Speck update

Well - I don't know if it's luck or if I've really actually made progress. 

I stopped using the clicker because Dave won't use a clicker and I'm going out of town for 2 weeks in June.  He'll be the goat milker and I need her going into the milk room without the clicker. 

I let her out and if she comes to me she no longer gets her saltine cracker.  I've upped the requirement to get a treat.

She has to go IN the milk room and up on the stanchion to get her saltine. 

There have been a couple times she has decided not to go in the milk room. 

I don't want to re-enforce the running away.  I want her coming to ME vs. me going to HER.  Which means I have to have patience.  I  sit and wait her out.  If I don't have time to do this, I take her collar as she comes out the gate to make sure she won't run and play keep-away.  Consistency.

First time she ran off and I sat to wait her out it took roughly 30 min... with me cussing under my breath because it's super aggravating.  It's like watching her flip you off and you can't do anything about it. 

Dave walked by a couple times in the midst of doing some yard stuff and was like "wow - I wouldn't be able to wait like that..."  Yeah.  It wasn't easy.  I was mad but couldn't act or be mad cuz it would just drive her off even more...my body language would be "mad" and NO ONE...human or animal wants to approach anyone who is mad at them. 

Second time it happened was like 15 min... and now it's just a few minutes at most before she goes in the milk room on her own and up on the stanchion... so if I wait, act like I don't care and I have the saltines ready for immediate reward....

Well, from her perspective, she is outside the goat pen and isn't able to eat the hay I just brought in when all the other goats are chowing down...

She isn't getting grain since she isn't in the milk room on the stanchion...

She isn't getting saltines since she isn't in the milk room on the stanchion...

Her udder is full...

The human isn't chasing so it's not a "game"... 

I guess she figures the shennanigans of running all about playing keep away aren't worth it.  There is no pay off.

shrug.  Not sure what she'll do with Dave when I am gone.  I'll make sure to tell him he may want to take her by the collar on the way out of the gate since I know he won't have the patience to wait on her and I hope what I've done with her won't be undone....

However, she is milked 2x a day so whatever is undone can be redone when I get home!  I get the opportunity to "train" her twice a day.

I've also been thinking about the differences in how Speck was raised vs. Daisy...

Why does Daisy so readily go into the milk room when she is out and wandering around and when she sees I am ready to milk, she happily trots in and jumps up?  I never have to chase her.  I call her and she comes, ready for milking. 

It could be a personality difference... I don't know.

I really don't remember specifics in baby goat raising as we do everything pretty much the same.  I can't help but wonder if we let Daisy out and about more vs. keeping her in the pen?  Baby goats are so curious and when loose, they really just follow you all around.  Sort of like you are the "mama" goat out foraging and if you were wandering to new pastures or whatever... they keep you in sight... they will run off and play if you are stuck in one spot (me pulling weeds vs. a goat that would be browsing on food) and they always come back to check in.  If you begin to walk away, they come running and stick with you until you are in the next stationary spot.  Much like I imagine it would be in the "wild".

If they wander some place and they can't see you, they begin to call in a "panicky" tone and if you  talk to them and make noise they come ZOOMING in like "oh!  thank-goodness....THERE you are"

Yeah, yeah - I'm anthropomorphising all over myself but shrug.  I'm not a researcher and I DO think animals think and feel... not like we do ... and tho they certainly communicate with each other and they find ways to convey things to us hoo-mans. 

Anyway, we've been letting the two doe kids out and about with us more when we are in the yard for any length of time weeding/mowing etc.  I wonder if it will shape them to come to us more readily when they are milkers... it's my very non-formal experiment.  Besides, it's fun having a couple baby goats following you around and zooming around, kicking up their heels, bouncing and springing like little "Tiggers" all over the place....