'Love at First Bite'



Was it me? -or was it the apples?

Spending a little time training at the farm provides a nice contrast to working in the wildlife section of the park.  There is a calm routine to the animal's daily comings and goings, even now, during lambing season. 

Upon my arrival at the farm, I head into the kitchen to slice up some apples, pears, and carrots for the upcoming training session, which will involve a goat, 1 extremely large hog, and a friendly little female pig.  I take my bag of fruit, my target stick, and my clicker and go off to meet the head zookeeper.  First up is the goat, and the zookeeper would like me to try to teach him to pull a small cart.  I feel the need to explain that this will take some time, and I'll start by training some easy foundation behaviors first.  I won't ask an animal who has never been trained before to start off with complex behaviors.  It's much easier to teach them some simple behaviors, so they can  #1) get the idea that what they do brings about some pretty tasty treats, and #2) have a repertoire of about 5 behaviors that they absolutely "know" -this way, when we're learning more difficult behaviors, I know I can always shift gears if I need to, and pull up something the animal easily can do so he'll feel successful.

    I find Lena (the zookeeper) working near the pasture.  She points to a large group of white goats and says with a curious amount of certainty, "he's the white male over there."  

    
"Over there (?) ...ahh, that one,"  I say with false confidence as I casually inch closer to  seek a better alignment of her finger with the goat in question.

     "Yes, Mr. Bojangles ...he was neutered a few months ago." -And with that brief introduction, she then heads back to her work.

Identifying a white, neutered male among a herd of around 20 other white goats might not be a problem for some, but I'm somewhat green when it comes to white goats.  It's a simple explanation really.   I was raised in the Senoran Desert -a vast 'goatless' region in the American Southwest. 

Trying to size up the situation, I immediately subtract all the nursing nannies and their kids, which reduces my choices down to 4 goats.  As I walk through the gate, I calculate my chances of survival should I try to 'feel down-under' for recent signs of surgery.  One look at their curled horns, and I decide against it.

While I'm pondering my dilemma, I quickly am surrounded by a multitude of curious little goats who begin  nibbling at my shoestrings and pant legs.  Within seconds, they are trying to climb up my legs.

Varning!!  Cute, but trouble!

As I lean down to gently pry one from my body, several others become interested in chewing  my ponytail  -I'm rapidly losing control of the situation!

Just about the time I'm thinking of abandoning ship, the little ones scatter and I feel a gentle butt on my backside.  It's Bojangles to the rescue -or at least if it isn't, this goat will do!  A small piece of apple is all it takes for him to follow me into the training stall, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now, Bojangles isn't too sure about that strange clicking sound -but the apples that follow seem to distract him nicely.  I muffle the clicker a bit with my hand and try again.  I'm clicking any movement towards a small piece of cardboard that has been placed on the floor of the stall.  My goal is to have him place all four of his feet on the cardboard.  On the first 2 clicks, he startles and backs away - I move back a bit, muffle the clicker by placing it inside my vest pocket and I wait for him to look in my direction again.  After a few more tries, he's got it.  However, as his enthusiasm builds, I quickly discover that I need to draw some boundaries here!  I step to one side of the cardboard station and sure enough, he comes to me instead of the station.  He waits in vain and looks up at me with those beautiful yellow eyes as if to say, "hey! what gives!"  It's no problem really - in training, the learner needs to make some errors in order to understand exactly what he needs to do in order to produce that little noise and the juicy apple.  My general rule is to allow no more than 2 errors before I resort back to those foundation behaviors and get a little success going again.  We spend about 20 minutes playing the clicker game together, and by the end of our session, he's learned both stationing, and targeting with his nose.  He's feeling a bit cocky ...for the first time in months!

I open the gate so Bojangles can rejoin his friends again, and then I gather up my gear.  As I begin to walk away, I glance back to the stall.  Such a face!  

  Bojangles is in love

Lesson learned:

No more ponytails when training the goats! 

Maybe I should also consider 'lesser value treats'...as this attraction is quite intense!