Courtesy of Danielle Langloism, Wikipedia CCLGoats and Other Animals
Would you head-butt a llama? That’s the question asked at On the way to Critter Farm when her little boys recently had a tete-a-tete with a very inquisitive and goat focused llama.
Llamas aren’t the only livestock that can have an extreme interest in the goats. Some cattle love goats, others are completely apathetic but on rare occasions, you’ll run across one that just isn’t too fond of its smaller pasture mates. Since goats and cows both will play by butting heads, you need to keep an eye out to determine if it’s all good fun, or a form of aggression.
We tend to worry about dogs savaging goats but Naimhe had an alpine doe who, although raised with dogs, wasn’t particularly fond of nosy visiting dogs. We’ve all heard stories about vicious pit bulls but Heidi wasn’t impressed. When the neighbor’s young pit came to visit and got a little too personal, she reared up and blasted him a good one in the braincase. Undeterred, the dog persisted in his attentions so she reared up and back again, and BANG, right in the head a second time. According to reports, that dog was never right again.
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I perform with these dogs and as far as animal behavior goes, I am a strong believer in nurture and education. I have met Jack Russell Terriers that I wouldn’t go in close proximity to once again, but have in no way had a negative experience with an American Staffordshire Terrier. If you are speaking about their owners- well, which is a distinct story. Human beings are creatures as nicely, and we have a tendency to every have our unique ideas about “moral concepts”.
In the case of this particular pit, he wasn’t aggressive at all. He was young, nosy and just wouldn’t stop sniffing and nudging the goat in question. When she’d had enough and he wouldn’t back off, and more importantly his human didn’t make him stop, she blasted him. I imagine he didn’t find goats quite as fascinating after that. My personal opinion is there are very few bad dogs, just ignorant dog keepers. And the ‘bad dogs’ were created by uneducated, ill prepared dog keepers.