Geese training?

[Leader Bee]

Yes they go crazy for cucumber and seem to forget their manners when it's given.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Here it’s romaine lettuce!

 

[Leader Bee]

To be fair i've only tried them on varieties of Melon and Cucumber so far so i might yet find something new that they love even more :-D

They don't mind brocolli and cauliflower either but I think it's a little more difficult for them to eat unless its in very small pieces.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Water melon is also a big hit.

 

[Kimmyh51]

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First things first. Don't make excuses for him. The sandals very well could have been what caught his eye. It doesn't matter. His behavior is unacceptable. I don't care if you were wearing giant hot pink goose eating slippers with 4 carat diamond encrusted soles he is not to be aggressive with you for any reason at any time. Period. No excuses.

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How so?

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

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

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He knows you're bluffing. How does it not work? He doesn't back down? And then what do you do?

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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.

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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.

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She too thinks you're lower on the hierarchy. As for the noise. Yep. Geese. Louder than train whistles. LOL! Nothing you can do about that, really.

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There is no such thing as friendly pecks, those are just the small pecks that he used to test the water to find out whether or not you were dominant to him. You allowed it, he confirmed he is, in fact, alpha and now he dominates you as he pleases.

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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.

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!

Hi Olive

I have a gander who is, in my own words, a total twat, during breeding season whenever there are ducklings about. He is the first and only gander I have ever owned. I also have one goose, Penny, who so far is a total sweetheart, even when she was broody she would hiss but never attack

I totally understand what you mean about showing them who is boss. Goosey my gander, will only have a go when I have my back to him (is that a standard attack strategy for ganders or doe it mean anything in particular?

Anyway,sorry for hijacking this thread but wanting to know if there is anything more I should be doing to stop that dam gander from trying to rush me from behind...

This is what I currently do:

If it’s that time of year (he never does this outside breeding season/presence of ducklings-whom he goes totally gooey over and tries to father, especially if their mum is a white duck)
He will never run at me if I am looking at him, but when I have my back turned to him for any reason, if he is within a few metres, he will often try and run at me. He’s done this countless times and usually I hear him coming and will turn and put on my grumpy voice and say something like “Cut that sh-t out Goosey!” While also pointing my arm at him with my index finger pointed. Sometimes (Lord knows what any neighbours if they see me think!) I will bend down and kind of imitate the stance a Goose or duck has when threatening other birds at him. He will always back down and never attacks me head on.
If on the same occasion he keeps doing this and gets close enough for me to grab (Or I have the time and energy for a wild goose chase lol) I will grab him by his neck and push it down to the ground and then use my free arm to hold his body down. Usually this is enough to subdue him as he tends to become submissive as soon as I grab him, if not I’ll sit astride him (not putting all my weight on him or anything that would harm him) if need be.
I will hold him like that, and if he has Ben a real sh-t, I will relax my hold just a little till he thinks he can maybe get away then the minute he tries I will push him down again. Never ever hurting him, but making it very clear to him that I am the stronger one and he cannot escape me unless I allow him to. Sometimes I will also just pick him up, mainly cos I read somewhere that is also a good thing to do (and I suspect it is rather embarrassing for that great for less gander of mine to be held up by a mere human in front of his duck wife, his goose booty call, and any ducklings he is trying to impress as a father figure..

Anyway this all usually serves to improve Gooseys behaviour, but after a day or two I will have to repeat the exercise.

He has managed to pinch me with his beak twice

The first time I had an arm load of eggs and both arms engaged and it was either drop the eggs and break them all or be pecked. I chose the later, but once I had a chance to put the eggs down, caught him, and held him down etc.
The second was just the other day, 6 mths after the first time, and the little bugger snuck up on me and pecked my calf from behind. It hurt and I turned around and let loose a string of words that may offend if I repeated them here, then chased him off. It was dinner time, and I was so pissed off at him that he got me chasing him off every time he came near the food bowls -something I have never ever done before (I have a very large flock of ducks which Goosey presides over). He only got left overs that night, (but he is free ranging in a very large paddock with loads of grass so I don’t think he went hungry, he just got snubbed.

I read your comment about not letting them hand feed. This isn’t an issue with Goosey anyway who was a rescue as an adult bird. He won’t get close enough to me to be hand fed.

I do wonder whether, in a ganders head, the mere fact of me throwing food to him or putting it in a bowl he can reach, could also be construed as any sort of submission on my part (but if so, how does one feed him? Lol)

Anyway he’s not a major problem, just a pain in the ass at breeding time, and I actually love him to bits, especially how gooey he goes over all the ducklings....but I would like if you have any advice on what I could do to assert myself as the dominant goose over him a little more permanently? Is there something else I should or shouldn’t be doing so that he doesn’t during breeding season try and sneak up on me?

I must say he doesn’t fight fair, never to my face, only to my back, and sometimes it is really funny when I will turn after hearing him racing up behind me, and he will throw on the brakes and stop...one time he even tripped over and almost fell on his ass! Was very funny (he’s never hurt himself or been remotely hurt during these antics

But anyway, would be good to hear any tips on how to sort his behaviour out so I don’t have to constantly be watching where he is at this time of year.

