STANDING

THE METHOD I'M USING

Of all the behaviours I've worked at with my five boys, I find this the very hardest of all and yet the llama trainers out there seem to think it is easy... I wonder. Maybe it's because I am working off-lead. For a start, in trying to teach a llama to stand still you are asking him to DO NOTHING. Can YOU do nothing? I cant. It is a negative thing. And because it is a negative thing, how can you tell a llama when he's done it? This is an area of training where I have tried many methods including clicking and rewarding after different periods of time, one second, three seconds, five seconds etc. but the problem is, my boys dont wear watches, neither have I any concept of their concept of time.
Standing whilst I'm doing something to them, such as grooming, clipping etc. is perhaps more comprehensible to them. Here again, though, I'm asking them NOT to do something, viz moving.
 I must confess to resorting to some negative reinforcement, in training them to stand. I decided as I was training llamas that it was appropriate to spit! But my "spit" comes from a squirty bottle of clean, warm water aimed just below their ear. It doesn't hurt them one iota, but they dont like it.

If I have an arm free, I raise it and I have changed the command "Stand" to "Standing" to make it more distinctive and whilst I am saying that command .. and I repeat it every few seconds...any movement results in a squirt. On the positive side, any standing for a lengthened period results in a reward. I take great care to ensure that my request is reasonable in that particular situation and that there is no real excuse for movement such as fear or discomfort.
To make an approaching llama stand, which is, of-course, halting and remaining still, I use a raised hand-up signal, much the same as a traffic cop.

 

 

 

 

 

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: All the boys are now standing to verbal command; at least, ,their feet are still. If I walk around them, still keeping the hand and vocal cue on, they tend to wind their necks to see where I am, but at least they aren't shuffling about. Toby is halting to stand as part of his combination exercise, and will stand for quite awhile so long as my hand is raised, but he'll move away if I lower it, even if I keep the verbal cue repeated. The girls are...well..they're just girls.

 

RECENT NOTES ON PROGRESS

Oct 28th'08