December 19, 2017 by theclickercenter

Goat Diaries: Day 5 – Excitement!

Excitement

I love the enthusiasm and excitement a new learner brings to clicker training. There’s food! There’s attention. There are puzzles to be solved. It’s very exciting. The goats were reminding me of some of the clicker-trained dogs I’ve seen. Everything is go, go, go. Throw behaviors at your human, wolf down the treat then throw something else at them. And above all watch the treats. Don’t let those goodies get out of your sight!

My challenge was to build calm confidence while keeping the enthusiasm. With the horses that comes from a deep understanding of the clicker game. If you absolutely know the treats are not going to be taken away from you, you can afford to take your eyes off of them. You’ll get them whether you are watching them or not. This is in part what it means for the learner to trust the process.

Settling into enthusiastic calmness doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. Accumulate enough consistent reinforcement around what you want, and it becomes the norm. I was still a long way from that with Elyan and Pellias in July, but that was the direction I hoped we were heading. Time would tell.

Before I jump into today’s installment of the Goat Diaries, I want to share an email that got my day off to a great start this morning.

“Hi Alexandra,

I’m loving the Goat Diary installments. I’m finding them a whole refresher course in themselves, especially with the annotated photo sequences. I have 2 friends firmly hooked on them as well.

One of these friends, Anne-Marie and I, about 6 months ago, rehomed a Palouse pony, now named Nugget, who had become “unmanageable” for several previous owners who used either the “traditional” or increasing pressure approach with him. We introduced him to Life with a Clicker and he’s great. The goat diaries have been very timely, as Nugget is athletic, smart, eager with a high play drive and greedy for treats!

We had Anne-Marie’s vet come and do his teeth a couple of weeks ago. When we told the vet Nugget’s previous name, he went a shade of grey and asked if we seriously expected him to do the horse’s teeth. This vet had met the horse about 2 years ago, because the owners suspected he was a rig (because of his behaviour) and they wanted his blood tested to see if this was the case (it wasn’t). We found out quite a bit from the vet that we hadn’t known when we agreed to rehome him.

I asked the vet if he would just handle Nugget a bit, before giving him a sedative in case (by some miracle) he, the vet, didn’t think that would be necessary. Nugget was a model child!!!! He stood quietly and straight (while playing GrownUps with me at his side) while the vet stroked his head and neck, asked him if it was OK to look at his teeth and proceeded to lift Nugget’s lips around and run his fingers along the teeth. Then he did some “trial” rasping before putting the gag on and saying that he certainly didn’t need a sedative!

The vet was super impressed with the change in him, and told us to “keep doing whatever you are doing with him because it’s working”! Anne-Marie explained a bit about positive reinforcement and the clicker. We have since heard that the vet has been telling almost anyone who will listen about Nugget and his Clicker Training ( I will have to ask him to refer those who do listen to him to your website).

Your post yesterday on “Eager” was perfect to remind us to balance forward moving games with stillness.”

Talk about a great way to begin my day! Thank you, Amanda Goodman, for your lovely email and for your permission to share it with others. This is exactly why I am writing the Goat Diaries. I hope my experiences with the goats will provide good reminders for all of us working with horses. So now on to the goats and more excitement from Pellias!

The July Goat Diaries: 9:30 am First morning session

I made certain to feed the goats first before working with them and to give them plenty of time for their breakfast. When I went in to play with them, they were both napping in the hay.

Pellias has his head curled around and Elyan is looking at me with sleepy eyes.

P’s Session:

I set up two platforms as usual. I had decided to use a different approach with the pole. If P didn’t want to go over it, that was fine. I set two poles on the ground with a wide gap between them. He didn’t need to jump them. He could easily go through the gap to get to the next platform.

P was much more settled. He went right to the first platform and waited for me. I was able to take a couple of steps back from him, click and treat. He was standing solidly on the platform, not stretching out trying to get to me. It seemed as though he was beginning to understand that I would bring the food to him.

