# House trained goats?



## Dreamgoat Annie (Nov 28, 2011)

I'm new here. Emily Dixon says this is a great forum, so I'm looking forward to meeting you folks. )

My question: have any of you house trained goats and if so, how did you go about house training them?

I clicker trained a bottle baby buckling I got from Emily two years ago to use a pad in a back corner of the kitchen. He was a lot easier to train than most puppies. But, since he was going to be a buck, he eventually moved out to a paddock with a Port-a-Hut and a friend and he doesn't make house visits any longer.

Now I have a bottle baby reserved and since he'll be a wether, I'd like to do a more extensive job of house training so he can come in for extended visits later on. I'm think I'll eventually try to train him to go outdoors instead of using a pad, so that will be all new ground.

By the way, I've never participated at a forum before, only at YahooGroups, so I hope I get this right. p

Sue Weaver (Dreamgoat Annie)


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## Patrick (Sep 13, 2011)

IMO it's a bad idea. It will be very difficult to effectively housetrain a goat. Besides, goats are livestock. They belong in the barn, not sharing living quarters with humans. Even if it were possible, how would you provide proper food for a goat inside your home? I can't imagine a way to feed hay so that it does not cause cleanliness issues, and possible human health concerns from constantly being exposed to airborn dust and other contaminants. If the local government health authorities were ever involved, would you honestly be able to defend keeping a goat in the house as a "pet", on sanitary grounds?


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Keep them outside unless you live in a cinderblock house with concrete floors, including drains to hose them down. Also, no furniture or decorations.


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## nathan104 (Nov 16, 2007)

As a general rule, any animal that will poop in their bedding and in their food, is beyond being able to be housebroken. If you really want a farm animal for your house, get a pig.


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## saanengirl (Apr 7, 2009)

I have been told that it is possible to train them not to pee in the house, but that training them not to poop in the house is an impossibility.


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## Dreamgoat Annie (Nov 28, 2011)

Wellll, I'm not thinking of him living in the house full time--we DO have 25-some outdoor goats. But I'd like for my former bottle babies to come in to visit and stay awhile whenever they want to.

Our bottle baby setup is a large wire dog crate that opens from the top as well as the front. We bed it thickly with pieces of blankets and wash them when they get wet or dirty. All of my bottle babies live indoors for 3-5 weeks (depending on how soon their urine gets really smelly) and they all have run of the house part of the time, with supervision. I used to diaper them but think house training is the better way to go. 

So, after meals I carried Kerla, the kid I pad trained two years ago, to the pee-pee pad (they're several layers of easily-laundered pieces of an old, puffy comforter with finished edges) and stood by until he peed. Then I clicked (I clicker train) and gave him a big bunch of attention. Then he could run around awhile. I also got up a couple times every night (I'm pushing 65--I have to get up to go to the bathroom anyway) and took him to the pad. Took about 2 weeks until he was reliable enough to run to the pad when he had to go. 

Poop is something else--I just Dustbuster it up. However, a woman at my YahooGroups goat list has 5 house trained Myotonic goats who neither pee nor poop indoors. She has a YouTube video up of one of her goats going outdoors to to do her thing. She even takes them to a nursing home for visits and they perform in a Passion Play every year and they neither pee nor poop when and where they shouldn't, even then.

And, there are two people at my sheep list with fully house trained sheep (Jane, in Australia, has three house trained Merinos), no pee, no poop indoors, and a third who has a ewe who comes indoors at night and watches TV with her husband (the ewe sleeps in an indoor pen at night).

For sure goats have to be watched when they're indoors. I once retrieved my first bottle baby from the top of the refrigerator (he apparently jumped from the floor to a chair to the counter to the bread box and then to the top of the 'fridge--all in the time I went to the bathroom). It means covering exposed wires (the same first bottle baby and his brother chewed through our indoor telephone line) and putting everything, but especially paper, up where inquisitive mouths can't find it (I once returned a goat-chewed contract to Hobby Farms magazine; Karen Keb was still editor then and thought it was funny).

But John and I really enjoy having kids and lambs in the house. They often come to the door as adults, wanting to come in for a visit. I'd like them to be able to do it without worrying about a puddle to clean up.

Sue 

P.S. I HAD a house pig. Got him as a piglet and two months later he was still peeing wherever he wanted to. He became an outdoor pig.


