Walking geese??

We are new to owning geese. Our goslings are about 1 month old and they follow us everywhere! My daughter and I went for a short hike and the goslings followed us. Once we got home, they rested but when they got up they were really wobbly. They were fine today but went for a walk with us again this evening.
Is this bad for them???

It may be bad for them. Goslings' instincts are to follow at all cost, as a lost gosling is a dead gosling in nature. So they may easily exhaust themselves trying to keep up. Gosling are not built for long distance walking, they use most of their energy to grow. In nature they'll walk a few feet, eat a little, walk a few feet, eat again, and so on.

I don't know the distance of a short hike, but anything more than one third of a mile should include water and plenty of long rest and foraging stops. And only in cooler weather - on a nice warm day they tend to overheat.

If your hikes are longer than that, try to sneak out without the goslings or fence them in. They're not capable of deciding whether or not they want to go for a walk - they just see you leaving and follow their instinct not to be left behind.

Even grown geese have an instinct to follow the flock. When I take my goose for a walk, we sometimes stop and chat with people we meet. When we part ways, she'll usually start following the larger group, especially if they move fast.

Walking a goose is nothing like walking a dog. A crawling baby could keep up with us most of the time.

Thank you for the insight!! Our hike was about 3/4 miles total. We took lots of stops. We even rested for quite awhile by a river/lake so they could swim and rest! They wouldn't go in the water unless we did! We all had a swim!
Thank you again!

We took our geese and duck on a short walk twice in 1 day. By short I mean we walked 2 driveways down and came back. That night while snuggling with them, I noticed each one had a raw spot on their heel pad! I was horrified that I took them for a walk on the cement. Their little feet are still so tender. They are all healed now, but we only walk them on the grass now.