Learnt From My Own Mistakes!

I dont want anyone training llamas to take this list as advice; I would hesitate to give the latter. In training, we all have different animals and different physical surroundings. In training llamas we bring along our individual human personalities. But, in the hope that some of this might be relevant to other trainers in certain situations, I set forth a random, hotpotch, "trivial-and-basic-mix" of things that I have learned about my particular seven llamas in their relation to me, their surroundings and to each other, from mistakes I have made. New entries are at the TOP

HERE GOES ....!

...that..(and I bet I've already got this one down, further down this awesome list).. but it is a mistake in clicker training to attempt to work with an animal that is over-hungry. It really is. You'd think in a treat-based method, the reverse would be true, but my experience is that I get far more off-cue behaviours thrown at me "in the hope", than in a situation where the llama is not food-crazed and can relax and think about that afterdinner mint.I got far better results after the hard feed. As always, Banksy was happier to play clicker than to eat his hay!

.that llamas are neither cats nor dogs. Neither are they able to make that same bond with us that a cat and, more especially, a dog can form. I have to be honest here: I dearly wish it were otherwise, but I have never seen a scrap of evidence that my llamas would really enjoy my company were it not for the food factor. Tolerate yes. But would they seek out my company if I didnt feed them? I doubt it. But like hundreds of llama-owners, I feel it would be wonderful if my animals loved me in the same way as my cats do!

...that it is a mistake to attempt to train a llama that is ravenously hungry. I am writing this in December when my animals are probably at their hungriest. I have attempted a couple of training sessions this week before feeding or haying. The result was an over-concentration on the food reward, to the extent that the two llamas involved simply werent concentrating on what they were doing. Toby, infact, was chucking any old bit of training at me. I had far better results using treats after they'd been fed!

....that in a training method which is treat-based, the llama has to want the treat to be motivated. If he is still munching the previous reward, he will not be interested in working for another one. The answer is to give rewards that can be eaten very rapidly. This is especially true when fine-shaping a behaviour which only takes a second or so to complete, such as picking up an object and handing it to the trainer.

......that I should not expect people who have had no experience of herding/prey animals, such as horses, llamas etc., to be able to understand their natural instincts. Those of you who read my website will gather that I play some silly games with my boys..retrieving, football etc. I recently agreed to have a TV company attempt to capture some of this nonsense on film.To my amazement, over thirty people showed up to accomplish this and having jumped into the llamas' field complete with a vanload of arclights, cameras and God-knows-what-else, they yelled:"Okay, let's see it ". I think it is a great credit to my llamas that they didnt hotfoot it over the horizon.

...that it is a mistake to carry on a training session too long even when, and maybe especially when, things are going excitingly well. Jim Logan told me off for doing this recently.We were training a llama to get targetwise and things were going so very well that I wanted to go on and ON!..Really,10-15 minutes is the optimum time before a break. And the llama comes back to the exercise with renewed interest. (Jim and I also trained chickens and their maximum attention span is one minute. His daughter timed us with a stop watch!)

...that in a training method that is (initially) food-based, it is a poor use of time to attempt to train individual llamas that, for whatever reason, take ages to pick up the offered reward. I have one llama who, when offered a treat by hand, fiddles about with it for perhaps 15 seconds before finally and slowly taking it into his mouth. In clicker work, the shaping of any behaviour requires that the tempo is fast...else the llama forgets what he is being rewarded for. And so do I.

....that however easy it is for me to put a headcollar on a llama, I must not assume it will always be easy.Thomas was dead easy for five years, but now...! Yes, there is a reason. Of-course there is a reason. But I damned if I can find it. Same halter. Same method. Same me.

...that in clicker training, where the rule is that a reward must always follow the click (the conditioned reinforcer),this is not the case for the clicker-trained-llama that is close to the training pen but not actually the one being trained at that moment! Does a llama really understand the difference between "my reward" and "his reward".A click means "reward". No ifs nor buts. Food for thought!

Added later: I discussed this with Jim Logan. He said he always used a 20-30 feet rule.

 

.that in a method of training that, in its early stages , relies heavily on food rewards, it can be very time-consuming to wait whilst llama-students recover from a spitting session. My students are unable to take food, post-spit, for some twenty minutes. However,I have noticed that this familiar hung-jaw grimace isnt just when its owner has spat, but it often happens when another, unrelated llama some distance away has spat up into the air. It seems the fine spray of the saliva pervades the air, drifts and affects the non-spitters so that they react with the dropped jaw we've all seen. I wonder if this mouth-airing is actually a sign of stress rather than the bad taste of the spit?

.. that there are many, many things that cannot be achieved by operant conditioning methods, even when training conditions are ideal. Powerful though the tool of operant conditioning is, it is limited in what it can achieve. I put this down to the fact that this approach can only ever say "yes". It is not binary. There is not even a "perhaps"..