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## Donna1982 (Jun 14, 2011)

As I said in the other post about this. Ours is house trained to a point. They will go to the door when they have to pee but if you dont do it right then they will pee on anything soft. Mine only come in once in awhile. Its easier for me since I do most shots, nail clipping etc by myself. Its easier to all this in my kitchen. But its a short trip. They get into EVERYTHING!!! 

Just got done doing the girls hoofs (btw boys NEVER come in.) At four different times we had goats on my bed twice (they ran off when I was doing hoofs) spilled my kool aid five times (it was up really high) tried to eat my house plants 9 times, spilled house plant once. And on the way out one pooped in the kitchen. That is all in a matter of maybe an hour and four different does. We let the bottle babies from birth to around age 2 months or 30 lbs be in the house but everyone wears diapers and they are in a dog kennel if we are not with them.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Goats are ruminants. Their stomach is constantly turning and they MUST poo regularly. I believe they NEED to urinate very regularly as well, because their stomachs are huge WET fermentation vats. They go through a LOT of water compared to, say, dogs/cats. 

Perhaps you COULD housetrain them. But I strongly believe it should NOT be done because of their physiology. They need to poo/pee regularly. Not to mention it goes against their behavior of grazing with herd mates, something people are not likely to do for the majority of the day with their pet goat. 

In the best interest of the animal, do not attempt to housetrain, IMO.


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## Charleen (May 12, 2002)

It's not just the issue of potty training but goats like to CHEW and CLIMB and they will do that all over the house.

ETA - welcome to the forum!


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

I also agree with all the others but wanted to Welcome you to the forum! Love this place & the people are great. Lots of friendly, knowledgable folks here.

We also should let you know right up front we LOVE goat pictures, any kind will do but we have to see baby picutes when ever you get new babies, born, bought or otherwise!


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## airotciv (Mar 6, 2005)

Welcome to the forum. My first thought was why would anyone what goats in the house? As people have said, even if you could potty train them, they still chew and climb. If I hear one more time "Do you know what your goats have done now?" from DH and thier outside. I would hate to see what they would do to a house.


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

We kept a bottle doe in the kitchen for a couple months one time, as it was the only option to save her. She stayed in a dog cage or on a leash. She crapped all the time. It was two months of following behind her with a paper towel. Ugg, not again.


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## Patrick (Sep 13, 2011)

Dreamgoat Annie said:


> I'm new here. Emily Dixon says this is a great forum, so I'm looking forward to meeting you folks. )
> 
> My question: have any of you house trained goats and if so, how did you go about house training them?
> 
> ...


That's odd. There is someone with the same name as you with 1087 posts on the Hobby Farms forum, a lot of them to do with goats. What a coincidence that there are two people with the same name who have goats.


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## Patrick (Sep 13, 2011)

She even lives near you, in northermost Arkansas, and she's a fulltime writer too! What are the chances?


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jul 28, 2006)

Are you she, Dream Goat? That would be awesome.


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## CarolT (Mar 12, 2009)

I'm lost as to why it would be odd for someone to join 2 forums to talk about goats? I belong to more than one forum and no one comments on it.

OTOH Welcome DreamGoatAnnie! Hope you enjoy it here, for the most part!

ETA, I see the no other forums comment now, sorry.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Hope everybody gives Sue a warm welcome.:happy: She is a good friend and a great person who LOVES her goats. While I'm not interested in housetraining a goat(though I've had a few that would have been perfectly happy to lounge around on my couch!), If anyone can do it, I'll bet its Sue. And she takes great care of her babies. Keep posting, Sue!!
I'm a goat person who belongs to waaaay too many forums.....and yahoo groups! I prefer these type of forums.


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## prairiedog (Jan 18, 2007)

Any babies yet Emily? Need pics.


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## Donna1982 (Jun 14, 2011)

Welcome to the fourm. I forgot to say that before.


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jul 28, 2006)

Yes, welcome Sue. 

I'm a member of more than goat forum too, although this is the one I frequent most.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Patrick said:


> She even lives near you, in northermost Arkansas, and she's a fulltime writer too! What are the chances?


What is your point?

You know, people have tried very hard to let you know that you tend to come off as abrasive. Before you hit 50 posts, you'd managed to alienate a good number of the folks here.

