Slowly.
Willow is quite a little charmer. She is playful and curious. She is getting very comfortable in her new home with her goat family. She shows signs of being protective and you must admit she's easy on the eyes.
But.....
She still doesn't want to be touched never mind haltered and led. I don't know how to progress. I don't know if I should lock her in her little house and force her which could lead to someone getting hurt or if I should try to wait her out. Training a llama is nothing like training a horse or dog. A part of me wishes I had gotten a halter trained llama but then I would miss out on Willow's big brown eyes and her funny playful ways. She also has fabulous fiber that looks brushed even after a rainstorm. I really really like her.
So, once again, I will rely on the internet. I found this training guide and plan to give it a try.
Wish me luck. I still feel like I have to overcome the horrible memory of catching her and bringing her home. She has to learn to trust me. She may never trust Hubby, the llama wrangler.
9 comments:
We have a 2 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi that was abused and neglected for the first 4 mo.s of his life. He had had a very hard time trusting humans.
We give him lots of love and, little by little, this wonderful little dog is learning to trust us and love humans again. It's a long road and there are times when we think he will never be relaxed and unafraid, but he is worth the effort.
Willow is a beautiful animal. Please don't push her to behave and do things that she isn't ready for. She has suffered at a human hand and it will take time for her to trust again. But, it will happen because animals live in the moment and soon the bad memories will disappear and she will know that she can trust you. Then you can work on the training.
She is so lovely. Oh, those eyes.
She's so lovely! My lady said that she doesn't know anything about llamas but that you are probably right to just give her time. Gimli the Goat took almost a year before he would let my lady touch him. He had been abused. My lady said that now he loves skritches and attention but it took a loooong time for him to make sure that my lady wasn't one of those abusers.
Have you heard of the Mallon method? I bought the video, watched it, took Thelma to the round pen and she was trained in 20 minutes. Seriously. Worked like a charm. Just google Mallon Method and you'll find it.
I've heard very good things about that trainer. I'm sure you'll make a lot of progress, but have a feeling it will always be a process! Karen Pryor has told me (quite sympathetically when discussing my dog, Lily) that the most interesting animals to be around are also the ones most difficult to train. Lily will soon be 9 and whenever Karen visits, she says nice things like, "she's doing much better, isn't she?" Enjoy the journey!
SO nice to hear your voice on my machine!! I got home late last night which is why I didn't call back immediately. Can't wait to talk to you ...
:-)
You'll do it, goat girl. You want to and she wants to. It's just a matter of meeting somewhere in the middle. I have faith! In the meantime, what are a llama's favorite treats? You need to find something she absolutely can't resist and then just sit with her. The only thing I know about llamas is that they are curious and I would be willing to bet that eventually she'll be so curious about you just sitting with her that she'll come around. But what do I know? :)
Sue is one of two trainers that I would hand .any. of my animals over to no questions asked.
she's that good.
She's also very good about answering emails, so if you get to a sticky spot.....email her!
My llama was broke when he came to me, but he doesn't like me. Period. My son can catch him pretty easily. It really irritates me. He's not really a good guard llama either, but he's been here for almost nine years now, so I just let him be here and be happy.
from personl experience with alpacas i can say, dont force a llama or an alpaca to do somehting it doesnt want to do. they learn very easily, but in a gentle manner. for petting, just sort of pet her 'by the way' in very short touches, while giving her her hay/pellets/chopped carrot/apple treats... also, always have her halther in your hands, hanging on them, or peeking out of the feeding pail, and let the halter accidently brush against her also while fussing around her and feeding... let her get curius around the halter but dont even try to put it on her... do everything slowly and without much 'fuss' or 'intent', at first. atually, our alpacas got used to just having a rope held around their neck (not tied just looped), so we could handle them. when doing feet, we would halter them, give them their hay, and handle their feet, etc. every day. when we had to cut their toenails, we did it in small amounts of time, until we were able to do a shearing, and trim without fuss or muss. sometimes it helps to have a goat or other friend stand on the other side of the stall or in the same box while handling him/her. alpacas like structure in their lives, much more so then goats (it seems), they have the intelligance of a goat but some of the personality of the camelid family (a bit ornnery).
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