Mister McCoy. April Starlight is not at all afraid of the pup and never runs from her. I wish the other goats were that smart. |
Although Annie did not chase the goats while McCoy was watching her, she could not resist trying to get something going with him. He growled and lunged at her as though to say, "No rough-housing around the goats!" She rolled over in submission.
But then sat up and looked at him. "You sure you don't want to play?"
He was sure.
And I am sure glad Mister McCoy has taken over the training of this energetic pup!
No comments:
Post a Comment