Do your geese shake/tremble/shiver?

[WilmaP]

My gander shivers too. It doesn't seem to precede any kind of antagonistic or aggressive behavior though. I figured he was just nervous for some reason. Yesterday it seemed worse than usual - my husband thought maybe there had been a predator outside his enclosure the night before, but we didn't see any kind of evidence of that.

 

[N ID Goose mom]

Mine are only 5 weeks old so I haven’t seen adult behavior yet, but they will start to shake/vibrate as they get closer to our cat. Of course for them, I think it excitement because they then chase them off. Only last one or two steps because I try to correct the behavior (if I’m there). I haven’t seen them just shake for no reason.

 

[GoldenGryphon]

Here it is so many years later and this thread verifies something my husband and I noticed in our teenage geese.
We're both trained for wildlife handling, have lots of behaviorist background, and have been befuddled by the sheer lack of information about domestic geese. (I found and have read The Book of Geese by Holderread, but there's so much missing!)

We have been careful with the goslings as they grew, trying to keep them used to us without being overly friendly. We wanted them to see us as caretakers and food bringers, but not flock. And it's, more or less, worked. This past week one of the goslings (They're 11 weeks old, so we have a ways to go.) started with the shivering and then chest bumps. Having watched them interact, and seeing the obvious "dominance battles", I knew this was not something I could lose. After I had successfully defended my status as Big Goose, I noticed the neck shivering didn't stop, but the other geese would also take part in the shivering from time to time. I couldn't figure out any commonality until my husband found this discussion this morning, after he had been challenged by our largest goose (and won in the same manner - simply gently controlling the neck so that the goose can't get away, no harm to the goose) and he had noticed the neck shivering before, after, and during the "battle".

As we, thankfully, aren't the only people watching domestic geese as they "goose around", I was curious to know if anyone else has had these dominance challenges, and how they settled them?
Thank you for putting my lingering doubts to rest. It's a relief to know that our goslings are normal, even if they are spoiled and try to bully the dog.

 

[servpolice]

Here it is so many years later and this thread verifies something my husband and I noticed in our teenage geese.
We're both trained for wildlife handling, have lots of behaviorist background, and have been befuddled by the sheer lack of information about domestic geese. (I found and have read The Book of Geese by Holderread, but there's so much missing!)

We have been careful with the goslings as they grew, trying to keep them used to us without being overly friendly. We wanted them to see us as caretakers and food bringers, but not flock. And it's, more or less, worked. This past week one of the goslings (They're 11 weeks old, so we have a ways to go.) started with the shivering and then chest bumps. Having watched them interact, and seeing the obvious "dominance battles", I knew this was not something I could lose. After I had successfully defended my status as Big Goose, I noticed the neck shivering didn't stop, but the other geese would also take part in the shivering from time to time. I couldn't figure out any commonality until my husband found this discussion this morning, after he had been challenged by our largest goose (and won in the same manner - simply gently controlling the neck so that the goose can't get away, no harm to the goose) and he had noticed the neck shivering before, after, and during the "battle".

As we, thankfully, aren't the only people watching domestic geese as they "goose around", I was curious to know if anyone else has had these dominance challenges, and how they settled them?
Thank you for putting my lingering doubts to rest. It's a relief to know that our goslings are normal, even if they are spoiled and try to bully the dog.

Geese are really interesting to watch! A new dominant gander will change your flock completely if he wins the fight with the previous dominate gander.

It would be the same if people get dominated by a gander. Simply because he will be in charge and he will get his way.

In flocks of 20 consisting of 10 ganders and 10 geese the ganders have competitions for dominance frequently (normally never with the alpha gander but with the other ganders).

The ganders normally don't attack people if you have a huge flock since they have a tight pecking order with eachother and every male will have another male that they are in charge of and yet have another male who is in charge them so they find it hard to dominate people since another gander will see that he is trying to be in charge and attack him.

Therefore they're careful in big flocks.

If you have 2 females with 1 or 2 males one male will be in charge and since there is no competition the dominant gander will start trying to be dominant with people and other animals.

Shivering with goslings and adults usually indicates that they're nervous and don't trust you 100%.

It starts getting bad once the gander starts shaking/rubbing his wings together. This is the main sign of dominance and means he wants to fight (other ganders) or wants to attack (people).

I never let any gander to try and be dominant over people. To show your dominance if you think they're getting aggressive is that you walk directly at them at a fast speed. Geese don't like when you walk directly towards them. If the gander doesn't back off you try and grab him and either pin him softly to the ground and rub him and talk or if you can pick him up rub and talk to him either sitting or standing because geese hate it so much and this is a sign to show that you're the dominant one and not the gander.