I would also love to find out any info on how to train him to be more helpful to me and the flock. For example sometimes if drakes are getting overly aggressive or gang raping ducks, Goosey will go up and peck the offending drakes and sort it out, other times he won’t. When he does this it’s far more effective than me having to chase the drake, catch him, and the. Keep him separate from the rest of the flock including other drakes. If Goosey were consistent at sorting out gang raping drakes he would be a massive asset for me.
The same with pukekos (swamp hens) which are a real nuisance where I live

It would be great to be able to establish myself as head goose over Goosey and then teach him to manage the over active drakes and chase off the pukekos. I read that pukekos prey on goslings as well as ducklings so assumed geese didn’t try and take them on, but a few days ago fond Goosey and Penny chasing some off, but other times they don’t do anything. Penny will do whatever Goosey does. So if I can get Goosey to see me as the boss and train him to do things like that Penny will follow suit.

Any hints or any suggestions of websites where I can learn more about how to train geese? I feel like Goosey has a lot of potential that could be unlocked. He is very bonded with the ducks and I would love to be able to utilise this bond and teach Goosey to help manage predators and unruly drakes.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I will say right off Olive Hill hasn't been around BYC in quite a while. But I can sure understand the frustration with an adult gander I have one that is going on 14 yrs old he's been here since he hatched and after all these years when breeding season comes around which for here is getting started, not the actual breeding yet just the hormonal changes started in mid Dec. Sam is Embden and has never learned that it isn't polite to bite the person who feeds him. Every year we go through the same thing he's ornery and thinks he has to be secret service over his mate Missy. He doesn't try to come at me from behind but if I am close enough doing chores he will try and get me. Usually it's just a threat but he has pinched me already. I do same as you I get him and hold him down head facing away from me this gets him okay for a few days then it starts again. I just think these geese are so programmed into protection that they don't understand there isn't a threat. He will lower his head to give all the birds fair warning they are too close to Missy. I think you just will have to keep with what you are doing and maybe someone else has been able to master this behavior and I haven't seen it. I also will use the broom to keep him at arms length during the worst of breeding season which is Feb through May. I don't hit him with the broom I just use it to keep him from getting close. I used it to also teach the geese not to bully my dogs.
My geese also love ducklings and they both work together to stop any hanky panky from going on on their watch. My flock may not be as large as yours though so my 2 may have an easier time keeping the other birds which consists of 15 ducks and 14 chickens better under control. lol
I wish I could help more but just wanted you to know your not alone in this. I love my geese and wish it was peaceful 12 months out of the year in the flock but I also recognize that geese just are protective of their mates, goslings and territory and I have accepted that. I will not tolerate being bitten though. So here we go again another year of breeding season. I also have to keep my Muscovy drake and gander away from each other. They are mortal enemies during breeding season.

 

[Baybrio]

This is just the best thread.

I have horses, cattle, dogs, muscovy ducks, naragansett turkeys and chickens. I have had exactly one agressive animal that wouldn't stop, a rooster.

I hate calling respect dominance, I'm not a very dominate person. But yes, that is what we have to do for these animals to live in harmony with us. It's for their good as much as ours. I think having 1,500 lb animals before any birds, and very good training, taught me to just naturally nip bad behavior in the bud at the first instance. I'm lucky.

I hug my horses. They nuzzle my face. I ride them. I love them. But they are not allowed to be pushy etc. I hate that I have to be the big bad disciplinarian.

But I want to know that if something happens to me they will fit in with other owners expectations. It's taken me three years to teach my friend, who owned two horses on my place, to understand you must set limits. People are much harder to train than animals.

Now, on the other hand I had a disabled Roeun (sp.) duck that lived in my house for almost 8 years (died of cancer). Every spring he was a pain, literally. He thought I was his girl. I put up with it because he was a little duck. My heart went out to him because he couldn't be with the girls. So yeh, I'm a sucker. But I chose that. He would also sleep with his head on my shoulder and his favorite treat food was sausage pizza.

Thanks for continuing this thread.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I can honestly say I am so thankful this goose breeding season is over. It's never a dull moment that's for sure. And then having not only Mr. Gander wanting to prove he's Mr. Macho but 2 Runner drakes and 1Muscovy drake tossed into this mix. It's always an interesting spring and summer. But so worth it.

 

[Magriet]

I really have question here, we have a gander that became very agressive and attacked them. They responded by hitting and kicking him. That has made him worse, now he attacks me, but not my husband.
I phoned the vet and he said we will have to seperate him and the damage has been done.
Now I do not really know what to do? We cannot live like this for ever.
We have a goose breeding, we do not know if it is her first time.
The problem is, we will stick it until we know if any eggs are actually going tohatch, but after that we will have to do something.
We only have the two that we more or less "inherited" when we moved in here.
I love them to pieces but I cannot even go into the garden.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Why are you letting her hatch eggs? unless you want more geese? this gander may mellow out but it won't be until his goslings are full grown. Geese are very protective of their mates and their offspring. That is normal behavior, now your gander has been attacked by humans maybe even before you arrived on this property. And they have great memories. Take a broom with you when you have to be near him, you're not going to hit him but use it as a barrier between you and him. A bucket anything that you can use to keep him at a distance. And whatever you do don't act afraid stand your ground.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/geese-training.561849/