School’s In for Alpaca
January 14th 2008 04:44
I’ve been doing some training with Madeline. I sometimes start halter training a youngster at about 6 months of age, but I thought I’d give Maddy a bit more time to get used to me (and humans in general) before introducing her to formal training.
There wasn’t any mad rush to train her. If she had been entered in a show, or if I wanted to take her to a fair or something, then I would have had to train her earlier. I think it depends on when the alpaca is mature enough to cope with it too.
Maddy’s a year old and she’s grown out of the boisterous baby stage. She has grown into a naturally quiet and personable alpaca, so has taken to training very easily.
I’ve introduced her to a halter, putting it on and off a few times while adjusting the fit, to get her used to the idea of this foreign object coming at her face.
I let her wear the halter for a short while, while I distracted her (and her mum) with some yummy lucerne hay.
Sometimes an alpaca will take to wearing a halter straight away, with no worries, sometimes they won’t. It depends on the individual animal. With some alpacas, I need to do a lot of work getting them used to having their head and face touched, before thinking about bringing out a halter. Every alpaca is different.
Maddy coped with wearing her halter first up without any worries, so I went ahead and attached a lead rope.
I let her see and feel the lead rope in front of her. I let her walk about freely, allowing her to feel the pull of the rope ever so slightly as she moved away, but moving with her and not holding her back at all.
That will do for now.
I don’t want Maddy, or any of my alpacas, to hate being haltered. Otherwise it will always be an unpleasant thing for her (and me). If I can introduce her to a new experience, then give her plenty of space to take it all in and understand it, then the training process will be easy. Then she’ll be able to halter and lead at anytime throughout her life, without fear or trauma.
That’s the plan anyway. It’s easy for us dopey humans to stuff it up by getting impatient and expecting animals to cope with too much at once. The trick with these guys is patience. Absolutely.
Madeline wearing her halter
There wasn’t any mad rush to train her. If she had been entered in a show, or if I wanted to take her to a fair or something, then I would have had to train her earlier. I think it depends on when the alpaca is mature enough to cope with it too.
Maddy’s a year old and she’s grown out of the boisterous baby stage. She has grown into a naturally quiet and personable alpaca, so has taken to training very easily.
I’ve introduced her to a halter, putting it on and off a few times while adjusting the fit, to get her used to the idea of this foreign object coming at her face.
I let her wear the halter for a short while, while I distracted her (and her mum) with some yummy lucerne hay.
Sometimes an alpaca will take to wearing a halter straight away, with no worries, sometimes they won’t. It depends on the individual animal. With some alpacas, I need to do a lot of work getting them used to having their head and face touched, before thinking about bringing out a halter. Every alpaca is different.
Maddy coped with wearing her halter first up without any worries, so I went ahead and attached a lead rope.
I let her see and feel the lead rope in front of her. I let her walk about freely, allowing her to feel the pull of the rope ever so slightly as she moved away, but moving with her and not holding her back at all.
That will do for now.
I don’t want Maddy, or any of my alpacas, to hate being haltered. Otherwise it will always be an unpleasant thing for her (and me). If I can introduce her to a new experience, then give her plenty of space to take it all in and understand it, then the training process will be easy. Then she’ll be able to halter and lead at anytime throughout her life, without fear or trauma.
That’s the plan anyway. It’s easy for us dopey humans to stuff it up by getting impatient and expecting animals to cope with too much at once. The trick with these guys is patience. Absolutely.
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Comment by katyzzz
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Comment by Rosemary
Alpaca Notes - Tasmania
I don't have much experience with children of the human variety, but I think it's essentially the same deal for everyone, young or old, human or otherwise.
The feeling of being overwhelmed by too much information is very unpleasant and it can easily lead to panic if pushed too far too fast.
Much better to take it slowly and then it's learned without any effort at all.
Comment by JoH
You're a natural, Rosemary. Can't you write a book and send it to Sydney for me.....?
Tell me this, how do you discipline a badly behaved alpaca - I could sure use some tips for Mr. 26 months!
Comment by Catherine
Natural Animals
Comment by Rosemary
Alpaca Notes - Tasmania
I find out where the stumbling block is - ie: what can the alpaca cope with just before she chucks a wobbly. Then we go over and over that part, in little chunks, until she can handle it. Then we move on - but only once she's got it.
Problem with human kids is they're kept moving on (so they don't get labeled as 'slow') even when they're stumbling.
There's no time or patience in our society.
Comment by Rosemary
Alpaca Notes - Tasmania
I've found that I'm definitely attracted to some alpacas more than others.
They have personalities just like people and you find the friendships they form within the herd also tie in with what you think about the different individuals. Quite fascinating really.
Maddy's a calm girl and she doesn't panic easily. You can tell she thinks about things and considers what is going on. Certainly not a 'dumb animal'.