donkey training

Question
I have a 2 year old minature donkey.  He is the sweetest donkey around people, but with animals he is mean--just plain mean.  He will try to fight anything that walks in his pasture.  I would love to get him a friend, but am afraid to.  I kept him with some cows and a bull for awhile and things were fine. Once one of the cows had her baby, he started to "bully" the baby bull and so we plut him up in the barn for a few days just to give the baby some rest. Toby wouldn't let him eat or drink.  then once we let him out he went from mean to super mean and actually starting fighting with one of the cows.  I am afraid to put anything in the pasture with him because of this. do you have any advice?????

Answer
Hi Helen!

First, is he gelded?  If not, you must do this immediately or as soon as the vet says it is possible.  You do not want to do it in the heat of the summer/fly season.  This could be a large part of your problem.

Second, He is obviously not well socialized to other animals and training him to be is possible....maybe.  It is really best to just expose them as youngsters and let them grow up seeing it as natural.  Training usually involves a human and an animal.  How do you explain to 2 animals to "play nice"???  It requires force and a large show of domination from the human to both animals. I get a feeling you cannot do this to them or you would have already done it and not written to me, right?

But, even then it rarely sticks and the "bad" animal backslides to bullying the others again....when the dominant human is not there to intercede.

He may have to be kept separate forever and that's just that.  If you wish to keep the other animals safe when they are all without supervision, you must separate them, keeping him isolated.  He is an animal and he is not playing by "your" rules....he is playing by his.  You cannot change that.

Good luck and remember to always wear an ASTM/SEI approved helmet!

Solange