Goat diaries Day 5 P on platform.png

He moved well at first from one platform to the next. But as the session progressed, he stepped off the platform prematurely. Conflict! What was he to do? He had a difficult choice to make. His desire for treats and his enthusiasm for platforms collided and sent him rearing up onto his hind legs. He could have charged, but instead a dramatic leap landed him back on the platform!

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This seemed to sort out his choices because after that he settled into good work. He was back to being a calm, patient learner.

goat diaries day 5 all is well.png

I’ll wait to describe E’s session because it involves another important step in their training – the re-introduction of the lead.

The Goat Palace Dec 18 2017

I said at the start of this post that the goats were reminding me of dogs. The similarities were becoming more and more apparent. Horses can certainly buck and twist and kick out their heels, but they do not have anything like the range of movement that goats have. Goats can twist and squirm and turn themselves inside out in ways that are much more similar to dogs.

My focus with all the goats has been very much to build a stable base. For that I was drawing on the foundation lessons that I teach the horses I work with. The goats had learned basic targeting skills. I had used the food delivery to introduce backing. Platforms had given their feet a place to be so we could work on grown-ups. They were understanding that, yes, I would give them treats, but first they had to figure out the puzzle. The dots were connecting

We had some basic skills. We had enthusiasm. We had agile, quick learners. It was time to shift in my thinking from horse to dog training. So recently I’ve split my training along two separate lines of thought. I had been using the platforms with Elyan and Pellias to teach them to position themselves relative to me and each other. I’ve been expanding that recently to bring in some of Michele Pouliot’s work with platforms. I’ll expand on that later. It’s time to catch you up with Thanzi and Trixie.

I’m experimenting with a different technique with them. I’ve been thinking about how best to prepare them for leading. I have no doubt that if I put a lead on them right now, they would both pull like freight trains. Thanzi in particular is a very powerful goat. They both know how to put their heads down and just muscle their way into what ever they want. They are also both super enthusiastic about the training. They understand platforms and targets. So why not have some fun and experiment with bird’s nests?

Now what in the world does that mean!? It’s a technique Kay Laurence has developed to introduce dogs to leading and heel work. The idea is that dogs are very good at watching bird’s nests because you never know when something yummy might fall out of them. So one technique is to walk along with treats in your hand and randomly, occasionally let a few treats fall through your fingers. The dogs very quickly learn to follow you and watch your hand.

This then evolves into putting a small cup onto the end of a target stick. You put a treat into the cup and walk along with the stick held out above the dog’s head. The dog looks up at the cup and walks along beside you. Click – a flick of the wrist sends the treat flying out of the cup. The dog chases it down – what fun! – and then immediately returns to the cup. The dogs are learning to move with balance, to stay oriented to Kay, to stop, back up, come forward, to walk at her side, or to move out around her on a circle. (If you want to learn more directly from Kay, bookmark her web site: learningaboutdogs.com It is going through a massive redesign at the moment so it is currently off line. When Kay unveils her new site after Christmas, it will be full of good things to explore.)

I have been thinking about this technique for quite a while, especially for Thanzi. She’s such a powerful goat. Before I ever attach a lead to her collar, I want her to understand how to stay with me. So I built a “bird’s nest” target stick for the goats. I duct taped a small plastic container to one end of a wooden stick and a clicker to the other. The cup was just big enough for a goat to eat out of. That turned out to be an important criterion.

The first time I used the target cup, the goats were confused by the food delivery. I had to teach them to look for the food falling out of the cup. That part was okay. They could do that, but then they didn’t want to eat the pumpkin pieces once they had fallen into the gravel.

So we’re back to horse training constraints with the food delivery. We don’t want our horses eating off of the footings we typically work them in. The goats were saying they didn’t consider the gravel walkway to be a suitable dinner plate. Fair enough. So I switched from dropping the treat out of the cup, to lowering it so the goat could eat the treat from the cup. (If you’re reading this, Kay, don’t shudder at the corruption of your method. I had to adapt your technique to my learners’ persnickety eating habits.)

