Out story, to answer your question: We first bought and raised a female Toulouse named Mother. The children are the ones who've taken care of her since she was a wee gosling, so I don't know if it is from their interaction with her, the fact that she's female, or just her personality, but she's incredibly docile. In fact, she's so docile she wasn't making a good guard! Then our friends who also have gaggle of children told us they were having problems with their male Toulouse, apparently he was too good at guarding and killed their rooster and attacked one of them. Well, we really wanted to hatch goslings, so we said we would take him to breed with ours. We named him Father and had a cute little prenuptial ceremony (neck tie included!) when we introduced the two to each other. Upon getting him home, we noticed an immediate difference in their temperaments- he has been very guarding since day 1 of coming home and man he is SO LOUD!!! So he does a great job warning us any time a predator is near. Knowing that he has a history of aggressiveness I have not let my smaller children (under 8ish) in the run with him, and only allow my older children (9 & 11) to do the care. We have had no problems with him for a full year until now. They are definitely mating finally, as my husband and I witnessed it the other day, so she's laying fertile eggs and ever since he has become MEAN. He attacked both of my older sons this week, grabbing hold of their clothes with his bill, biting their hands and breaking the skin! And beating their legs with his wings so hard it left immediate bruising! My oldest says it feels like he's waking you with a metal poll. Well yesterday my 9 year old went to put out a fresh waterer and apparently in doing so got too close to Mother. Father attacked for the last time. I fear he could seriously injure a smaller child or even a larger one if they happened to trip and become below his eye level. Father is now off feed, he'll be dinner next weekend. It's just not worth the risk to me and I share my story to say- yes, they can be dangerous!
