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Taming Goats and Sheep: Part One

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Food, food, food! You can try as many methods as you'd like, but eventually you will resort to the one and only form of training and taming with goats and sheep...treats. In addition to some irrestible treat (grain is perfect, chips or crackers, fruits, veggies, oats, corn, etc. will work), you will want a way to despense the food without the goat mauling you in the meantime, a halter and lead (preferably detachable), a clicker, and some form of "mark," be that a cement stone, a tree stump, etc.

Now, catch your critter of choice for the training session. Ideally, they should be kept (with company, of course) in a small enough stall or barn so that you can catch them with ease. Fifteen minutes of chasing will erase fifteen minutes of training anyday, especially with sheep, which aren't the most thoughtful barnyard animal to start, and which can have severely negative reactions to sudden stress (see the "Copper"article of the "What Am I Feeding series").

Catch the animal as gently as possible so as to keep them from fearing you, but do what you need to make the capture fast. With goats, you can offer grain and then slyly grab onto their horn before they finish. With sheep, try to corner them and then tip their chin upward. As soon as you have a pain-free hold on the animal, slip on the halter and lead and take them someplace where you can work without being interrupted, but where they can still see their companions and will not be frightened.

You will want to keep your training sessions short, to keep the animal's interest and to avoid an overload on treats. Be consistent! Do your training sessions in the same place, at the same time, on a regular schedule (which should be every day whenever possible). Goats and sheep thrive on routine and will be much better to work with if they expect you and know what's going to happen (they get treats!!!).

If the animal is not tame enough or accustom enough to taking food from hand that it stays willingly, you will need to leave the leash on and tie them (with a horse knot) to a post. This can be a dangerous step for an animal that has never before been tied, and you should work slowly, not tying them until you are absolutely certain they won't injure themselves.

For your first two or three sessions, get the animal familiar with the clicker, whistle, or with a word of praise (GOOD! OKAY!) and associate it with treats. You must be consistent with the treats. The animal should never, ever hear the click or other noise without recieving immediate reward. Once they get the idea that the click means they are getting a treat, you can slowly space out the click and the treat a little bit, to ensure that they will not loose faith in you if it takes you a second to furnish the food. So after a couple hundred repetitions of click, treat, click, treat...when the animal will turn to look in anticipation of a reward when it hears the noise loose in it's pasture, you're ready to start making requests.

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