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Goats are social and curious animals, and it’s interesting to know how to house-train a goat.
They are also very productive, as they provide milk, cheese, and a good source of meat.
Recently, scientists have discovered that domesticated goats can be house-trained as pets.
Unlike dogs and cats, having a goat as a house pet has more challenges than benefits.
That’s why many people don’t buy the idea of house-training the goat for a house pet.
But if you’re determined and want a goat for a house pet, continue reading to know how.
What Kinds Of Goats Are Housetrained?
Even though it’s possible to house-train a goat, not all goat breeds can be house-trained.
Popular goat breeds such as alpine, Saanen, boar, and Nubian are not ideal for keeping as house pets.
But breeds such as Pygmy, Nigerian Dwarf, kinder, and LaMancha make good house pets.
Pygmy goat breed makes the best house pet due to their friendly, social, and playful nature.
These goats are also easy to handle because they are small compared to popular goat breeds.
So, if you’re searching for a goat to house-train, pick a pygmy or Nigerian Dwarf goat.
How To House Train A Goat
House-training a goat is not as easy as training your cat or dog.
Therefore, you need to exercise some patience while training it.
As stated above, picking the right goat breed is vital.
We highly recommend acquiring a pygmy goat for a house pet.
Pygmy goats are lovely, exotic creatures.
Although these goats thrive best when kept in a wide-roaming area, they are lovely domesticated pets and will add joy to the family.
The pygmy goat can grow to an average of 23-inches.
Males grow to about 80 pounds, while females to about 60 pounds.
As a result, they make great pets as they are not extremely heavy or massive like other famous domesticated goats.
Before you start training your goat, it’s crucial to understand that you can potty train it to urinate outside, but you can’t teach it to poop outside.
Additionally, you cannot train an adult goat.
Hence, it would be best to start house-training your pygmy goat when it’s still a kid.
Steps On How To House-Train Your Goat
- Step 1: The first thing to teach your goat is to urinate outside.
Goats usually urinate after waking up or when they finish a bottle.
Therefore, you should take your goat out whenever it wakes up or finishes a bottle.
After some time, you will notice that your baby goat won’t urinate in its pen. - Step 2: Aside from taking the goat to urinate, you should command it by uttering words such as “Go pee-pee” or “Go potty.”
After some time, your pet goat will relate these words to urinating.
Every time the goat urinates, make sure to reward it with some treats.
Additionally, it would help if you congratulated it with petting and a friendly voice. - Step 3: As you return the goat inside the house, use nice words such as “good job” or “good boy/girl.”
Furthermore, you can scratch it behind the ears.
Goats love being scratched at the back of their ears.
If you want your goat to understand what the treat is for, always reserve a specific treat for urinating outside.
Why Is It Hard To House-Train Goats?
Destructive Chewing
Goats love chewing and browsing.
One of the reasons why goats browse is because it helps them to cope when food is scarce.
Aside from that, goats are curious and will chew or taste anything.
This means your curtains, sheets, pillows, and even sofa are unsafe.
Also, they may chew your cash, bills, and other important papers.
Destructive Hooves
Goats are loving and playful creatures, but their hooves can be destructive.
Aside from having to trim their toenails often, you will also have to worry about your items in the house.
The goat’s hooves are tough on flooring and furniture. You may find holes in your furniture caused by the goat’s hooves.
Since goats are curious animals, they will be all over the house.
And with their climbing skills, the goats will likely destroy your kitchen counter, furniture, and even sofa.
They can hop from one surface to another.
If you have delicate items on these surfaces, they are likely to break or spoil.
Goats Love Company
Unlike cows and horses, goats are social animals and thus become depressed if separated from their herd.
Nonetheless, goats are not flock-oriented like sheep.
You must acquire at least two or three goats to keep each other company.
Your company alone won’t be enough to keep your pet goat happy.
The good news is that your goat will follow you almost anywhere if they don’t have a companion.
Since they are herd animals by nature, they prefer the company of other goats but will cling to their owner if there’s no other goat around.
This is because of their herd mentality.
Can’t Control Pooping
One of the biggest challenges of raising a goat as a pet is that you will have to clean up its poop often.
As we’ve discussed above, goats can control where they urinate but cannot control where they poop.
This is because they chew and browse all the time.
As a result, they poop more often than cows or other domesticated animals.
So, if you decide to pet a goat, you will have to decide whether to use a diaper or clean poop after every 30 minutes.
You don’t want guests coming into the house and finding it messy.
If you decide to use a diaper, you will have to change it after every 30 minutes so that your goat doesn’t feel uncomfortable.
Pros and Cons of Turning Small Goats Into House Pets
Pros
- Keeping a goat around helps you maintain the grass around your lawn.
- Because of their size, small goats like the Nigerian Dwarf are easier to manage than bigger breeds, like the Boer.
- Their playful nature adds joy to your home, and they are good playmates for your young children.
Cons
- Although goats can help you maintain the grass in your backyard, they could also destroy your houseplants.
- Because they keep browsing as they eat, they require so much attention to ensure they don’t eat your plants, especially if you have many of them.
- Male goats become aggressive during mating season and might be dangerous to small children.
Summary
House-training a goat is not a joke.
You need patience and heart, which will take a lot from you.
Besides, you cannot train any goat.
The best goat breed to train is the pygmy goat because, unlike other goat breeds, this one is friendly, social, playful, and small.
Even though you can train your goat to urinate outside, you cannot teach it to poop outside.
Besides, goats are destructive and may spoil your sofa, curtains, and furniture.
You should also be ready to clean goat poop several times daily.
Zoey is a long-time pet owner and animal rights advocate, a vital part of Purrfect n’ Pawesome. She shares her unique experiences and learnings with her readers to enhance their understanding of pet behavior and nutrition. Along with being an active pet writer, she volunteers at multiple animal shelters, rescue centres with some bespokenly awesome pets.
Zoey has a lot to share when raising the pets and spending life being their true friends. She has a quite pampered Persian cat and a Ragdoll, whom she loves the most. Readout her blogs to know more about being a responsible parent to your beloved pets.
“I love to be around cats and dogs; that’s my passion and my trick to get away from all the negativity and soaking in unconditional love and affection. Being attached to this platform gives me the reason to be vocal about pet love, care, and nurturing. Although I am not an expert or veterinarian by any means, I have a lot of experience and learnings to share with my fellow readers.”
