Post by sarahg on Aug 30, 2017 20:33:47 GMT -5
Another question from us, sorry haha.
Our Jersey heifer Juno - she's super lovely and friendly and we can halter her, walk her around, tie her, brush her, "milk" her, pick up all four feet, etc etc. She adores being scratched and pet and fussed over. But she seems quite overly pushy to me. She'll come over to us and lower her head and push into our legs/backs/sides/etc. And worse, if your back is turned to her walking around the pasture, she'll come at you rather fast and try to head butt you.
Now, most of my experience with cows is working on a large dairy, which I realize is different, and cows there are all trained to be "pushed" by humans, not led... but needless to say I am not used to nor comfortable with a cow being all up in my face like this. They are way too strong to think of me as another cow to play with. So, my instinct is to correct her behaviour with a shape crack on the nose with a thin stick and growl "EH!". She backs off and looks rather offended... but tonight walking the pasture looking for Zuma's weaning ring, she kept trying to head butt and "charge" me from behind (though I feel I can hardly call it charging, she's gentle about it). I gave her a wallop and growl every time but she would just back off and then come again, and seemed to get a little worked up about it and frisky, as though it was a game....
My assessment is that 1) she is a young and energetic heifer who is probably bored and lonely (the calf is being kept across a fence until we figure out the weaning ring thing) and desperate for attention, 2) she's a bit of a spoiled brat (came from a small homestead) and is trying to assert dominance and demand attention from us. But even if she doesn't "mean to be mean" I do not feel like this is acceptable behaviour? Am I over reacting by hitting her... or under reacting by not hitting her with something bigger!? If I had my way our cows would never touch/push me with their heads unless I initiated it for scratches or the like. I feel like that is just proper respect for the "boss cows" (us). Am I on the right track?
Here's some pictures just because she's cute 😍
Our Jersey heifer Juno - she's super lovely and friendly and we can halter her, walk her around, tie her, brush her, "milk" her, pick up all four feet, etc etc. She adores being scratched and pet and fussed over. But she seems quite overly pushy to me. She'll come over to us and lower her head and push into our legs/backs/sides/etc. And worse, if your back is turned to her walking around the pasture, she'll come at you rather fast and try to head butt you.
Now, most of my experience with cows is working on a large dairy, which I realize is different, and cows there are all trained to be "pushed" by humans, not led... but needless to say I am not used to nor comfortable with a cow being all up in my face like this. They are way too strong to think of me as another cow to play with. So, my instinct is to correct her behaviour with a shape crack on the nose with a thin stick and growl "EH!". She backs off and looks rather offended... but tonight walking the pasture looking for Zuma's weaning ring, she kept trying to head butt and "charge" me from behind (though I feel I can hardly call it charging, she's gentle about it). I gave her a wallop and growl every time but she would just back off and then come again, and seemed to get a little worked up about it and frisky, as though it was a game....
My assessment is that 1) she is a young and energetic heifer who is probably bored and lonely (the calf is being kept across a fence until we figure out the weaning ring thing) and desperate for attention, 2) she's a bit of a spoiled brat (came from a small homestead) and is trying to assert dominance and demand attention from us. But even if she doesn't "mean to be mean" I do not feel like this is acceptable behaviour? Am I over reacting by hitting her... or under reacting by not hitting her with something bigger!? If I had my way our cows would never touch/push me with their heads unless I initiated it for scratches or the like. I feel like that is just proper respect for the "boss cows" (us). Am I on the right track?
Here's some pictures just because she's cute 😍