..that, even though my training programme is food-reward based, it is not a good idea to attempt to train when the llama is desperately hungry.Grass is in short supply now and the llamas are hungry, particularly just before their hay and hard feed arrives. On a couple of occasions this week I have tried to train just before feeding with the result that, such is their over-anxiety to please, that I'm getting much of their repertoire of trained behaviours ( kushing/spinning/rolling/backing etc etc) flung at me off-cue. God only knows what would happen if any of their apparatus was around!

...that, (again..!) ..even when using a food-reward based method, it can be a mistake to attempt training when the llama student is over-hungry. This is the time of year (Dec.) when grass is over and the llamas are "starving".Today, I was late feeding and thought I would do a session with Oscar. A big mistake. He was over-keen and all I got was a recital of almost his entire repertoire of behaviours: spins, backing, kushing, rolling..all unrequested ( and unrewarded!). He was too keen to hear me.

...that in clicker training, you can lose a whole afternoon's work by getting that bridge ("click") sounded, a fraction of a second too late. What you click is what you get.If you're using a clicker, you really, really have to concentrate hard!

...that it takes just one member of a herd to reach puberty, with hormones kicking in, and the entire dynamics of the herd is disrupted. This can lead to all sorts of probs in training.

....I suspect I've said it before, but I'll say it again: it is extremely hard, if not impossible, to train in high wind. Just like horses, llamas get ultra wary in windy weather. I am sure it is because, as prey animals, all their sounds and their sense of smell, are distorted. They need to be extra wary for survival, hence little time to expend on non-essential training.

....(oh dear, this has been a real hard lesson for me)..that it is extremely difficult to display in public, the training that I am demonstrating in videos, here on this website. Because llamas are animals of prey, when put in unfamiliar settings such as a Show or a Village Fete, they can become very wary. It is this wariness that has ensured their survival afterall.The surrounding unfamiliar sounds, sights and smells have all to be checked out before they can relax. Add a nearby dog show, a marching band, the ice-cream vendor, the fire brigade, horses and what have you and all this adds up to a situation fraught with potential dangers for the poor llama. So much more relaxed on his own farm!

....that a series of short, intense, training sessions are of more value than one long one.It is easy to get so enthusiastic about a piece of training going well, that the attention span of the learning llama gets overstretched.Ten minutes seems to be the optimum time for my boys...and then a ten minute break.

...that boys are far easier to train than girls !!! No, I need to qualify this. I should say " In my experience..." because I've really only tried to train two girls and mostly in work connected to driving. I havent made any progress with clicker work with either; they seem to be very different animals from the male llama.

..that some llamas are far more difficult to train than others. And I suspect that some are virtually impossible.Why, oh why, are so few so-called expert trainers (of all species of animal) so reluctant to admit that there are impossible animals. Afterall...we all know impossible people!

...that it is one thing to train a llama to perform in a certain way in their familiar, quiet, home surroundings, ...but it is QUITE ANOTHER ballgame altogether to repeat the same thing in public.Was the failure to realise this, behind the disappearance of the performance classes for llamas from out British shows??

...that it's counter-productive to attempt training if I'm in a bad mood or if, during the course of a training session, I've got impatient.Llamas, like all animals, pick up on mood. Also,it is impossible to think rationally if one has lost one's cool.

...that it is usually counter-productive to try to train my boys when it's very windy.Like horses,my llama-students get very nervous in wind and concentration is very impaired.

...that if I am using food training treats, I should wait a few minutes after a spitting session. Llamas need to drop their jaws after a spit and seem disinterested in eating for up to 25 mins.Frustrating!

...that herd dynamics can play a huge part if I am working with my student in close proximity to other llamas. My Dillon will instantly fold down to the command "Sit down" if he's alone with me. But ask him to do it when the other boys are around and it's another story. Clearly he feels vulnerable..or undignified.

...that if I'm using a method dependent on food reward, I am also dependent on the llama being hungry.Sometimes they aint!

......that if I have my back to the sun, I might well be getting a good view of the student llama facing me.... but HE might well be dazzled!

....that the sense of smell (olfactory) in a llama is far, far greater than a human's. If I offer a food reward with a hand that also smells of horse, cat, llama dung,handcream..or, far worse, llama spit, my reward will be rejected and, in some instances, act as negative reinforcement.

...(this is something I keep overlooking in my work on colour recognition)...that, unlike us, the llama has a large blind spot under, and on each side of, his chin. The field of vision in a camelid is very strange and something I'm hoping to find out more about.

....that if I reward behaviour that is offered off-cue, then I will get off-cue behaviour. It is EXTREMELY tempting to reward a llama that has just performed an unrequested piece of training, such as retrieving, with enormous effort and accuracy. One has to be firm and hard!

.....that there are times when, for no reason I can ever understand, the llama is simply not interested in training.Is it a distraction that he,rather than a human,can see/smell/hear/sense? Is he feeling off-colour? What is it?

......that if my student llama is being trained in something involving his mouth (eg retrieving), he needs to finish munching his reward before I ask him to use his mouth again! Small treats are the best and quickest!

 

 

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