GOATS IN THE VILLAGE

FROM MY HEART

2008-05-31T17:27:00.000-07:00

Remember what you see

Goat in the village

TRUE FRIEND

2008-05-30T07:09:00.000-07:00

Teach Your Goat to Lead

2008-05-24T23:37:00.000-07:00

Every animal need to at least learn to walk on a lead. It’s much easier to mover individual animals from one paddock to another, if it walks silently – not fighting you every step of the way. It’s better to put an animal on a trailer or truck when you sell it if you’re not pulling and jerking, or worse lifting and carrying it. In case, your goat requires medical attention, your vet would greatly appreciate having a well-trained goat to treat.
Once the goat learns definitely we are not going to torture it again and again. You can put a lead on the goat’s neck and tie it to a fence or gate. Remember never, ever leave your tied goat unattended; this could lead your goat with broken neck. While tied, you need to brush them, make them familiar to being handled. Further do rub your hands on their backs, up and down legs, and give them a good feel by tickling their bellies. You could also gently rub the neck the shoulders; this has a very cheering effect on the goat.
For smaller goat, you can put two pans of food on the ground about 30 feet apart. Walk up to the goat to the first pan of food. Just allow him to eat for couple of seconds and then take the food away and walk the goat to second pan. Repeat the same trip for few times, after that take a longer route from one pan to another. The advantage of this process is not to force the goat to go among the pans but to get them to want the reward. And through this process they learn how to walk.
When the training is over for the show and after the goat has mastered the art of walking, you can walk several yards then stop the goat and “set it up” so that it is standing “square”. Through this you make you goat familiar to have others check their bite or inspect udders. Another technique is to put a long leash or rope on the goat permitting it to run from you with and you following. This is somewhat easier than dragging your goat behind you if you could keep up with the goat. Once the goat get used to you tagging along behind, slowly shorten the lead until the goat walks next to you.
Yet another technique is to use a big trained goat and let it be a trainer to a smaller one to lead by attaching the two together. To us, this is the anyhow a least effective method of training. If you try this technique, don’t never leave your goat alone while tethered; they would get into all sorts of problem that may lead to injury or death. Once your goat is broken to lead, it does not forget. Teach them when they are young, and hold them when they are old.

Antomy

2008-05-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

Most goats naturally have 2 horns, of various shapes and sizes depending on the breed. While horns are a predominantly male feature, some breeds of goats have horned females. Polled (hornless goats) are not uncommon and there have been incidents of polycerate (multiple horns, up to 8) goats, although this is a genetic rarity thought to be inherited. Their horns are made of living bone surrounded by keratin and other proteins and are used for defense, dominance, and territoriality.

Goats are ruminants. They have a four-chambered stomach consisting of the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum, and the abomasum.
Goats have horizontal slit-shaped pupils, an adaptation which increases peripheral depth perception. Because goats' irises are usually pale, the pupils are much more visible than in animals with horizontal pupils but very dark irises, such as sheep, cattle and most horses.
Some breeds of sheep and goats appear superficially similar, but goat tails are short and point up, whereas sheep tails hang down and are usually longer (though some are short, and some long ones are docked).

Goat in the village

History Goat In The Village

2008-05-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

Goats seem to have been first domesticated roughly 10,000 years ago in the Zagros Mountains of Iran. Ancient cultures and tribes began to keep them for easy access to milk, hair, meat, and skins. Domestic goats were generally kept in herds that wandered on hills or other grazing areas, often tended by goatherds who were frequently children or adolescents, similar to the more widely known shepherd. These methods of herding are still used today.

Historically, goat hide has been used for water and wine bottles in both traveling and transporting wine for sale. It has also been used to produce parchment, which was the most common material used for writing in Europe until the invention of the printing press.

Goat i n the village

Etymology

2008-05-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

The Modern English word "goat" comes from the Old English gat which meant "she-goat", and this in turn derived from Proto-Germanic *gaitaz (compare Old Norse and Dutch geit'(meaning' "goat"), German Geiß' ("she-goat") and Gothic gaits, ("goat")) ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ghaidos meaning "young goat" but also "play" (compare Latin haedus meaning "kid"). The word for "male goat" in Old English was bucca (which survives as "buck", meaning certain male herbivores) until a shift to "he-goat" (and also "she-goat") occurred in the late 12th century. "Nanny goat" originated in the 18th century and "billy goat" in the 19th.

Goat in the village