I’ve only been experimenting with this approach for a couple of days, but so far I really like it, especially for Thanzi. She is so smart and so much fun to work with. She has caught on with lightening speed to the game. She positions herself by my side and walks in very measured steps, head up, nose pointing to the cup. I pause. She pauses. Click, lower the cup. She takes the treat. I reload, and off we go for a few more steps of very controlled, measured walk. Pause. Wait. She backs up. Click. Lower the cup. Reload. I hold a handful of treats in my free hand. When they are gone, we walk together over to the gate. High up on a post out of reach for goats I have more treats stashed. I get a resupply and we’re off. I think this is going to be a really fun way to teach Thanzi both great leading skills and also some fun liberty work. Thank you, Kay.

It’s also been good for Trixie. She very deliberately chooses to be the first one through the gate when it’s time to train. I let her through into the hallway and throw some treats to Thanzi so she’s not feeling too left out. Trixie has definitely got the idea of stationing on platforms. Following the target cup is an easy way to move her from platform to platform and to build her confidence. I could use a regular target and hand feed her. This is an experiment. I want to see what I get when I deliver the food in this way.

This is the fun of clicker training. There is always, always more than one way to train every behavior. Part of the reason for working with the goats is they get me out of the “rut” of doing things the way I know how to do things. That’s always good for training. So far, I’ve treated them like horses. Now I’m having the fun of borrowing ideas from dog trainers. There’s always another way to solve every puzzle. And there’s always more to learn. That’s as true for me as it is for Thanzi and Trixie.

Happy Holidays Everyone! I wish you the joy of your own mad scientist experiments!

Pellias Christmas card.png

We’re in the midst of the Holiday Season. If need a thank you gift for your horse sitter, a stocking stuffer for your riding partners, a grab bag present for your animal loving friends, here’s a thought. Share the links to the Goat Diaries: theclickercenterblog.com

Please Note: if you are new to the Goat Diaries, these are a series of articles that are best read in order. The first installment was posted on Oct. 2nd. I suggest you begin there: https://theclickercenterblog.com/2017/10/02/ Two of the goats I write about originally came for a twelve day stay in July. The July Goat Diaries track their training during this period. In November these two goats, plus three others returned. They will be with me through the winter. The “Goat Palace” reports track their training. I wish to thank Sister Mary Elizabeth from the Community of St. Mary in upstate NY for the generous loan of her beautiful cashmere goats.

December 13, 2017 by theclickercenter

The July Goat Diaries: Day 4 – Learning About Goats

What are you feeling?

The timing is perfect for posting this particular article. In it I reference Dr. Joe Layng’s 2016 presentation on emotions at the Art and Science of Animal Training conference. The organizers of that conference have just made that lecture available on the internet. It is very much worth listening to. (https://www.artandscienceofanimaltraining.org/videos/)

Today I’m going to begin with the July Goat Diaries:

Both goats were now consistently greeting me at the door. They were accepting and seemed to be enjoying long head rubs before we began the more structured sessions.

Seemed to be enjoying – there’s an interesting phrase. We use so many emotional labels. They enjoyed the session. They were happy to see me. How do I know what they were feeling? The answer is I don’t. I don’t know what a goat is feeling any more than I know what another person is feeling.

I can observe behavior and see how that correlates with what I experience. Under these conditions, I feel happy. When I feel happy, I present the following behaviors: I smile. I get wrinkles at the corners of my eyes. I laugh. My shoulders relax. Under similar conditions, when I see these indicator behaviors in another person, it’s a fair guess to say that he’s feeling happy.

What conditions would make a goat happy? What does a happy goat look like?

Several years ago at the Art and Science of Animal Training conference, Joe Layng gave a great talk on emotions. Here’s the example that stuck with me. Suppose you’ve been in an accident, a doctor might ask, on a scale of one to ten, how much pain are you in? What does the answer mean? We all know people who are running for the nearest hospital if they even so much as stub their toe, while others stoically tolerate broken bones. And that’s the point Joe was making. The answer does not reflect some absolute answer. We can’t know someone else’s pain. The answer tells you what level of intervention that person is asking for.

