# Loud goats



## eliya (Mar 11, 2008)

Hi all,
I have not had to try and make a noisy goat quiet, but have a customer who is having a problem with her new buckling being LOUD. Neither this boys dam nor sire are loud goats. Here's her email to me:

"he always cried and fussed when i left him after feeding or pasture time. i know he was't hungry - so i tried to ignore.

the problem is that i have neighbors and as he gets older he is getting louder and louder
also - my husband works at home and he drives him crazy

he's not making just goat neighing (what is it called? bleating?) he is close to just screaming and sounding like he's being tortured

i'm afraid if i can't get his crying under control i will need to sell him to someone who doesn't need to worry about a next door neighbor.

unfortunately, even though we have many acres - our barn and goat pasture is only separated by a fence between our neighbor

any advice? is there a way to get a goat to quiet down?

i have tried squirting him with water when he cries - but that has't helped.

have you ever had this issue with another goat? how did you handle it?"

She does have a wether in with him so he is not alone. He is not totally new - she got him back in May. She does have other goats that are quieter. Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I am not sure what to tell her.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Oh, I have one that is just annoying. She's got the nicest udder in my herd or she'd be gone. Well she's also very sweet. Her buckling screams too. Only thing I've found to make her shut up is give her what she wants. Otherwise she will just scream. It could be as simple as he wants fresh hay. Mine will scream for more even with a feeder full. But that's what you gave me this morning, I need fresh hay at night! Forget punishments, that won't work.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

I agree, punishing them won't work. He is letting you know he wants something. Food or company, maybe. I had a loud one. Giving him food several times a day helped keep him occupied. I guess he grew out of it, because now he is your typical Lamancha. He tells me hello when I go out, or he calls to the ladies across the field but mostly he is quiet.


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I have several that scream like that, all ages and both sexes. I've just learned to live it it and really don't hear it anymore unless i want to or the normal tone changes to frantic.

Most states have laws that exempt livestock from the noise ordinances, so if your friend lives in one of those places, the neighbors can't do anything to her legally. Thank goodness Maine is one of them. My horses, goats, chickens and LGD's can be as loud as they want and nothing can be done about it.

Trying to punish a goat from screaming is almost impossible. All it will do is give you a loud goat who is scared of humans. Ignoring them and not giving into their demands is best, but some goats just never "get it".


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Honestly I think it's the first email among several more you will get, when someone doesn't want to keep a goat, especially sugar coated, like it is, when you have sold them that goat. Like somehow they feel the need to get permission to let you know they are selling the goat you sold them.

Have her try a dog bark collar, would be my only advice. Vicki


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## milkmaidranch (Jun 21, 2010)

Is he by himself or just not adjusted to his new home. Glad my Mini-Alpine's are not talk-a-tive LOL 
It just sounds like he's wanting human companionship but that's not life. I feel for her and hope she can figure out something to calm him down. Do you have a young whether she can get, one he would know? Maybe he'd be happy with a freind from his first home.


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## smithurmonds (Jan 20, 2011)

I agree with Vicki- she sounds like she's sick of dealing with it and is ready to see him gone. You hit the nail on the head with the permission thing. It sounds exactly like that kind of email.


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

Yup, sound like she's already "done"...... And with hubby being annoyed too, they likely need to just sell him.

He has companionship, perhaps she can make sure hay is fresh & add some diversions to his pen? Things to play on, a jolly ball to mess with (my boys like jolly balls, lol)....


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

Sounds to me like they are not happy, and its funny how animals sometimes react to our stress.

I tend to think the Golden Rule trumps what we can legally insist on. Certainly there are those who will take advantage of that too. But if we try to be the kind of neighbors we would want, our communities will generally be better places and need less legal nonsense.


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I have a farm. I feed myself on that farm. The neighbors moved in knowing there was a farm next to them. The neighbors have come onto my property and let the animal loose, burned the barn and house killing my goats, almost killing my dogs and destroying my entire house, they ride snowsleds day and night around the houses, ride 4 wheelers the same way, blast off fire works and guns, play blasting music, let their car alarms go off for 15 minutes at a whack, huge herds of human kids screaming and fighting all hours of the day and night, and generally just make a racket because none of them work. I work off site and odd hours. The goats blatting or the rooster crowing is the least of the noise around here. The only reason I have LGD is because of the neighbors. They can stick their golden rule where the sun doesn't shine. Even with my animals, the neighborhood was very quiet until they moved in. Laws protecting farms are made because of people like that. They moved in and then tried everything in their power to make the town, state and federal government make me get rid of my animals. They lost.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

Wow, that's awful Sully, definately not normal neighbors! I was just saying "in general" and clearly your situation is difficult!


