Geese training?

[freefalling]

Olive, thank you. This is what i feel like right now with my goosez --->

 

[epulsifer]

All of this info is so great!!! I'm am so glad I found BYC

My Ricky is starting to get bossy with everyone but myself & my husband. He's such a sweet little guy... Sometimes I just think he's a scaredy cat & acting from that with people he doesn't know.

He's so goofy & clumsy my husband refers to him as Ricky Retardo

Thank you guys for all of the excellent info!!

 

[Homestead girl]

I would love to shake you hand. I just read your post and WOW , I am going to kick some Goose Butt. I just posted a thread Attacked this morning. You have given me hope.
I am not scared of my geese. Just didn't know how far to take it. Now I do .
Thanks

 

[SilksterTN]

This is such an awesome thread, I don't think it will hurt to bump it.
I have bred and shown a type of AKC Terrier for about 10 years, and I use a lot of Cesar Milan's training tricks on my dogs. Things can escalate with terriers faster than you can blink so most of it has become lightning fast instinct on my part. My goslings haven't reached their troubled "teens" yet, but even now I give them corrections just like I have my dogs. This whole response is very fast, but I snap my fingers while my hand is moving to their chest and I give a Cesar Shhhht noise and a shove on their chest.. I suppose my goslings interpret this as an adult goose hissing. After pushing them with my hand (usually on their chest) they back right off of whatever it was they were doing that I didn't want. I have noticed now (as with my dogs) that I can snap and shhht without touching and they will often stop what they are doing to give me the eyeball. (I didn't do it Mom I pinky swear).
I have put so many little puppies on their backs (or side) that a goose should be second nature. LOL It remains to be seen as they get older and hormones begin to rage, but hopefully I have established my "pack leader" rank soon enough that I won't be having too many chest bumpin, wing flappin, all-star wrestlin matches with the birds.

 

[IGmom]

This is such a great thread!! I have two geese, not sure of breed. Either African, Chinese, or Toulouse. Anyway, mine have been raised here since 4 days old and always so sweet. I was momma goose to them, followed me everywhere, sat in my lap, etc. Never fed them by hand though. They were turned out at around 6 weeks of age in their own pen. It has been two or three months and my male is getting aggressive. He started with my granddaughter and now tonight he has hissed and pinched my arm and left marks. My female isn't nearly as naughty as he is. I am soooo glad I found this thread. Tomorrow I will begin my new ways of dealing with my male!!! Boy will he be in for a shocker!!

 

[epulsifer]

So far so good with using your Ceasar method SilksyerTN!!! Thanks again for the idea & your right they stop in their tracks now & I don't have to tape their chest anymore YAY!!! I've even trained the rest of the family & my goose sitter Lol You are forever known as the Goose Whisperer to me....Muh

 

[SilksterTN]

So far so good with using your Ceasar method SilksyerTN!!! Thanks again for the idea & your right they stop in their tracks now & I don't have to tape their chest anymore YAY!!! I've even trained the rest of the family & my goose sitter Lol You are forever known as the Goose Whisperer to me....Muh

Yay!

 

[andreacroyle]

This is such an awesome thread, I don't think it will hurt to bump it.
I have bred and shown a type of AKC Terrier for about 10 years, and I use a lot of Cesar Milan's training tricks on my dogs. Things can escalate with terriers faster than you can blink so most of it has become lightning fast instinct on my part. My goslings haven't reached their troubled "teens" yet, but even now I give them corrections just like I have my dogs. This whole response is very fast, but I snap my fingers while my hand is moving to their chest and I give a Cesar Shhhht noise and a shove on their chest.. I suppose my goslings interpret this as an adult goose hissing. After pushing them with my hand (usually on their chest) they back right off of whatever it was they were doing that I didn't want. I have noticed now (as with my dogs) that I can snap and shhht without touching and they will often stop what they are doing to give me the eyeball. (I didn't do it Mom I pinky swear).
I have put so many little puppies on their backs (or side) that a goose should be second nature. LOL It remains to be seen as they get older and hormones begin to rage, but hopefully I have established my "pack leader" rank soon enough that I won't be having too many chest bumpin, wing flappin, all-star wrestlin matches with the birds.

I just called my son into the room (right before I read your post) and said , we are doing the right thing by treating them like our dogs.

 

[andreacroyle]

Treating him like a rare fragile treasure rather than potentially dangerous livestock.

Do not scratch him. KICK HIS BUTT! Literally if you have to.

1. How exactly do you kick butt?


Step one: do not imprint a gander onto a human. You're way past that, unfortunately. Step two is to not bluff. You absolutely, positively MUST follow through. You must have every intention of putting him in his place by whatever means necessary whenever he challenges you. Every time he calls your bluff and wins it confirms that he is alpha to you.

2. What is the problem with imprinting? Is there something more than obvious? "A bird should think it's the correct species?"

