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The Show Season
The show season is in full swing now; the time to expose our llamas to our peers and, more importantly, the public, potential llama lovers all. While shows can be the most influential marketing tool we have, they can also be the most detrimental to our efforts. I don't judge many shows any more, to avoid possible conflicts of interest, but I see a great problem with the way we display our llama friends to the public. I hate to say this, but I think we may be shooting ourselves in the foot (feet?) by drag- ging half-trained, obnoxious appear- ing, recalcitrant llamas through ob- stacle courses. We know how won- derful these animals are, but it is not our perception of llamas that holds the key to the future of the industry, but rather that of the uninitiated out- siders who may be considering a llama lifestyle. I say this because of comments I hear time and again from non-llama people at shows, I always make it a point to drift around the barns, playing the role of an average citizen whose interest has been some- what piqued by these fascinating ani- mals. "So what do you think about these critters?" I'll ask another fairgoer. Well, they look kind of dangerous to me", is the paraphrased reply in MOST cases. No wonder! As these folks cruise the barns, watching lamas spit and kick at their handlers, and at other llamas whose noses go where they shouldn't, they see an animal they would not trust around their grandchildren. ALSA has done wonderful work with shouldn't over the years. Sure, there are problems, as there will always be, but how about exhibitors doing their part? Let's try to show the public the best of the best rather than the best of the worst, deal?
Okay, I'm glad I got that said. Now. let's go on to more specific things. One of the most frequent questions I hear has to do with rewards - what, when, why, how. Let's first recognize the difference between bribes and rewards; as mentioned in earlier columns, one comes before the desired behavior (bribe), the other after (reward). The bribes I see used most often involve food. I'II just say this straight out - virtually every spitting llama I have met has been bribed with food; this is not to say that every llama who has been hand- fed food is a spitter, but that every spitter I have met has been bribed with food in his "training". While it may make sense to us, it makes no sense to the llama who is really not that motivated by food. Predators. on the other hand, are quite seriously motivated by food. My wife and I happen to live in mountain lion coutry, and have good friends who are scientifically knowledgeable about these efficient meat eaters, so I will use the big cats as examples of the following facts, but you could just as easily substitute wolves, tigers, jackals, dingoes, etc. I have put this example to many wildlife biologist.. and exotic animal trainers and handlers, all of whom have agreed with the concept.
Let's look at how different animals go about getting their life sustaining meals. In the case of cougar's or mountain lions, an adult lion will take a mule deer every ten days or so. If they have young babies, that increases to one every six to seven days, and with three to six month old youngsters, will take two per week, on average, all documentable, incidentally in a book written by Kervin Hansen entitled "Cougar: The American Lion". Before the lion goes on : hunt, she has to get hungry enough to risk leaving her babies unprotected to possibly enter the food chain at the "eatee" level (coyotes, eagles). She then has to find game, wether it be deer, wild burros, goats. calves or foals, all of which have consider- able defense options, as in antlers. hooves and,/or teeth in their arsenals Because the lion is a sprinter rather than a "chaser" (lions have very small lungs and are unable to dash more than a few hundred yards), she must stalk and hide, awaiting her chance to bring home the bacon. Many of these hunting forays are unsuccess- full (82% success rate when hunting mule deer). When she does find her game, she must then wait until the appropriate moment to make her play, chasing down, catching and killing her prey in a battle which could just as easily kill her. We're talking life and death encounters. It's a jungle out there, folks; this is the real world of animals; it's not always pretty, despite what Walt Disney may have told us ....
Now she has caught this prey, she engages in a life and death struggle of survival of the fittest. Making her kill, she now rips open the flank of the victim (sorry ...), pulling out the steaming entrails and partaking of the warm lungs, heart and liver of the prey animal. She then carries the meat back to her babies, assuming they are still there. We are talking a BIG DEAL for a predator to get its meal. Now, let's take a look at how a llama, or other herbivore (prey ani- mal), gets his groceries. He awakens from a night's rest, and eats his mattress cover, then goes about most of his waking hours munching, grazing, ruminating. Eating (and, of course, avoiding being eaten) consumes his life. It's not such a big deal to him; he is simply an eating machine. Llamas just are not very motivated by food. Oh, I know, we can make "junkies" out of them with sweet feed, but do they really need it? Most grains have molasses or other sweeteners as additives to encourage the animals to eat them (has it ever occurred to you that feed dealers sell feed to US, not animals?). Llamas, and any other colostrum tasters, will have a "sweet tooth", but the usefulness of sweet feeds ends early in their lives. Do you give your kids their choice between Cheerios and Oreos for breakfast? Get the idea? I've also heard many stories of animals being "trained" through the use of food "rewards", who were not used to eating grain, who have gotten quite sick after repeated administrations of unfamiliar, rich feeds. Most animal behaviorists agree that food bribes are counterproductive because animals quickly learn to manipulate the situations (and the "trainers") in order to get the reward without having performed the desired behavior, and additionally, become very resentful and demanding if their habit is not fed. This is where all that spitting comes in ... PTEWY! - WHERE'S MY GRAIN?!!!
