I brought my second Nigerian Dwarf doeling home on Sunday, and she is terrified of the dogs. Recently I purchased a 4 month old Maremma, he was born and raised with goats, from a long line of working Maremmas. He has a lovely personality, and my first little goat took right to him.
How do I introduce the new goat to the dog if she appears so afraid? She even screams at the sight of my Beagle.
She came from a farm that had a Golden Retriever and a Great Pyrenees. So I am rather perplexed at her behaviour, unless there was an incident that I am unaware of.
Thanks
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It's been crazy busy so I have not been on the computer for anything other than work, so thought I would give an update of the progress; what a difference a few days make! Toaly (new goat) is understandably still a little frightened when the dog runs around excitedly, but other than that she has settled in quite nicely.
(don't worry Deborah, I didn't think your response was negative, just realistic) :)
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Glad to hear you're seeing some improvement, Joanna! I hope my first response didn't sound too negative. Most do eventually start tolerating LGDs, even if they don't like them. Some dogs and goats seem to get along better than others.
I went through the same thing when I added my first LGD. I only had a few does at the time, but they hated her. They would headbutt her when she came too close, and then when I added my second LGD as a puppy they gave him a roll or two as well. And one day when one of my Pomeranians snuck in the pen while I wasn't looking, she quickly learned that goats were NOT her friend. Luckily we got her out before they seriously hurt her.
But now they completely accept the LGD. My bucks like their LGD a little too much, actually. But none of the goats are afraid of or mean to my Pyrs. A couple of the does will actually steal their Pyr's food, so I have to feed him separate. I'm sure with time you will see results similar to all of ours. :) It sounds like she's making progress already, which is great!
Thank you for the feedback everyone. She had a better day today; only screamed like the Doritos goat a couple of times.
Julia, I am encouraged that your experience has been posititive. It has only been the first week for the new goat. It probably hasn't helped that my bottle baby has been playing coy with the new goat, but today they did share a snack.
The new girl did give me a thorough once over at bedtime tonight, so I took that as positive.
I just went through this with my new doelings who were 10 weeks when I brought them home. They were terrified of the dog having never been around one. It's been 6 weeks and now they hardly look at him and will let him sniff them without running away terrified. I always bring him into the goat area with me and they associate me with good stuff so they have come to associate him the same way. Be patient. I just got a new goat (one week ago) who is 5 years old and pregnant. She was not thrilled about the dog and would run when he came in, but after only one week and seeing the young girls not afraid, she has warmed up to him too. I can go in with the dog and she stands her ground and walks right up to me for a pat. One thing is very important though, always keep the dog calm in the pen so as not to frighten them unnecessarily.
I would try to create as many positive experiences with your dog present and help the goat become less sensitive to the dog... other than that, I agree with Deb. I think it's pretty natural, and some goats seem to be more wary than others.
There is no secret to getting some goats to accept dogs, and it doesn't necessarily mean that something bad happened to her. Goats are prey animals, so it is natural for them to be afraid of dogs. There will be some bottle babies that are not afraid of dogs if they spent their first weeks in a house with dogs licking their face every day. (We had one of those once.) But otherwise, the two species are natural enemies. My NDs really do not like dogs, even our almost-9-year-old Anatolian who has been here his whole life. And I would not let my little bichon into the pasture with the goats when she was alive because the goats would attack her.