Does anyone have any experience with Huskies getting along with Goats? Where we live we have two acres and a lot of weeds have been popping up and a lot of our neighbors have goats to take care of it. My neighbor across the stree has 4 dogs and he just got two goats and when the dogs try to get too friendly with the goats, the goats will have none of it and they chase the dogs away. The only thing is that they are not Huskies! My other neighbor has goats and Findley seems very attracted to them. Sometimes he goes to the fence and barks and will even rush the fence and he gets worked up. When I throw these goats some weeds over the fence and they come running he will also bark and has even howled. Every now and then though he will be at the fence and the goats are at the fence and they are all quiet. I don't believe he will hurt them, I think he wants to play with them. One day we were walking and I heard a noise behind us and a wild mustang horse was following us and Findley got down in his play stance! So what Im asking if I get a couple of older castrated goats to keep the weeds down is it possible that Finley will eventually learn to just leave them alone? Is this a training issue? I really don't want to fence off his yard and cut down on his free space because the more room he has the better he is. Anyway, i would be appreciative of all advice.

How old is Finley?

I think it is possible, and yes, it would be a training issue.

Have you taught any boundary training already, Ike furniture or rooms or beds? It'd be the exact same protocol. You'd need some way to correct him and keep him calm around them . In your rural situation I think an E-collar would be the best method to use.

seattlesibe wrote:

How old is Finley?

I think it is possible,  and yes, it would be a training issue.

Have you taught any boundary training already, Ike furniture or rooms or beds? It'd be the exact same protocol.  You'd need some way to correct him and keep him calm around them .  In your rural situation I think an E-collar would be the best method to use.

Thank you for the response. Finley is 2 and has never had any boundary training. I did do some do not cross the line training and he seemed to do well at it. I never really pushed it because there was no need. An E collar is different than a shock collar, correct? I had looked at those but it was pretty confusing as they ranged from $20 all the way up to over $400. I thought that was a bit high because don't they just viabrate?

I have been pretty successful with Miya and various farm animals. So I do agree with Jeff, that it is a training situation. I would slowly introduce him to goats and see how he reacts, enclosed area with you, and not goat on one side of the fence and your dog on the other. They react differently with fences. I have been very successful in my country setting, using the e-collar.

Ts, e-collars = shock collars. Some have a vibrate feature, and with my girl fully trained, I rarely have to use anything, and she responds very well to vibrate, that is all I need to use on her for at least a year now. Like I said though I rarely have to use the vibrate feature.

Shock collar is a deragatory term used by people who either outright oppose them or don't understand them to describe what is now called Remote or e-collars.    Essentially,  the same basic idea applies: a remote communicates to the dog via stimulation from the collar.  Modern, current remote or e collars do not shock in any way.  Most have a range from 0-100 and are used on very low levels, typically 5-30.   Good Balanced trainers use low level , motivation based training with them for teaching,  and yes, higher levels for corrections.

Older remote collars had little to no variation in level and the stimulation was way more abrupt than modern versions.

The best are from E-collar Technologies or Dogtra. Check em out.

If you think about your need and actually training your dog, you'll need to be able to communicate with him from a distance and be able to correct him at a level that matches his intensity if he's amped up and "hunting" goats.

Remote collars are perfect for this.

Haha, hi Renee. I hoped you chimed in here

Hey Jeff!! Yes I agree with Jeff Dogtra or the Einstein is highly recommended. Jenny(wpskier222) had a great post awhile back that she mentioned Lou Castle, look it up, he offers a lot of info on how to train your dog with an e-collar. I do recommend that you purchase one that has a minimal distance of 3/4 mile, in the country with fence lines and/or heavy brush a lower distance setting will not work and you will be frustrated. I am very happy that I trained Miya with the e-collar, she does excellent with farm animals, except for baby sheep, but it was through a ton of training and patience on my part as well as the e-collar that brought us success. It is totally doable. And I do agree an older goat would work best. Also, please do not be put off by the e-collar. I tested the shock end on myself, and when you start training you may have to use the shock, as training goes on and progresses you should only ever, if at all, use the vibrate. The shock or stim setting did not hurt me, there are proper ways to dial in the numbers and again the Lou Castle site will teach you how to use correctly, he has videos too.

They are great tools for these types of jobs. Jen (wpskier222) and I both have our Huskies off leash all the time on an e-collar. They really build confidence and bonding when used properly.

Great tips from Renee.