When I first scratched the goats, I would say they tolerated the attention. Now they were enjoying it. My hand was doing the same action, but the response was so very different. Now they arched their necks into my fingers. Their ears got floppy, their eyes soft. And when I took my hand away, what level of intervention did they ask for? Did they move away relieved that I had stopped? Or did they push into me asking for more?

I think I was safe in saying that they were enjoying the head scratching. But whatever they thought of this ritual, I was finding it most reinforcing!

I used another emotional label to describe P at the start of our next training session. He was eager.

2nd Session 11 am

P’s Session:

I let P out into the outside run. I wanted to film this session so I had the camera and tripod with me. P went straight to the platform. I should have reinforced him, but I was busy setting up the camera. Note to self – have camera set up ahead of time. These initial offerings at the start of a session are too precious to miss.

For the most part P was very good. He stayed on the platform – click then treat. When I offered the target, he left the platform to come to the target – click then treat. (Figure 1.)

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Figure 1

He was experiencing success with both responses. Stay on the platform – get reinforced. Orient to the target when it’s presented – get reinforced. All was going well, and then – conflict! P got stuck between two choices. What was he supposed to do!? He wanted to go to the platform. But I was holding out the target.

He started to leave the platform to get to the target (Fig. 2:1.) , but then he hesitated. He looked back at the platform. The pull was strong. (Fig. 2: 2-3.)

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Figure 2

He went to the platform. There was no click. He turned back to me, saw the target, and leapt towards it. When goats butt one another, they rise up on their hind legs and then curl their necks so they collide horns to horns with their sparing partner. (Figure 3.)

Figure 3

It looked as though P’s charge was going to turn into a head butt (Fig. 4: 1-4.) , but it fizzled out. He landed in front of me with a puzzled look. (Fig. 4: 5-6.) What to do? He looked back at the platform. (Fig. 4: 7.) That must be the answer. He turned away from the target and went back to the platform. (Fig. 4: 8.) No click. (Fig. 4: 9.) What is a goat to do?

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Figure 4

The target was still there. (Fig. 4: 10.) He left the platform and came forward to the target. Click! (Fig. 4: 11.) He kept coming forward as I reached into my pocket. (Fig. 4: 12.) Food delivery should support what you want. I had been asking him to back up away from me to get his treat, but in this case I wanted him to stay forward with me. (Fig. 4: 13.) He followed the target back to the platform. (Fig. 4: 14.) This time there was no conflict. The target was directing him back to the platform. This was an easy choice to make.

Video: Goat Diaries – Day 4 – P’s 11 am session

P does everything with so much energy! If orienting to the target is good, running to it must be better! His enthusiasm was beginning to create some problems. I want the energy. I want the enthusiasm. I also want him to have the ability to relax and settle. That comes from being confident in the process. It comes from understanding how to use the information that cues are providing. Now is a great time to stay on a platform. Now is a great time to leave the platform to go to a target.

I don’t want P to feel conflicted. I want him to know that it is safe to make mistakes. And I want him to know that there are lots of way to earn reinforcement. That’s what these early foundation lessons clarify.

The Horses have shown me that mats can help to stabilize the emotional yo-yo. Mats have three parts to them – going to a mat, staying on a mat, and leaving a mat. All three elements have to be in balance. If mats equal lots of reinforcement, I don’t want my horse or goat rushing to get to the mat. Nor do I want them refusing to leave the mat when asked.

My plan was to reinforce P a lot for just being on the platform. We’d go from the excitement of moving from one platform to the next, to the more predictable just stand still and get clicked and reinforced. Time will tell if that helps him gain confidence in the whole process.

