Oh yeah they frigging hate water. About the only time I can get them to cross voluntarily is if all their buddies are on the other side or if they can jump the whole creek/ditch. Even getting them to take a drink takes a lot of patience or heat. I’ve got a place to hunt in mind that will require them crossing a pretty substantially wide creek, but probably won’t be very deep in September or October.
Other socializing aspects we are working on are dealing with new dogs on the trail. It’s one reason they need to stay behind me when hiking, so I can encounter the dog first and call to its owner. Also, I’m a little worried that when Ragnar is 200 plus pounds he will kill a perfectly nice but too curious dog. His balls, after banding, must have slipped up inside and displaced his brain. He hates dogs and will charge them. He’s punched ours in the face if they get too nosy and reared up to take pretty devastating swings that would have done some damage if the dogs didn’t evade him. I don’t want to totally discourage this, as I left the horns on to help them deal with predators.
Breeds are all Alpine and Alpine crosses. Thor is 3/4 Alpine 1/4 Toggenburg, Ivar is half Saanen l, half Alpine. Rest are full blooded Alpine. About 3.5 months now and the three largest are over 80 pounds. Smallest is Loki at 60ish but his gains are good, just had a rough start as a quad with his three brothers dying at birth.
Ya I tried that gamble and lost once and won once. The first time , it caused me to pack out, and have to use facebook to find said goat. The second time I was in the west elks, and finally had a battle of wills with one ..so I crossed the water with a leader ..anchored behind a rock and started pulling ... I had to do it , all the good elk hunting was on the other side. Said goat, decided to cross creeks peacefully there after
