I recently had an experience which was a great demonstration of this and got me thinking about how a buck can behave very differently in response to how he is handled and housed. I was recently contacted by a goatkeeper who had purchased a buck from me late last year. The new owner struggled to contain him in any fences, he was damaging sheds, attacking other goats and livestock and displaying aggression towards his new owner. They had tried disciplining him but he responded badly by becoming more aggressive. The owner contacted me at wits end, because the only option they had left was to euthanize the buck since he had become dangerous.
I was surprised by this because when I sold him he was a friendly boy, easy to handle and would walk on a lead. I opted to give the buck a second chance, picked him up and brought him back home. Since having him home he has not given me any problems. He has stayed confined in his electric yard with a couple of wethers for company. He has been drenched, had feet trimmed, and served two does without any fuss. He is very affectionate and responds well to scratches and gentle handling.
It was an interesting experience for me and prompted me to think about the way different approaches to handling and husbandry will have different effects on the animal. Each animal will respond differently and some require a different approach than others. I don’t believe the buck in this case has shown anything other than normal rutting behaviour; however the new owner was not confident handling him and unsure about how to correct the bad behaviour, and the buck became the ‘alpha’ and things quickly moved from bad to worse. When I handled him confidently and firmly but with affection and praise rather than discipline, he responded positively.
While I am the first to say that dangerous, aggressive animals should be put to sleep before anyone gets hurt, this little example just goes to show that sometimes things aren’t as they seem. It would have been a sad ending indeed to euthanize a perfectly happy, healthy and friendly buck in the prime of his life.