The Goat Palace Journals

That’s where we were – just beginning to sort out platforms and the emotional high they created in Pellias. Yesterday I introduced him to a fun game, one Elyan is really enjoying. I set a large plastic storage container out at the far end of the hallway. It’s filled with leftover wood from the construction, blocks that are too small to be really useful, but too big to throw away. I’m being reinforced for being a pack rat. It turns out they really do have a use. They add enough weight to the storage box to make it a stable platform for the goats to jump up on at speed.

Elyan had already shown me that he’s very clever at getting up on things. When I get up out of my chair, he takes my place. If he can jump up into a chair and turn around, he can certainly jump up onto a box. So on Monday I let him run to the box, click and treat. He thought that was the greatest game yet! I clicked and reinforced him several times for staying on the box. Then I went to the far end of the hallway and called him.

He jumped off the box and ran to me. Click and treat! I want to say he ran joyously, but I am mindful of Joe Layng’s lecture. Who knows what he was feeling, but the speed with which he ran to me certainly filled me with delight.

I reinforced him for staying with me, then released him back to the box. He ran down the hallway and jumped up on it. Such fun! What a great way to teach recalls and send outs.

Once he was on his box, I could reach my arms around him and give him a quick hug – click and treat. He seemed to like the contact and started to press in closer to me.

I taught Panda to press her body against my leg. This was done for her work as a guide for the blind. When her handler is busy doing something where her focus not on Panda, for example buying something at a store check out counter, Panda will press herself against her leg. Her handler knows exactly where Panda is. She isn’t swinging her rear end around into the face of some small child. She is standing exactly where she should be by her side.

I taught this behavior for a very practical reason. I reinforced it a lot, and it became a behavior Panda loves to offer. After almost fifteen years working as a guide, it is certainly one she offers readily. As I was giving Elyan a quick squeeze of a hug, I thought this was a behavior he might enjoy as well.

Yesterday I introduced Pellias to the box. He was more hesitant at first about jumping up on it. I used a target to indicate that was what I wanted. In true goat fashion once he had one foot on the box, the rest quickly followed. When I called him off the box, he trotted to me. And then he turned and raced ahead of me back to the box. Hmm. Was this really what I wanted?

With Elyan it seemed fine. He’s so very good at sticking to my side, sending him out in front of me to the box didn’t seem as though it would create a problem. But Pellias is a much stronger goat. Did I really want him running ahead of me? Is this something I wanted to be encouraging at this point? I didn’t think so. So I brought out a target. He jumped down off the box and began to follow the target. Click. He stopped with me and got his treat.

I had him follow the target to the opposite end of the hallway where there was a stack of plywood mats that we had been using earlier. He hopped up on those. Click and treat. We turned back to the box. He kept his nose oriented to the target as he trotted towards the box. I clicked. He wasn’t expecting that. He had been heading to the box, so he overshot past me, but instead of being pulled in by the tractor beam of the box, he turned back to me.

What a great lesson! He had so much energy and enthusiasm. He wanted to get to the box. But when I clicked mid way down the hall, he stopped with me and got his treat. And then he stayed with me as we continued towards the box. That’s a great preparation for putting a lead on and asking him to stay with me even when there is something exciting up ahead.

This is such a fun stage in the training. I’ve constructed the first layer of building blocks. Now I can use them to create the next layer.

Coming Next: Goat Diaries: Day 4 – Goats and Platforms

November 16, 2017 by theclickercenter

Goat Diaries: Clicker Training Day 2 Goats are Like Horses Except That They’re Not

The Goat Palace – Nov. 16, 2017

Yesterday I wrote that structure matters. The day’s training sessions confirmed it. Things went so much more smoothly with the panels in place. Thanzi has figured out our system. She is now first at the gate ready to shift into the back area. She’s becoming much more consistent orienting to and following a target. She also has no interest in shifting back to the front area after her session, so we let Trixie join her. I’d like to work them one after the other, but Thanzi disagrees with that system. So yesterday she got a second targeting session with Marla while I worked with Trixie.