Please stop being rude - especially to newcomers. I don't know what your game is, but your snarkiness is becoming tiresome.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Dreamgoat Annie, I love your handle! Welcome to the forum! (And now I have "Dreamboat Annie" playing in my head....)

Any friend of Emily's is a friend of ours! 

As far as housetraining goats, my guess is that you'll probably be most successful by training yourself to know the signs that the floodwaters are about to burst the dam and respond accordingly. That may actually help the goat to realize, from your reaction, that it may want to wend its way to the door at a certain point, but at least your cleanup will be minimal.

Again, welcome. Glad to have you on board!


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## LomahAcres (Jan 21, 2007)

IMO goats are highly intelligent and if you've trained dogs, goats will be a breeze. I house trained a doe kid once - or rather - boxed trained. She was house broke by 2-4 weeks of age. SOOOO much easier to train then a puppy! I had a cardboard box - lined with plastic - added straw. One side was a half wall so she could jump in and out by herself,but it would keep the straw inside. When she would go to squat I'd just pick her up and run to her box with her - it would startle her a bit just enough so she wouldn't like it - then she learned that if she'd pee in the box by herself - no interruptions. Her box was accessible 24/7 and she knew where it was, so no need to hold it. They like to go as soon as they wake up and after every meal - so I'd just put her in their anyway and wait for it. After a while she'd walk to her box first thing in the morning and after every meal all by herself. 

From the time she was able to walk well she was outside as often as possible so plenty of greens to nibble and her hay as well. I had her in the house for about 12-15 weeks - she was born a preemie and I had no other bottle babies at the time, no other goats to put her with, so she just lived in the house/yard with us. Finally another doe kidded and she moved out to barn life with those bottle babies. She did go through a bit of an adjustment period, but it did help that she was in the house with us and the new bottle babies before being pushed out side - then she at least had made some friends already.


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## Dreamgoat Annie (Nov 28, 2011)

Thanks for the welcome, everyone!

Yep, that was me at the Hobby Farms forum but things got pretty negative there, so I stopped participating. Life is too short for people to be mean to one another. A lot of my Hobby Farms forum posts were about goats or sheep--they're my passions. 

I have to figure out how to post here, so please be patient with me while I learn.

And pictures? Oh boy, will you get pictures once I find out how to upload them!

Sue


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## Dreamgoat Annie (Nov 28, 2011)

I'm a full-time writer, so I'm home nearly all the time. That makes house training easier.

Kerla, the buckling I trained took himself to the pad whenever he wanted to pee. But now that he's a fullgrown buck who pees in his beard (and worse!) he doesn't get to come in any longer.

Some people do train goats and sheep not to poop indoors but I'm not that picky and will rely on my trusty Dustbuster.

Sue


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jul 28, 2006)

What do you write Dream? I've never been to the HF forum, but the fact that you are a full time writer and a goat lover is awesome!


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## Donna1982 (Jun 14, 2011)

Dreamgoat Annie said:


> Life is too short for people to be mean to one another.
> 
> Sue


I couldn't agree more. :rock: You will find this place for the most part is a bunch of fun loving goat people. Who help as much as we can and have a laugh at others stories. You will like it here.


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## Dreamgoat Annie (Nov 28, 2011)

Oat Bucket Farm said:


> What do you write Dream? I've never been to the HF forum, but the fact that you are a full time writer and a goat lover is awesome!


Thank you! 

I write books for Storey and BowTie Inc. and articles and columns for Hobby Farms and Chickens magazines. I used to specialize in horse publications but branched out when Karen Keb (who was then an editor at Horse Illustrated) took over as editor-in-chief at Hobby Farms.

My Nubian buck, Ozark Jewels General Martok, posts a weekly blog at Hobby Farms Online. He's quite a character. You might want to check him out.

I've always had a goat wether or two with my horses and I loved my goat guys but didn't get seriously bitten by the goat bug until we visited MAC Goats to shoot pictures for _Hobby Farms Goats_. When I met MAC Goats Chief Forty-Five (Chiefee) it was love at first sight. Really, I can't explain it except that my heart opened up and I was smitten. That was 7 years ago and now goats are my primary passion.

I started with Boers (and still have most of them; they're now expensive pasture ornaments). Then I met Emily through some of the YahooGroups goat lists and arranged to visit her to buy a Nubian to breed to my Boer buck. I fell in love all over again but with Nubians this time. So now I have Nubians purchased from Emily as well as some of their offspring. Emily has great goats! 