Personally, I believe that our animals are entitled to all the food they need, whenever they need it, and to hold it back to be used as a bribe is not something I feel right about. I have never found a need to use these gimmicks in training, and see no reason for you to, either; it only complicates and muddles things up.
When a top bird behaviorist visited our place, at my request, to evaluate a Moluccan cockatoo that I had worked out some very amusing routines with, he told me that she was "one in a million", and among the very best trained birds he had met in his frfteen years in the business. Wanting to try to put her through her paces, he asked my permission to do so, which I happily gave. "What food treats do you use?", he asked. I told him that I did not use any food treats, to which he replied, "Impossible!" (Bird "experts" claim that the way to train birds is to find out what their very favorite food is, then withhold it from the diet and use it only for rewards/reinforcers/treats/bribes). I never liked this way of doing business, so have never employed the strategy.
Amazed at what the bird would do without food rewards, he then asked to meet our horses so he could demonstrate how it was supposed to work. I introduced him to "Spud", my twelve-year-old gelding, who had been desensitized extensively at birth, and is as fine a gentleman as you'd ever want to meet. The behaviorist needed to prove his food-based system to me, and took along a pocketful of feed. Although this went against my grain (sorry), I relented, as I had asked for, and paying for, his expertise. He worked with the horse for about ten minutes. after such time I called a halt to proceedings, not liking at all the at all the idea of the horse's mouth being in such proximity to human fingers, and I politely told him so. On the way out of the corral, I petted Spud on the neck, as is my habit, and, for the first time in his life, the horse nipped me on the hand. I rest my case.
The other question that comes up frequently has to do with the use of words in training (secondary reinforcers). I meet many people who sa1- "halter" as they help the llama into one, or "foot" as they lift one. These are cues, and are fine if used cor- recently, that is, say the word once. then make it happen. This is the only fair way to teach the llama what is expected of him (first time, ever)- time). Repeating verbal cues will only serve to confuse the animal and he will quickly learn to ignore them as meaningless. Remember, cues are merely signals of things to come. something that happens before some- thing else happens. We've all seen the llamas that shake their heads vigorously as the halter starts to slide down the nose when we are "unhaltering". The llama is simply anticipating what follows this sensa- tion and jumping to the next step - an annoying and potentially danger- ous habit. Some llamas begin this head-shaking well before the halter is undone, some even when hands reach for it. Think for a moment about how many steps are actually involved in removing a halter from (for) a llama, how many cues are given. We approach the left side of the llama, stand alongside his neck. reach up with two hands, approach the side ofhis head with those hands. pull the strap out of the buckle- keeper, then from the pin (unless you are using a snap-type, in which case. the sound and feel of the snap being unfastened), the tugs he feels with these movements, then the hand coming around the other side of his neck, the repositioning of the hands to begin lifting the halter over his nose, the actual lifting of the halter off his nose (to prevent dragging it across his sensitive nostrils), then fina11y, the lifting up and away of the noseband. Whew! I'11 bet you never realized how many cues and pre-cues were involved in this seemingly simple act, did you? You know what I'm going to say next, right? I have :o say it anyway - the llama knew everything that was about to happen before it happened because he had -earned the sequence of events. This is one of the easiest for him to learn because it is one of the few things we handlers do with any consistency - the same way every time, one thing inevitably following another. What we may perceive as a very subtle pro- gression of events was not at all subtle to him, but as clear as a bell. This is why he is jumping the gun - he knows what's coming. I much pre- fer my llama to wait for my cue, to stand quietly until I have given him a release cue, so, if at any time dur- ing the unhaltering process he gives any indication of wanting to throw the halter off his head, I'lI simply put it back on and move briefly away. If he starts to shake his head when he feels the snap undone, I'll re-snap the halter. If he waits until he feels the halter begin its journey down his nose to toss his head, then back up the nose the halter goes and is re- snapped; then we start again. It doesn't take too many times until he learns to wait patiently until I am finished. This is a good time to use a word like "okay" or "thanks" to let him know that that particular word is the last cue in the sequence. It's a lot safer and more pleasant to do business this way, and your lama will thank you for it.
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