BALL GAMES
..or "the statue game"

THE METHOD I'M USING

Ball games are really just a variation of retrieving.I have two types of ball games at present, one where the llamas uses his nose to propel the ball, and the other with his feet. To avoid confusion, I train the boys to do one or the other, not both!

I throw or kick the ball a few yards and it is brought back to me, not in the mouth as is a thrown glove or toy, but on the grass being propelled by the llama's nose or kicked by his foot. The goal-posts are my feet. I begin the whole exercise with making the ball an active target and progress to rewarding any sort of nudging of the ball on the ground. 




 

Then I progress to rewarding any nudging/footing that leads to a movement of the ball and gradually progress to bringing the ball back to my feet just a few inches away. The whole process is broken down into bitesize pieces. The biggest problem for the llama is changing direction; he literally has to position his whole body to propel the ball in the required direction.

If you can add anything to my work or have any questions or comments, please e-mail me.

HOW WE'RE DOING

The story so far:Whilst most of this fun stuff is done with Oscar and Toby, Dillon is actually the Beckham of the herd! He loves the ball. He returns it to me from quite a distance using his nose and is quite good at positioning his body to get direction. Oscar has been trained to use his feet rather than his nose. Toby is starting on noseball! Banksy the alpaca is being trained to toss a large, soft ball with his mouth.

Aug 25th 2010

RECENT NOTES ON PROGRESS

I'm having a great time with Banksy and Dillon this week! Banksy has been tossing the ball back to me quite consistently for some months, but this has been so long as I'm in front of him. He has now got the idea of tossing it sideways if I'm at an angle. He wont reposition his body, like Oscar does when footballing, but he is turning his neck around quite dramatically. Maybe there IS some brain there afterall!

Dillon is learning to toss the ball back to me, but has got very confused by his earlier retrieving training. It was quite foreign to him to keep his feet still once he'd picked up the ball. At first he was running to me holding it, but we're getting there. We're using a soft ball filled with polystyrene balls, by the way.

 

 

....Bending it like Beckham!