I am one of those as well, we are almost 100%(except where leash laws apply) off leash. Miya is almost 100% verbal command trained and no need for the e-collar, however she wears it always outside, and is always with me. She wears it for the just in case, however, she wants to be near me, she looks to me for direction. I did have to reeducate the husband, he didn't turn collar on and she did try and chase a cat, at property edge she halted herself, with her self imposed stay. I reeducated him on verbal command of stay, my go to for her to stop a chase. She has done this to him with bunnies as well, once he focused his brain to the simple word stay, he admitted I had worked with Miya well, I used stay with the stim tap, my recall is let's go, again, if she is too far ahead of me my voice doesn't travel far, a tap of the vibrate brings her back to me, I trained the let's go with the inclusion of the vibrate feature. so yes I have worked with her extensively on the e-collar, and couldn't be happier. I was extremely opposed to using it, but like I said earlier once I nicked myself, I was confident that it was an attention grabber vs cruel or hurtful to her. Also, Jeff's right, we have a fantastic bond, a lot of that is from our e-collar training.

We used an Einstein collar on my Samoyed and it was wonderful; she's now transitioned off of it and is 100% off leash.

We use the "Educator" it has a 3/4 mile radius and levels 1-100. It cost about $200.

If interested in reading about it, it's this one


We never had to put it higher than 3 on Anya--and seriously, I put it on myself to test it, and I felt nothing at all. It does have the vibrate feature, but we never used it.

We used a trainer from K9OffLeash when we first got started, and they were AMAZING. They had her reliably off-leash within 2 sessions.

Kat, I do agree that Miya could be completely off leash with out the e-collar, however, I would not recommend it, I always put it on for the just in case situations where a squirrel comes out of nowhere and I can vibrate to bring her back and snap her out of chase mode. I do use the vibrate feature now and have not used the stim feature in forever. Sammies may be different in behavior as far as trust is concerned. I will never, ever, trust a husky without an e-collar, and even some can not be trusted at all and must be leashed at all times. Just my 2 cents, but huskies are prone to taking off in a blink of an eye, regardless of how trained they are. I personally feel that Miya is an extremely trained and obedient husky, but I will never trust her to be completely 100% without some sort of apparatus on her to ensure I can go home with her.

^Completely here you. Most northern breed dogs can never be off leash or completely 100% trusted, I didn't meant to imply that!

Sammys are very similar typically, but my Anya is a different case. She would never willingly leave my side...her life goal is to be in my lap. She has been off leash and without the ecollar for over a year now and is just an angel. We've had her at a heel with deer sprinting by her, foxes, rabbits, and she never budges.

Every dog is different, and absolutely every owner should err on the side of caution and use their best judgement.

I agree with you Kat, Miya wants to be near me all the time. we off leash walk down our dirt road, e-collar is on, main reason for me, my voice does not carry far, Miya stays on path, always, however, her little nose gets her carried away and will be out of call range with my voice, I have to have her e-collar, and tap on the vibrate(not the shock button), and she puts all attention and focus on me. I apologize if I sound mean in my previous post, however, many people get the bright idea, that they train on e-collar a few times have great recall with their husky and then think e-collar is not needed, and then bam, their obedient husky is gone forever. An ounce of prevention. Every dog is different, and every dog responds differently to different members of the household too. I'd rather have the e-collar on and not need it, then to walk off leash and beat myself up later because disaster happens and I was without her collar.

^Not mean at all! I totally get where you're coming from. I always get nervous talking about ecollars and how we trained Anya because people get it in their heads they can train their dogs in a day or two with ecollar and it ends disastrously.

Agreed, common mistake. It takes conditioning, like all training. You can get awesome results very quickly, though. And, it's probably the least invasive, most gentle training tool out there.

I certainly appreciate everyone's input on this. It will be a few months before we get the old goats (no pun intended) and I was looking at separating our couple acres with some cross fences and doing the work myself that would be over $1000 and a good E Collar is much less. I could do it with one short cross fence but that really cuts of Finleys access to space and he enjoys having that. If him and the goats could get along that would be great. My goats will not have horns so that will be a plus for him. I see the neighbor with 5 dogs and 3 goats all seem fine but none of the dogs is a Husky and when any of the dogs he has bug the goats the goats will take care of themselves. I will have to make a decision soon!

tsfrance wrote:

I certainly appreciate everyone's input on this.  It will be a few months before we get the old goats (no pun intended) and I was looking at separating our couple acres with some cross fences  and doing the work myself that would be over $1000 and a good E Collar is much less.  I could do it with one short cross fence but that really cuts of Finleys access to space and he enjoys having that.  If him and the goats could get along that would be great.  My goats will not have horns so that will be a plus for him.  I see the neighbor with 5 dogs and 3 goats all seem fine but none of the dogs is a Husky and when any of the dogs he has bug the goats the goats will take care of themselves.  I will have to make a decision soon!

Somewhere, while researching ecollars for Ami, I ran across something about dogs and goats...unfortunately, the only thing I remember was: "after that, he (the dog) was sure those goats were electrified and he never went near them again."

Wish I could be more help but that statement (and image ) sure stuck in my brain! Ami feels the same way about my kitchen counters - though, for him, all I had to use was the vibrate setting so I think he thinks the counters are haunted