Olive Hill and Oregon Blues definitely have the right idea. I am a little concerned about those who seem to sound like the use true force when making contact. "kicking" a goose could do real damage. "shoving" with a foot that made careful contact is totally different. "bumping" with carefully controlled force would be somewhere in between and perhaps called for to simulate a true goose on goose interaction. I prefer to take the high road and avoid getting physical because geese seem to remember where the last fight left off and start the next one at that level of aggression and intensity. In my observations with my geese, any fast motion is perceived as an act of aggression and either fled from or reacted to with aggression. So if you are dealing with a goose or gander who is already getting testy, you need to remain calm - keep your poker face on as I say and move slowly. Now don't get me wrong, I agree 100% that you must always be absolute in your conviction to be top gander. And your birds must know it without a doubt. I have one Sebastopol gander - Wade, the blue in my avatar, that I can feed from my hand with my eyes closed. He has NEVER been the least bit aggressive at any time of year, including when he was raising babies. My other Seb gander, Whiskey, however, is very "snatchy" about taking treats from my hand. I most definitely believe that many, if not most, geese perceive the taking of treats from the human hand to equate to taking away your food. And that, as previous posters have said, is an act of dominance. This, I believe, is why Dave Holderread cautions against feeding from the hand in his Book of Geese. Wade would never dream of trying to be dominant to me or any other human, but you better believe he will defend against other geese. Whiskey has become a Teddy Goose on more than one occassion when I just got too frustrated to pin him on the ground and, instead, picked him up and walked around with him for a few minutes. This was only necessary during the breeding season and usually I chose to pin him promptly on the ground, facing away from me and held him there. La la la la la. OK, now be nice. Once or twice, he did come right back. So he went right back into pinned position. It was all done very quietly and really fairly slowly. And when he had gotten the message, we went right back to chatting, nose to bill as I always do with my buddies. Yes, that's right, nose to bill - just inches apart. But I always face him squarely as I squat down to his level. That's one thing Olive Hill left out - the turning sideways on approach of an aggressive goose. That's part of Whiskey's technique and part of how his gives away his thoughts. I truly believe that if you are good with horses, at reading their body language, you will have little trouble with geese. Both of my ganders were field raised at Holderreads. They are like night and day personality wise. And yet, I don't hesitate to get down on their level every day and exchange little honks with them. I do the same with the youngsters that Whiskey is raising. So far so good. Mostly. One did go after my shoes which are always the same at barely two weeks of age. I pinned him too and he is now very wary of me, but not panicky and fearful. I have also noticed that Whiskey's family is actually rather "touchy feely" with each other. And will often poke each other's backs when greating each other. So I have done the same and am getting away with it. Only time will tell come future breeding seasons whether or not they still respect me as top Gander. If not, pin them calmly and quietly I will do. A couple of the youngsters as well as Whiskey were getting downright brutal about taking bread from my hand, so I quit offering it. But I always wind up hand pulling Lespedeza from their yard this time of year because I can't use weedkillers for fear of killing birds as well. It turns out that they actually like Lespedeza, they just can't eat enough of it to keep it from taking over the yard. I found this out because the pushy ones came and wanted to eat where I was pulling weeds. There's that dominance thing again - but also that's how the youngsters learn what to eat - by eating where their parents are grazing. So I handed them some. And they liked it. Then Whiskey had to have some. He likes it so much that he comes over softly honking and politely asking for a bit. Even he has become gentle about taking pulled weeds to eat. But I haven't tried the bread again yet and probably won't! No point in encouraging bad behavior when we've come so far on good.
Anyway, just wanted to put my 2 cents worth in on this subject since a goose friend and I have spent so much time discussing how to deal with aggressive ganders this spring. His may not be cured ever by these methods, but luckily, he is an experienced goose and horse person and can keep himself calm in the midst of a full body wing flailing attack from behind! Please remember, all geese are individuals. One may need great force, but the next might only require a dirty look and that "uh uh" that Oregon Blues describes. It is ever so much more pleasant to work around animals quietly than to have to yell and beat on them because we allowed ourselves to loose our "cool" and pushed them to a higher level of aggression. So keep your poker face on and stand your ground as quietly as you can. It will pay off in the end.
) and flattened him out on the ground. I kept my hands on his back and told him to chill out. The goose Beatrice was standing right by watching the whole thing without making a sound. 