We were more successful than we had been the day before. Thanzi stayed better with Marla which let me focus on Trixie. I’m using my hand as a target with her. I target with one hand, feed with the other. She’s becoming increasingly comfortable approaching me and staying with me rather than running to Thanzi for security.

We left them and set the panels up for the boys. We have three different goats so they got three very different sessions. Pellias was reinforced for staying on a platform, something he excels at. Galahad had another protective contact session orienting to the target while we stayed outside the enclosure. He did great. He went consistently to the target, moved several steps to get his treat and then returned to his target.

We’ll see how he progresses, but I suspect starting this way will give him a very strong targeting skill. When you reduce the noise in the system, the behavior you’re after can really stand out. Our presence in the pen adds a lot of extra noise.

For Elyan, I built on yesterday’s session where I had him follow a target around me in a circle. If he had been a horse, I would have said he was lunging around me. Towards the end of his session I hooked his lead to his collar. We were picking up on lessons I had started in July. He continued to follow his target, and he kept slack in the lead. I remarked that it is so much easier to teach leading when there is no where to go.

So yes, structure matters. In the case of these five goats structure lets us work them individually without the chaos and competition that having them all together creates. I had originally thought we would be able to have all the goats together in the back area while we let them one at a time into the front training area, but I hadn’t factored in Thanzi’s influence. She is too aggressive to the younger goats for this to work. So structure matters because it lets us adjust our training to include considerations of the social structure of the group, as well as the needs of each individual.

In the evening this time it was Pellias who stayed on the platform for a cuddle and Elyan who watched from the back training area. The ladies were at the hay feeders. Galahad scooted past them but then discovered that Pellias didn’t want to share his top spot on the platform. He wanted all the scritching to himself. I stayed for quite a while, then left via the back gate so I could give Elyan a few minutes of attention as well. The ladies so far want nothing from me except food. They will approach to sniff my hands, but they scoot away if I try to touch them.

Onto the July Goat Diaries:

Clicker Training Day 2: Goats Are Like Horses Except That They’re Not

Platform Training Begins

I use mats a lot when I work with horses. In fact mats are such a useful tool, learning to stand on a mat is one of the six foundation lessons I use to introduce a horse to clicker training. The more you play with mats the more uses you find for them. Many horses begin by being wary of the strange surface. So the first step in using mats is to convince the horse that they are safe to stand on.

Think door mat size for mats. You can use plywood, rubber mats, carpet squares. You want something that contrasts with the underlying surface.

Standing on a mat highlights one of those places where goats are like horses – except they’re not. They are like horses in that mats are also an incredibly useful tool for them. They are unlike horses in that they are mountain animals. They like being up on things. They had already demonstrated that they were more than happy to jump up on the platform I provided for them in their stall. They didn’t need any special training to begin exploring that bit of environmental enrichment.

Normally with horses it would take multiple training sessions before they would be comfortable stepping up onto an elevated platforms. These goats might have been afraid of me on that first day they were in the stall, but they were very willing to jump up and play king of the mountain on the platform.

The goats were very willing to jump up on the platform I built for them.

Normally, for the horses I use pieces of plywood, or rubber mats, but I wasn’t sure the goats would even notice these. Given their lack of concern over changes in footing, I thought my usual mats might not be very effective. Would they even notice that there was something different underfoot?

I decided that their mats should be platforms. If one foot slipped off, they were much more likely to be aware of it and to self-correct. That would be less frustrating for them than asking them to care about whether or not their nimble feet were all four on a regular mat.

5th Session 7 pm: King of the Hill – Platforms

Horses were again my guide as I thought about what to do next. P had so many good traits. He was a quick learner. He was eager for attention. He was greedy for treats. He was full of energy. That makes him a fun candidate to train. But all that eagerness can get in the way. He reminded me of some of the clicker-trained dogs that I see. They share these same good characteristics that make them fun to train. They are quick, eager, agile, and very food motivated. It’s easy to get them so excited during training, they can’t think. They become so fixated on the food they are unable to settle. It’s go, go, go, with anxious tight movement and emotions to match.

