5/14/17

Today was the second day that I visited the goats and since the weather was nice Donna (Jordan’s mom) decided to clean the barn stalls. First we had to give all the goats medicine for worms, because rain increases the probability of worms. First, we started by scrubbing the water bins so that the goats had clean water. After the goats had clean water, we used pitchforks to remove the goats bedding. To give you an idea of how soggy the bedding was, it has turned brown from the moisture and you could smell it from several feet away. As were cleaning Peanut and Scooter’s (the newborn buck) stall, the rake slipped off the wall and the handle hit Scooter on his hind legs. He was so surprised that he jumped into the water bucket and Donna had to pull him out of the bucket. He was very unhappy because he was wet so naturally he sat in the sun to try and dry off.

After the barn stalls were clean we washed and dried the goats. In order to wash a goat, you get them wet and use a small amount of dish soap the you massage into their fur. Some goats hate the water while others are more or less cooperative. Scarlett did well, for the most part, when I gave her a bath, but she still is not a fan of her back legs being touched, which I’m trying to work with her on. It was Ellsa’s first time getting a bath and the was less than thrilled about it. She was bleating the whole time and put her front hooves on my legs in protest. Thankfully, Ellsa was better with the blow dryer and getting her hooves trimmed than she was with being washed because she was a pain to wash.

Before I washed Scarlett, I practiced leading her with a show collar. Usually she is more difficult to lead than Ellsa because Scarlett is bigger and constantly tries to remove her head from the show collar. Today she was in a better mood and I had no problem leading her using the show collar and I think that’s because I used the show collar differently than usual. I used a show collar with a plastic tube that usually functions as a grip so that the chain doesn’t hurt your hands, but when I was working with the goats today I put the hand grip under Scarlett’s chin. Having the handgrip under the chin is supposed to prevent the goats from choking as much while also making them more responsive to what you are doing. I definitely saw a difference in how Scarlett behaved while on the lead. Ellsa, on the other hand refused to cooperate when I practiced showing her with the grip under her chin. Once I switched back to the chain under her chin she was being slightly more cooperative. I think that it may just be that I have to use a different show collar when working with a different goat.