First, stop anthropomorphizing the bird. They're not love pecks, they're dominance pecks. He is exerting dominance over you. Nothing more, nothing less. Second, stop feeding him out of your hand. You will never see a goose lower on the gaggle hierarchy being allowed to freely eat out of any area that "belongs" at that moment to one of his superiors. You are telling the bird he is your boss.
3. anthropomorphizing - awesome word
4. I read that (for ducks), you train them to eat out of your hand to establish trust, did I understand this wrong or does it not apply to geese?


Good! Use that frustration. Stand up, get BIG, spread your wings and DEMAND your space. I guarantee, based on what you've typed here, if I saw you do this in person I would tell you you were not big enough and mean enough. Get bigger, get meaner and most of all FOLLOW THROUGH. If he comes back at you, you have to go back at him 10 times harder. If it gets physical and you have to grab him you do not "carefully" put your hand around his neck, you grab on sweep him up and hold him hard, very firmly pin his wings down. You have to mean business. You are not going to hurt that gander. Put some force behind whatever you do with him.

5. When sweeping him up and holding him, is there a better way to do it? I trained my ducks to lay on their backs as if i were holding a human baby. Can i hold geese this way too?

Some people come by this naturally. They have dominant personalities, they demand respect with their presence. Others don't. You may simply be one that needs to work at it. Good Luck!

This is a really good post. I have treated my ducks in the same manner as I treat my dogs. I am the alpha. Some of them are scared of me and run. I havent read as much as I should on gaining trust but keeping dominance.

My situation is completely different, although I am sure I will go through this in some form.

I just got (so he wouldnt get eaten) a imprinted, disabled (hock joint issues opposite of perosis. under developed ligaments wont hold hock joint together, he will be fitted for a brace once he is full grown. Vet said possible hock joint fusion depending on success of custom fitted brace. Until full grown, he is properly wrapped and spends 3/4 of his day being held or sitting in a d.i.y. goose chair. He is completely babied. I force him to stay in the coop at night with our ducks so he isnt only around humans. He is separated with one gentle duck that adopted him. He doesnt really care for any of the ducks. He just wants to be with us.

The farmers good intentions didn't yield the greatest results in Forrest's case. Organic free range geese resulted in a nutrition deficiency leading to Forrest's birth defect. Hatched late so he was held a lot and then housed with the chicks. He is time consuming so...the best thing they could have done was give him to us. =) They were going to eat him if they couldnt find someone willing to properly care for him.

I am super knew to the urban farm back yard poultry world, but when I do something , I like to be fully educated. I will have to modify these "training rules" a bit to suit Forrest's and our needs.
ANY advice at all will be greatly appreciated. Now that I know there is a Story's guide to geese , it will be the next book i buy.

 

[Miss Lydia]

This is a really good post. I have treated my ducks in the same manner as I treat my dogs. I am the alpha. Some of them are scared of me and run. I havent read as much as I should on gaining trust but keeping dominance.

My situation is completely different, although I am sure I will go through this in some form.

I just got (so he wouldnt get eaten) a imprinted, disabled (hock joint issues opposite of perosis. under developed ligaments wont hold hock joint together, he will be fitted for a brace once he is full grown. Vet said possible hock joint fusion depending on success of custom fitted brace. Until full grown, he is properly wrapped and spends 3/4 of his day being held or sitting in a d.i.y. goose chair. He is completely babied. I force him to stay in the coop at night with our ducks so he isnt only around humans. He is separated with one gentle duck that adopted him. He doesnt really care for any of the ducks. He just wants to be with us.

The farmers good intentions didn't yield the greatest results in Forrest's case. Organic free range geese resulted in a nutrition deficiency leading to Forrest's birth defect. Hatched late so he was held a lot and then housed with the chicks. He is time consuming so...the best thing they could have done was give him to us. =) They were going to eat him if they couldnt find someone willing to properly care for him.

I am super knew to the urban farm back yard poultry world, but when I do something , I like to be fully educated. I will have to modify these "training rules" a bit to suit Forrest's and our needs.
ANY advice at all will be greatly appreciated. Now that I know there is a Story's guide to geese , it will be the next book i buy.

What a sweet pic of Forrest in his chair and sleeping with it's stuffy, and the one with your son is so precious. So far and maybe it's because my 5 week olds got adopted by my adult pair at 3 weeks they haven't nipped or tried to bite me yet. and they seem to be content bullying everyone else in the flock. But RURU says when a gosling starts to bite you take their bill in your fingers and keep it closed they don't like this and tell them no bite. Other than this bit of advise I have none for goslings, I still cuddle mine and pet them when they come around me. I am having to begin training them not to go after the hens, Babe had a mouthful of my EE's feathers in his mouth yesterday afternoon, I keep hoping the hens will put them in their place but so far only 2 hens have jumped them and all the ducks are scared of them.