Play or bad behavior?

[Alexz7272]

This may be a dumb question but the 6 week old doe I got has finally warmes up to me. However, she started 'headbutting' and pawing at me or right next to me. She more so is pressing her head against me then actually being forceful. In defense I was sitting on 'her' dog igloo, hahaha
Is this her just wanting to play or a bad behavior to curb?
Thank you goat masters!!

 

[babsbag]

If she is by herself it is probably playful behavior. My little guys start that at about 3 weeks of age, kinda cute. I had someone tell me just never push back or it really can become a serious dominance issue. None of my does try to head butt me as adults but they do like to stand next to me and rub their head on my leg. I would be a little more concerned if it was a buck.
If she is just starting to be friendly I would hate to correct her too much at this point.

She sure is cute.

 

[madcow]

She's adorable! As babsbag said I certainly wouldn't do anything to encourage the behavior. Two different things you can do to discourage her and get her attention is 1.) Lightly thump her on the nose to let her know that isn't acceptable behavior every time she does something that you don't want her to make a habit of. A goat's nose is super sensitive, so this works very well. 2.) I'm sure you know what an aversion goats have to water and that makes it an effective tool for training. Keep a squirt gun or squirt bottle with you at all times while in the pen and squirt her in the head area somewhere with a bit of water and she will get the message quickly. Neither method will hurt them, but it does let them know who is the herd queen, which is you! They learn super fast and it probably won't take over a couple of corrections for an unwanted behavior before they stop it.

Also, smart idea not to sit on the ground and let her crawl all over you, so sitting on the dog house is great! If you allow them to walk all over you when they are little they think they can do that when they get big. Can you imagine a 70-100 goat wanting to crawl all over you? That would be bad. Goats are wonderful, keenly intelligent animals and I love mine. Sounds like you're going to be a great goat momma!

 

[Alexz7272]

You guys are amazing, thank you so much!!!

 

[Latestarter]

She's such a cutie