I love writing about goats and have written several goaty articles for Hobby Farms, plus writing _Hobby Farms Goats_ for BowTie and _The Backyard Goat _and _Storey's Guide to Raising Meat Goats_ (under my pseudonym, Maggie Sayer--therein lies a tale). There is also a goat section in _Storey's Guide to Raising Miniature Livestock_. Now I'm doing some ebooks (some to sell and some to distribute for free) and am under contract to Storey for a book called _HomeGrown Pork_. Pigs are okay but it's not nearly as much fun as writing about goats or sheep!

Sue


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## lasergrl (Nov 24, 2007)

My nigerian was housetrained as a bottle kid, untill about 4 months of age. I took her many places and she would go outside if I took her in time. Number one and number two. Eventually the jumping and chewing became more then enough. That is about the time I was able to find my other doe who was also a bottle baby and not housetrained. Depends on the goat and the training. Not all will housetrain while other do without much training at all.


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## prairiedog (Jan 18, 2007)

Oatbucket is a writer too so you have something besides goats in common.


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## Dreamgoat Annie (Nov 28, 2011)

prairiedog said:


> Oatbucket is a writer too so you have something besides goats in common.



Cool! Oatbucket, what do you write?

Sue


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## Dreamgoat Annie (Nov 28, 2011)

Oat Bucket Farm said:


> What do you write Dream? I've never been to the HF forum, but the fact that you are a full time writer and a goat lover is awesome!


I wrote a long response but seem to have done something wrong as when I hit reply, I got a screen saying it had to be checked by a moderator before posting. So it should show up later on. In the meanwhile, I need to learn the rules.

Basically, I write books for BowTie Press and Storey and magazine articles for Hobby Farms and Chickens magazines.

Sue


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jul 28, 2006)

That is great that you get to make a living on your writing.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

prairiedog said:


> Any babies yet Emily? Need pics.


Just last night, triplets, two boys and a girl. Girl came first, then the two boys both tried to come at once. I convinced the bigger one to wait and out popped his little brother, then he came. All healthy, mama is fine. I'll start a 2012 kidding thread.=)


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jul 28, 2006)

Dreamgoat Annie said:


> Cool! Oatbucket, what do you write?
> 
> Sue


Sorry, I must have missed this post somehow. I write fantasy.


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## Dreamgoat Annie (Nov 28, 2011)

Oat Bucket Farm said:


> Sorry, I must have missed this post somehow. I write fantasy.


Oooooh, I've just been to your fantasy blog. I have to do my morning chores, then reading it is #1 on my agenda! 

Looks fantastic! 

I'm writing a cozy mystery but only between paying jobs (gotta buy goat feed and LOTS of $8 bales of hay, alas), so it's not getting finished very quickly.

I used to correspond via snail mail (back a million years ago before the Internet became such a huge part of my life) with Ann Schwader and Sue Isle, both of whom wrote fantasy. They kept me inspired. Hopefully reading your blog will too.

Sue (who could use a healthy dose of inspiration right now)


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jul 28, 2006)

My blog doesn't have a whole lot in it yet. I've been so busy working on the final edits of the book itself, I haven't had much time for either of my blogs. I do make a small post every few days on my FB page.


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## Patrick (Sep 13, 2011)

Dreamgoat Annie said:


> Thanks for the welcome, everyone!
> 
> Yep, that was me at the Hobby Farms forum but things got pretty negative there, so I stopped participating. Life is too short for people to be mean to one another. A lot of my Hobby Farms forum posts were about goats or sheep--they're my passions.
> 
> ...



Oh, I was just curious, because I thought that you said in your original post that you had never partcipated in a forum before. I just like to try to understand things correctly. Sorry if that sounded snarky to some.


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## Dreamgoat Annie (Nov 28, 2011)

Patrick said:


> Oh, I was just curious, because I thought that you said in your original post that you had never partcipated in a forum before. I just like to try to understand things correctly. Sorry if that sounded snarky to some.


I didn't take it as snarky. I've only participated at the Hobby Farms and riding steers forums before this one and at the riding steers only briefly (it seems to have disappeared), so I'm still learning how this one functions. I'm still a bit mind-boggled but things are getting clearer.

Are you Gallus from the Hobby Farms forum?

Sue


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