Dominance Issues

Ginger (Saanen) and Clover (Toggenburg). Ginger is the herd Queen. You can see Tulip (Nubian) tethered to the fence. Asa was with me in the field, and Tulip was butting him. I had to keep her chained while we were in there.

My two youngest goats, the Nubians, are showing signs of behavior issues. This past Christmas, our friends came to visit. Their little one, who is 2 years old, went into the goat yard with a group of people to visit with, and pet the goats. She has always loved our goats - and is always kind and gentle with them. Twice, Tulip pushed/butted the little one onto the ground. It didn't take much to knock her down, she's pretty small. It was a solid butting nontheless. The first time Tulip did this, I figured she was simply playing and I thought nothing of it. She did it a second time the next day, and Tulip seemed to focus just on the little girl. I thought Tulip was feeling the need to dominate this little one, and thought it was best to keep her out of the goat yard.

Juniper eating hay while Tulip remaines tied to the fence.

Then, just a few days ago, we had another visitor. This was a stranger, and was a child of about 11 years old. He is the same size as my older son, almost five feet tall. Besides myself and the boy, there were also four other children in the yard of various ages. This boy was one of the tallest in there. Juniper starts butting him - and not gently either. She gave him a good, hard push, then stood looking at him, her head down, making something close to a growling sound. Then she butted him again, with all of her strength it seemed. She was only focused on this one boy. She didn't attempt to butt any of the other children. I got him and the others out of there immediately. I have told everyone in my family that children are no longer allowed in the goat's yard. Now, when Asa goes in there, Tulip tries to butt him.

Here, Juniper is pushing against me. She doesn't butt at all - just a strong, slow PUSH.

All the while, Juniper (Tulip's sister) has been pushing on me whenever I'm in their yard - when she's not eating hay or grain. All the boys in our family have always played this butting game with the goats, who have never been anything but gentle while playing. But, now I see that that has to end. I have read in books that butting should never be encouraged in goats, and I see that there is a good reason for this. Good thing that my goats don't have horns! I am worried that as Tulip grows larger that she could really hurt someone; these goats will grow to be 120 to 150 pounds. Now, when Juniper pushes against me with her head, I gently move her head off of me. I hope that eventually, this will end her behavior.