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

Not real helpful for your situation but just fyi. I have a doe that yelled for about 6 weeks after we brought her here before she finally gave up and now she doesn't make a peep.


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## goatkid (Oct 26, 2007)

If those folks have lots of acres, they could opt to build a shed for the buck and wether away from their neighbor's home and hubby's window. My bucks don't live in the same barn and use the same pasture as my does except for the cleanup buck I use the end of breeding season. He's so happy being in with the girls, he behaves himself. I'm wondering if that person's buck is close enough to the does that he's always calling to them because he can see and smell them. I know a few of my does have been recently acting like they are starting to cycle.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

It sounds like this buck just hasn't adjusted to his new home/area. He probably has not bonded with the wether he is in with and sees the owner as more of a companion than a goat he may not like. Can she put a nice young doe in with him or put him in the doe pen? If they were not too mean to him, that would probably quiet him right up. I've got a 5 month old in my big girl pen right now and nobody has come into heat yet so they are still keeping him in his place...

I got an email like that last year. Honestly, what do people expect you to do about this after the sale? If I bought a goat that hollered a lot, I wouldn't blame the breeder, I'd look to see what I could do different....if anything.


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I have a doe who yells whenever she thinks I am home. Even with a full feeder of hay, a full water tub of fresh water, and just getting off the milk stand....she yells. She has been like this all her life. sigh.

She is Nubian, hear her scream, no this is not just a dream.


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## CarrieC (Mar 31, 2011)

Hi Eliya,

We recently moved, just up the road a few acres, and of course all the goats were in an uproar due to the change. We moved the barn, pen, chicken coop, everything except for the property was exactly the same, I didn't change their milking schedule one bit, but they started to scream every morning to be fed/milked. It is extremely hot around here and due to the windows being shut and the a/c running, I did not hear them soon enough. Well after a "visit" from our sheriff's deputies ( two trucks and a squad car) at 6am after I had finished milking, something needed to be done. The deputies said they responded as they did because the caller had said they heard "strange moaning" coming from my property (yes I have Mini Nubians). They were "going off" before the sun was even remotely coming up and I was not going to get up in the middle of the night to milk and reinforce another bad habit! I was at my wits end after the move, homeschooling my kids and caring for my elderly grandmother, but I was not going to get rid of my goats! 

I was desperate. My husband suggested I get out the bark collar we had used for our Lab when she was young and give it a try. I had heard that it could effect milk production, so I was wary, but it was my only option. Well, it worked like a charm, did not effect milk production and saved my sanity. She could still "talk" to me, she just learned that if she got too loud, she would get zapped. I needed to keep it on for over a month before I could take it off & she'd wait until it was just getting light to "call". I removed the collar and set my alarm really early to see when she'd start, eventually I could go out just before dawn, as I usually do, and all was still quiet.

Something else to remember when having goats in a "neighborhood"... people get up at all hours to go to work, the trash truck will wake them, so will neighborhood dogs and folks going out to get their paper before dawn. I solved this by running a noisy box fan in the barn on "low" at night  

Hope this gives you a few ideas to share with your customer!
Carrie


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Thanks for that Carrie! Always wondered if bark collars worked as well on goats as they do dogs. Vicki


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

Hi Carrie, What brand and model did you use? I know someone that has tried 2 different ones with no success, but I remembered this and said I would come back and look for her. Any help?


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## CarrieC (Mar 31, 2011)

I use the Tri Tronics bark limiter. I get them from collar clinic in MI they also sell them at Gun Dog Supply. They're worth the money as mine have been working reliably for 15 years Hope this helps!

Carrie


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## Bella Star (Oct 27, 2007)

He wants something, Goats are herd loving, he needs company like a wether or he wants to breed a doe that you may not know is in heat but I always keep 2 or more bucks together for company. Goats do not like being alone.


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## Annie (Jun 10, 2012)

Another thought, I've always let my buck run with my 2 ponies at night, they get along well.


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