I've had 119 geese before so I never really had problems with ganders since they tested for dominance with eachother almost everyday.

Geese are amazing animals and the tiniest thing could change a flock completely which makes owning geese so interesting

 

[bluemerle]

Behaviorally, 'dominance' as a term is useless. Aggression (passive or active) can happen for a variety of reasons: territoriality (claiming space), resource guarding (my pool, my mate, my food), and fear/apprehension. I have seen no research done into goose body language, but shaking and trembling in other animals simply means excitement, and whether it's a good excitement or bad excitement depends on context and how the goose is feeling about the situation.

For example: my juvenile geese trembled when a stranger tried to pet them. They were likely fearful. They sometimes tremble while I'm filling their pool up in the mornings - likely excitement. Sometimes they tremble when eating their 'salad' (corn/peas/grapes) - likely excitement.

I would imagine it's much like dogs, and how they wag their tails whenever something exciting is happening (whether good or bad).

 

[N ID Goose mom]

Here it is so many years later and this thread verifies something my husband and I noticed in our teenage geese.
We're both trained for wildlife handling, have lots of behaviorist background, and have been befuddled by the sheer lack of information about domestic geese. (I found and have read The Book of Geese by Holderread, but there's so much missing!)

We have been careful with the goslings as they grew, trying to keep them used to us without being overly friendly. We wanted them to see us as caretakers and food bringers, but not flock. And it's, more or less, worked. This past week one of the goslings (They're 11 weeks old, so we have a ways to go.) started with the shivering and then chest bumps. Having watched them interact, and seeing the obvious "dominance battles", I knew this was not something I could lose. After I had successfully defended my status as Big Goose, I noticed the neck shivering didn't stop, but the other geese would also take part in the shivering from time to time. I couldn't figure out any commonality until my husband found this discussion this morning, after he had been challenged by our largest goose (and won in the same manner - simply gently controlling the neck so that the goose can't get away, no harm to the goose) and he had noticed the neck shivering before, after, and during the "battle".

As we, thankfully, aren't the only people watching domestic geese as they "goose around", I was curious to know if anyone else has had these dominance challenges, and how they settled them?
Thank you for putting my lingering doubts to rest. It's a relief to know that our goslings are normal, even if they are spoiled and try to bully the dog.

Under geese sticky topics there is a great discussion on geese training. They talk about aggression and how to talk to your gander so he understands he's not boss. I learned a lot reading the discussion especially how Olive HIll post #19 laid it out on how to deal with aggressive behavior.

 

[Miss Lydia]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/geese-training.561849/

 

[Sea Wolf]

Not apprehension/fear but a high level of excitement in your case.

 

[Boomerwaffen]

Geese just come pre-installed with very fine-tuned instincts regarding potential danger. They do learn a little from experience, but in most cases they have to override their in-built instincts. Hence the neck-shaking. It's not anything you do wrong.

The littlest things may set them off. I've seen mine do the neck shaking when a tiny ant approached her! And a quarter-sized spider on my kitchen floor made her scream, jump back, and hiss at it for minutes. She's always alert whenever there's anything above her in the sky, and she usually makes a wide berth around any stick-like objects on the ground. And I can guarantee she's never in her life been attacked by ants, spiders, airplanes, or sticks

.

Thanks our gander Tony does this occasionally. I assumed this but thanks for your explanation. Tony is a sweet boy and is never aggressive with anyone. However he does this at times. He’s huge but acts like a baby with my wife and will sit all day on her lap if we let him. We hand raised him from a day old gosling. He shipped to us with three ducklings. The only time he’s hissed at me was when I had to catch one of those ducks Bob because Bob is a baby and started screaming. Tony is even measured in dealing with our lunatic black Orpington rooster Lamar. I’m pretty sure Lamar tried to rape him like he tried to rape Bob. Lamar has issues. He’s got 19 hens but spends most of his time seducing our ducks. Tony starts walking towards Lamar heads down and vibrates his neck. Then will either softly bite at Lamar or just intimidate him. Lamar attacked me three times the other day so I caught him and held him down in front of the flock and pulled his neck feathers a bit to train him. Afterwards Tony blamed Lamar and chased him around the coop and run. Again not viciously but in a measured way. Clearly he blamed Lamar. I love geese.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That is so funny.
My gander does the neck vibration as a warning, Tony sounds adorable