THE METHOD I'M USING
Why, oh why, are some llamas so terribly
headshy? I appear to have a mix of "very easy" and "almost
impossible" in my herd, despite treating them all the same and despite
haltering one of them very, very early in life. This was Thomas, around
whose head I put a piece of soft yarn the day he was born and handled his
head daily. Five years later, though he is easy to halter, he still does
not really like it. And yet,
I bought Oscar at 6 months, never handled before, completely averse to collaring,
and in less than a total of half an hour I had him racing round after me
desperate to stick his willing muzzle into his head-collar. And dead easy
to remove it. And his brother, Toby, was just the same.
David,
was horrendous: he still is horrendous sometimes! He is incurably head-shy.
After nearly seven years of owning David I am still no nearer to easy-haltering.
The others
are, at times..only at times...fairly easy to halter. Here's how I do it:
I turn
the halter into a "target" (see
Targetting). Starting from scratch, I interest the llama in the halter,
click/rewarding the initial 'just-looking' at it, through touching and then
onto putting the nose into the noseband area and so on.
But it
is almost impossible to use a clicker whilst actually collaring so I have
to rely on my voice ("Good boy/girl") breaking the whole process
down into progressive stages until finally that crown piece is safely fastened.
Another
method that has sometimes worked well for me is to have a bowl with a treat
in it infront of the llama and the noseband positioned such that he has
to put his head through the noseband to get to it.This does take a second
person though.
Note:
I do feel it is most important to have as large a nose band as possible,
sitting almost up to the eyes. Obligate nasal breathers such as camelids
, must find low bands very frightening. I heard of one poor llama that was
found suffocated after his noseband dropped down his nose.
If you
can add anything to my work or have any comments or questions,
please e-mail me.
omments or questionIffffen
Autumn 2004)
With Thomas
the method was easy. I had learnt the hard way! (see below). The night he was
born I tied a piece of soft wool around his muzzle and behind his ears and applied
a
little pressure. I did the same the following days and thereafter regularly
...and have never had a problem.
David,
and to a lesser extent, Dillon, was horrendous. He is terribly head-shy. After
nearly four years of owning David I am still struggling.
The method which
is slowly working ( and I've tried many) is literally rewarding the act of putting
the muzzle through the noseband within a split second of doing it. A better plan
is having David reach for the food-reward through the noseband, but this takes
two people. It is almost impossible to use a clicker whilst collaring!
I feel
it is most important to have as large a nose band as possible, sitting almost
up to the eyes. Obligate nasal breathers such as camelids , must find low bands
very frightening. David certainly does.
BUT SEE NOV 20th '05 NOTE ON THE RIGHT
!!!
