Goats are social and friendly animals that form strong bonds with their owners and like to spend time with them. One way to spend more time with your pet goats is to bring them inside your home.
But can goats be house-trained? Yes, it’s possible to housetrain a goat. However, goats can only be trained to urinate outside because they can’t control when they poop. This means that you’ll have to put a diaper on your goat or clean its droppings. You’ll also need to goat-proof your home or risk having your valuables damaged.
Keep reading to learn how to potty train a goat. This article will also tell you everything you need to consider when housetraining a goat.
How to Housetrain a Goat
House-trained goats won’t act the same as house-trained dogs. The goal of housetraining a dog is to teach it to live inside the house with you without peeing and pooping all over the place. On the other hand, the goal of potty training a goat is to teach it to be inside the house with you for a short while without making too much mess.
Housetraining a goat is a fairly simple process, but it may take a long time for goats to get the hang of it. Here’s how to potty train a goat:
Before You Start
There are some things you should know before you start housetraining your goat. Spayed or neutered goats don’t need to mark areas with their urine to attract the opposite sex and are easier to housetrain.
Furthermore, certain goat breeds are better as house pets. Miniature goat breeds, like pygmy goats and Nigerian dwarf goats, are easier to train than large breeds, like the Alpine goat, Nubian goat, and Saanen.
Take the Goat Out of the Pen as Soon as it Wakes Up
Goats usually relieve themselves as soon as they wake up and after eating. Observe your goats’ sleeping patterns and start approaching them when they wake up.
Most goats sleep five hours at night and take several naps throughout the day. When your goat wakes up from sleep, take it to a specific area you want to establish as a potty area, away from the barn or shelter.
Take the Goat Kid to the Potty Area After It Finishes Drinking
If you’re raising a baby goat, practice potty training through the routine of bottle feeding. Once the goat kid finishes drinking from the bottle, it’ll have to pee within the next few minutes.
Take the baby goat to the designated potty area, and wait until it pees.
Use Tasty Treats as Rewards
Reward your goat once it pees in the designated potty area. Give your goat tasty treats and use praise like “good job” to help your goat connect phrases with treats. Using vocal cues can help goats to learn that going potty in a designated area result in a positive experience.
Take the goat inside the house after you reward it. This will help the goat realize that going potty outside leads to spending time inside with you.
Slowly Increase Indoor Time
Not giving your goat a chance to pee inside is the best way to prevent accidents inside the house.
To start, let your goat stay indoors for 15 to 20 minutes. Ensure a positive experience by allowing your goat to explore your home and by giving it tasty treats.
Once your goat can stay inside for 15 minutes without urinating, increase the indoor time to 30 minutes. When your goat stays inside for 30 minutes without peeing, increase the indoor time to 45 minutes and then to an hour.
Over time, your goat will become fully potty trained and go outside whenever it needs to pee.
What to Consider when House Training a Goat
House training a goat is difficult and comes with some caveats. Here’s what you need to consider before you start potty training:
Destructive Chewing
Goats explore the world by chewing and tasting different objects. Once your goat is inside your home, it will chew on furniture, clothing, power cords, carpets, and many other things.
Don’t leave your goat alone to prevent injuries and property damage.
Damaged Floors & Furniture
Even if your goat doesn’t chew your belongings, it can cause damage with its horns and hooves. Goats have strong and durable hooves, which can create scratches and dents on wooden floors, carpets, and tiles.
Goat Poop
Although goats can learn to pee outside, they can’t control where they poop. If you decide to let your goat inside the house, you’ll have to use a diaper or clean goat droppings constantly.
Can a Goat be Kept Indoors?
Keeping goats indoors isn’t a good idea. Although goats can be housetrained, they need space to walk around and explore.
A single goat needs 25 square feet of space in a barn and additional outdoor space to exercise and stay active.
Can You Train Goats to Use a Litter Box?
Yes, you can train goats to use a litter box. To do so, you’ll need to build a raised, goat-sized litter box and fill it with urine-soaked hay.
At first, your goats will pee outside the litter box, but don’t worry. Scoop the urine-soaked hay and transfer it to the litter box. In time the urine smell will attract the goats to pee in the box and use the same area for urinating.
Keep in mind that the litter box will emit a strong odor. So, keep the litter box away from your goat’s barn or shelter and clean it regularly.
Conclusion
Potty training a goat is possible, but it can be challenging. Arm yourself with patience and be prepared to put in a lot of effort to teach your goat to pee outdoors in a designated area.
Although goats can learn to pee in a litter box, they can’t control where they poop. If you don’t want to clean goat droppings from your home, diaper your goat while it is indoors.
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