Isn't this the same as "pushing your buttons"?

Same difference?

I dunno. I think I see a shade of difference, but it's mighty shady.

...it's mighty shady.

As opposed to "slim shady"?

I suppose one would get your goat by pushing your buttons.

Here's a URL about "get your goat":
http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/10/messages/1015.html
It alleges that goats used to be kept with nervous race horses to calm them, and taking goat away would upset them.

Well, getting your goat could also "ruffle your feathers".

And if your feathers were ruffled, you'd be madder than a wet hen.

I'd heard the goat/horse connection--and actually thought we'd discussed it here a while back. ? And I think horses can become attached to other animals as well--chickens and mad wet hens and such.

Surely ‘pushing your buttons’ produces a reaction that is predictable but may be for good or bad whereas something that ‘gets your goat’ is always annoying.

Interesting, dxb. I would never consider someone's 'pushing my buttons' as being a good thing out there in the real world. But I have read the term applied sexually in which some apparent good had been indicated. Did I say that delicately enough so as not to push anyone's angry little buttons?

The term seems to be associated with the expression "He knows the right buttons to push", that is he knows how to persuade people (in an organisation perhaps) to provide the result he wants. But you've made me uncertain now - beset by doubts I am - as to whether this is typical UK usage or just what I *think is typical UK usage!

I too have read the term applied sexually, but can't speak for its accuracy as my formative years preceded the rediscovery of sex in the UK. We're typically a number of years behind America in most things.

I agree with dxb pushing your buttons produces a reaction which is predictable but it is generally for the benifit or amusement of the pusher not the pushee. and so often what amuses button pushers is getting someone elses goat buy ruffling their feathers until they're as mad as a wet hen.