Pygmy goat aggression

[katysecret]

Hi there, I'm hoping someone can give me some advice.
I have 4 wether pygmies (horned) all a year old. They live together and are all very docile and tame. However recently, one of the goats is showing a lot of aggression towards me and the others. Whenever I go in to give them any attention, he headbutts and rears at me and the others.
This goat is already the "alpha", and has been the whole time we've had them. But I don't understand this sudden aggression. Normally he is lovely and as far as I know none of the other goats are behaving any different except him. There's been no addition to the group, no feed or schedule changes. From previous advice we don't touch their heads/horns.
He still loves to be petted but will randomly charge and headbutt.
Is there anything I can dot to stop this? Is there a reason he's doing it?

 

[VeryHappyHens]

Hi there, I'm hoping someone can give me some advice.
I have 4 wether pygmies (horned) all a year old. They live together and are all very docile and tame. However recently, one of the goats is showing a lot of aggression towards me and the others. Whenever I go in to give them any attention, he headbutts and rears at me and the others.
This goat is already the "alpha", and has been the whole time we've had them. But I don't understand this sudden aggression. Normally he is lovely and as far as I know none of the other goats are behaving any different except him. There's been no addition to the group, no feed or schedule changes. From previous advice we don't touch their heads/horns.
He still loves to be petted but will randomly charge and headbutt.
Is there anything I can dot to stop this? Is there a reason he's doing it?

Is that goat netured? 2 of my goat was acting until I netured him.

 

[katysecret]

Is that goat netured? 2 of my goat was acting until I netured him.

Yes all four of them are neutered

 

[VeryHappyHens]

Yes all four of them are neutered

Your goat thinks you are one of them and he is trying to dominate over you.

 

[cassie]

He is doing it because he considers you a member of the herd and he is asserting his dominance over you. In all the years I had goats I only had one goat who ever butted me. One. He only did it once. He was a not-too-bright buckling who had a wildly exaggerated sense of his own importance. I was so furious when he hit me I grabbed handfuls of hide and hair, picked him up bodily, and not too gently dumped him on his side on the ground. It happened that he landed in a mud puddle. I hurt his pride more than anything, but he never did it again. As for your boy, I think I would put him on a lead rope and lead him around a bit every day and make him behave like a gentleman. I would also take a spray bottle in the pen with me. When he charged I would spray him in the face.

 

[WhySayWhat]

I've never owned goats, but with most animals, you need to be the dominant over them. This is especially true with "pack" animals, I am the Alpha to my dogs, they do what I say when I say it and there is rarely a question of my authority. I would think goats are similar (though not a pack animal, herd animals are similar in their hierarchy).