These goats could easily become like one of those over-excited dogs. They were in the game. They wanted the food. They were quick, agile, eager to play. It’s easy to get carried away and reinforce all this playful, full-of-life behavior. But the training mantra is:

For every behavior you teach, there is an opposite behavior you must teach to keep things in balance.

With these goats it was clear emotional balance was going to be important. I needed a way to let them know that standing still was a good thing. It would bring them more treats than anything else they tried.

With horses I have always used mats to help teach “stay put”. The mat gives the horse a clear criterion to follow. Keep your feet planted on the mat and you will get clicked and reinforced.

As busy as the goats were, I wasn’t sure they would notice a simple mat. I thought platforms might work better for them, and I already knew that they liked being up on things. Unlike horses who tend to be wary about stepping onto unfamiliar surfaces, I didn’t think getting them up on a platform would be a challenge for them.

I began with P in the outside run. He was ready before I was! He went right to his platform and got clicked and reinforced for staying on it. This was so unlike horses who would have needed a lengthy introduction to mats and platforms. There are some advantages to working with a mountain climber!

Goat Diaries Day 2 P on Platform 7 panels

I used targeting to get P off the platform. I didn’t want to keep him up there so long it became the one and only thing he was willing to do. I wanted him to understand that there are many ways to get reinforced, including leaving the platform to go to a target.

Goat Diaries Day 2 Platforms 3 photos targeting.png

He threw in a little backing as he returned to the platform. After being reinforced so much for backing in the previous sessions, this was not a surprise.

Goat diaries Day 2 backing up.png He came up forward again to go onto the platform. Once up there, I reinforced him several times for staying on it.

Goat diaries Day 2 Platforms - 2 photos return to platform.png Again, I targeted him off. Click and treat. He wanted to back up. So he backed up then came forward with tons of energy to the platform. Hmm. I need to think about that.

“Don’t make your animal wrong for something you have taught him.”

That’s another of my training mantras. The backing was clearly a lesson well learned. In the previous sessions backing had produced treats. But backing wasn’t always going to be what I was looking for.

Too much of a good thing can get in the way of learning new lessons. I didn’t want to frustrate him and send him into the downward spiral of an extinction burst, but I also didn’t want backing to be inserted into everything that I trained. I needed to expand his repertoire so I could keep the backing in balance with all the other things I wanted him to do. Teaching him to stand on a platform was an important next step in this process.

Video: Goat Diaries Day 2 Platforms (The password to open this video is: GoatDiariesDay 2 P Platforms)

If these photos and the short video clip were all I showed you of this session, you would think all was smooth sailing. This goat training is easy!

But immediately after all this good work, P backed off the platform. I invited him forward with the target. He trotted back to the platform. The added energy tipped the balance. He jumped up several times. I’ve seen behavior like this before, but it’s usually coming from an overly excited dog. With dogs it can be entertaining, even flattering when your family pet jumps up on you with such enthusiasm. But with horses this kind of behavior will just get you hurt. It’s not a behavior I want to encourage in horse or goat.

Goat Diaries Day 2: Excitement - 2 photos where manners?.png

Video Goat Diaries Day 2/ Excitement (The password that opens this video is: GoatDiariesDay 2 P Platforms)

I got myself clear, got us reorganized, and P went back to being able to stay four feet on the floor. I restored his good manners by keeping my rates of reinforcement high. It was click for staying still on the platform – feed. Click for staying still on the platform – feed. I wanted to emphasize that four feet on the floor worked much better than jumping up.

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We were doing a fair bit of sorting/experimenting when the neighbors two dogs came out along the top fence line. One is a great Dane cross and the other is a dachshund. The little dog was moving about in a very odd way that caught everyone’s attention. One of the horses went on the alert. P tried to jump back into the stall and didn’t make it. I opened the door and tried to let him back in, but E came out instead. They both stood transfixed staring up at the dogs. Then the neighbor started weed whacking. That was too much.

