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Improving
Your Relationship with Your Llamas or Alpacas
with
John Mallon
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“The
well-being of the llamas and alpacas is always my primary
consideration…”
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Welcome
to the column, and thanks for taking the interest in improving
your relationship with your llamas or alpacas. I will do my
best to address questions and problems I most often encounter
in my travels conducting training clinics around the world,
and attempt to leave you with a better understanding of the
animals we have so fortunately chosen to spend our lives with.
INCIDENTALLY, the exact same principles apply to horses. So,
those of you who have horses, please read on… I
suppose I should get a few “ground rules” out of
the way before we begin:
- First,
for the sake of simplicity, I will use “llamas and
alpacas ” rather than “lamas” throughout
these articles, but the same theories and techniques apply
equally to alpacas, guanacos, and horses;
- Second,
realizing that many new llama and alpaca lovers join us
each month, I will start at the beginning as though we were
all new to llamas and alpacas, and refer back to the basics
on a regular basis in order to keep us all up to speed;
and
- Third,
I will venture outside the training arena from time to time
to address topics which I feel are relevant to the industry
as a whole.
The
well-being of the llamas and alpacas is always my primary
consideration, and my contributions to this column will be
based upon that fact. My chosen path in life enables me to
encounter thousands of llamas and alpacas, each with problems
relating to their humans, and my purpose is to share the benefits
of my experience with you. There
are many ways of doing things, and I’ve probably tried
at least most of them in my 35+ years of training various
species of animals. The ideas and techniques I’ll share
with you are only those which have worked in all cases, but
if you are doing something different from what I suggest,
and it is working for you, there is no reason to change
it (“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…”)
With that out of the way, let’s talk llamas and alpacas. What
are llamas and alpacas, exactly? Why do they do the things
they do? What makes them tick? What motivates them to alter
their behavior? Why won’t they do what I want them to
do? Why do they seem to be afraid of me? Why are they so stubborn
sometimes? Don’t they know I’m not going to hurt
them? The key to working successfully with llamas and alpacas
is understanding, because what is often misconstrued as misbehavior
is simply misunderstanding on the llamas’ and alpacas’
part, brought on by inconsistent behavior and lack of understanding
on our part. Once we begin to understand the animal, the animal
can begin to understand us, and learn to cooperate with us,
so that we may work safely and peacefully together.
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“When
we wrote that check to purchase our llamas and alpacas,
we signed a contract of care…”
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When
we wrote that check to purchase our llamas and alpacas, we
signed a contract of care; we agreed to look after them, not
just look at them. In order to properly care for these animals,
we must be able to trim toenails, give shots, administer worming
medication, groom, move from place to place for weighing,
etc., and do it all as safely and stress-free as possible.
This is where training comes into play — if a llama or
alpaca is in serious trouble and our interference escalates
his stress, raising blood pressure, heart- and respiration
rates, then there is an increased chance that an animal that
might otherwise have survived, will die. Stress kills. Unfortunately,
some people have the idea that training is “icing on
the cake,” not really necessary if we don’t plan
to show, pack, or drive the animal. Training is of the utmost
importance if we are to have civilized relationships with
the llama, relationships which are compatible rather than
adversarial. With that in mind, let’s take a look at
what the llama or alpaca is, from the inside out…
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“Being
a prey animal controls every aspect of a llama’s
life…”
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The
llama or alpaca is a prey animal, the exact opposite of the
dogs and cats (confident predators/hunters with which we are
always comparing our llamas and alpacas) that we are used
to. Expecting, or hoping that our llamas and alpacas will
respond to us in the same general manner in which dogs do
can only lead to frustration and failure — it just isn’t
going to happen. Being
a prey animal controls every aspect of the llama’s life,
a life that is filled with mistrust, suspicion, and self-protective
behavior. Fear is the llama’sand alpaca’s friend,
his savior, for, without it, he would become prey to the predator.
His ability to flee instantly from any perceived threat is
what has kept him going for all these thousands of years,
and his instinct to do so has served him well, and although
his need to be ever-vigilant and protective has been diminished
somewhat through domestication and a looked-after lifestyle,
the instinct has not changed one bit.
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“Only
through an understanding of the psychology of the prey
animal can we hope to develop a trusting relationship…”
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Only
through an understanding of the psychology of the prey animal
can we hope to develop a trusting relationship with an animal
whose job it is to be very highly suspicious of anything new
or different in his life. The importance of this understanding
cannot be overstated; these animals are very different, with
a whole different way of looking at, and experiencing, the
world.
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“The
llama’s and alpaca’s
eyes
are
set wide in the head to provide a very wide range of
vision…”
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Let’s
take a look at how the prey animal is physically different
from the predator, specifically, his eye-set and vision. One
of the features that seems to attract people to llamas and
alpacas are their big, beautiful eyes, and there is no arguing
the fact that they do have eyes that are big and beautiful,
but they are not that way so that we’ll love them; they
are set wide in the head (as with all prey animals) to provide
a very wide range of vision, their first line of defense.
Their monocular vision operates like two separate cameras,
and their color and depth perception has been sacrificed in
favor of highly specialized and sensitive motion detectors.
The
predators, on the other hand, have eyes set in the middle
of our heads for greater depth perception, enhancing our ability
to make the killing strike at the right moment, (hand/claw-eye
coordination.) Our ability to see around us is diminished,
but we see in front of us just fine. If you ever wonder about
whether an animal is prey or predator, remember this —
“eyes to the front, they hunt, eyes to the side, they
hide.”
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“This
monocular vision also explains why prey animals must
be taught everything twice…”
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This
monocular vision also explains why prey animals must be taught
everything twice — once on the left, then again on the
right, as if he were two different animals. Imagine sitting
in a car that had only side-view mirrors, no rearview. As
someone walks behind the car, you spot them in your side view
mirror, and then they disappear from view, only to appear
a moment later in the other mirror. This is what the llama
or alpaca experiences when we walk behind him, or reach over
to position a pack or harness on him, or reach around his
neck to adjust his halter. Different, isn’t it? This
is the llama’s and alpaca’s perception of the world,
and like it or not, there is no changing it. Next
time, we’ll look at some of the other differences between
llamas and alpacas and the animals with which we are more
familiar. I welcome questions, comments and suggestions. Email
me at learning@mallonmethod.com.
’Til
next time, Happy
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