The goats stared, tuning me out completely. They needed to work this out on their own. The environment is always changing. They needed to decide what was a threat and what was just normal background noise. I sat in the chair with them for a while, then went to get some hay to entice them back into the stall. P finally went in. I tried a little targeting, but he was having none of it. They went back and forth, in and out before I finally got them both in and closed the door. This time I closed the top as well as the bottom. I wasn’t going to have any more unwanted escapes.

Once in the stall, they settled right away. I gave them fresh hay which helped them forget the scare they had just had. While they were eating, I stood next to them and stroked their backs. They stopped eating and didn’t move. That seemed like such an odd reaction. Couldn’t they walk and chew gum? When they were touched, why did they stop eating? I read it as worry. It almost looked as though they were freezing.

With horses when you scritch them, you look for their lips to twitch. You look for a softening of the eyes, an arch of the neck as they move into your hand. With the goats I saw none of this. I couldn’t find any good places to scratch or any this-feels-great-don’t-stop spots. They accepted the stroking, but they weren’t seeking it out.

In the evening Panda’s owner, Ann, came out to the barn. Ann is a partner in the barn and her Icelandic, Fengur is one of our permanent residents. Ann is blind so she hadn’t really had a chance yet to meet the goats. On the first evening when they wanted nothing to do with people, all I’d been able to do was describe their behavior. Now for the first time, she could begin to interact with them. When she went into the stall with me, the goats stayed at the hay bucket. She was able to stroke both of them, which I took as real progress. P stood better for her than E. E quickly scooted away, clearly worried by a person he didn’t know.

Ann went off to take care of Fengur. I stayed and brought out my chair again. I was beginning to think of this last session of the day as cuddle time. After the excitement of all these training sessions, it seemed important that I spend some time just hanging out with the goats. I took my chair in and sat with them while they ate hay. If they came over, they got scratched. My rule was I could touch them, but I could not restrain them in any way. If they wanted to leave, I let them.

The goats were going to be with me for such a short time, I wanted to stack the deck as much as I could in my favor. I didn’t want to be just a treat dispenser. I wanted the treats, the puzzles, the entertainment, the time spent just hanging out to all add up to a real relationship. One of the common metaphors that trainers often use is they equate relationship building to building up a bank account. The “cuddle” time I was spending with these goats felt as though I was depositing gold bricks into my account.

I was also making some interesting discoveries about goats. Years ago I had three llamas. True to their species’ reputation for aloofness none of them liked being handled. These goats were not at all like the llamas. They were starting to seek out my attention.

My horses enjoy a good scratch, but the goats were different again. What they were really like were cats. All the ways cats enjoy having their heads rubbed and their chins scratched these goats seemed to love. I was beginning to see a tiny wiggle of the lips as I scratched them around their ears and the base of their horns. Their eyes were getting softer, and their ears were definitely getting floppier. If only they could purr, they would have been perfect!

I was also making another interesting discovery.

P was considerably bigger than little E. He was much bolder, much more of an adventurer. But when it came to hay and cuddles, E was the pushy one. When I set the hay bucket down for them, it was E who pulled the hay away with his foot. If P tried to share, E would butt him away. I tried spreading the hay out in separate piles so P could have some. E claimed them all and left P only what could be scrounged along the edges.

E loved having his head and back scratched. If P was under my hand first, he got butted away. E would then station himself by my side. If I stopped scratching him, he would lean into me or give me a gentle nudge with his nose to remind me that I needed to keep scratching. P could stand on my other side and was allowed a scratch as well, just as long as I kept my fingers going for E.

Their coats were also so very different. I was enjoying the contrast. P’s coat was soft and deep. You could sink your hands into his undercoat of luxurious cashmere. E’s long guard hairs gave a very different feel. His coat wasn’t soft to the touch and he was much bonier, but he so loved being scratched he was even more reinforcing.

How To Scratch a Goat

Coming Next: Goat Diaries Day 3 of Clicker Training