Last Fall, I planned to move my farm to town about an hours drive away and so spent a few weeks preparing my four llamas for the move by bringing the livestock trailer onto the pasture and tried - without success - several different ways to load them so that on moving day all would go well. First, I haltered two of them and brought them to the trailer and they would not get on (the other two I could not halter). Next, I put some treats (branches of maple leaves) onto the edge of the trailer and only two of them would come up to the trailer to eat them (usually all four love maple leaves). When I moved the leaves further back into the trailer, the two llamas would come up to the trailer, reach in, and eat the leaves. Once the leaves were out of reach, they would not climb into the trailer. Now that moving day was approaching, I created a chute from the barn to the trailer just wide enough so that I could walk behind the llamas with a four-foot-gate to nudge them to the trailer. On moving day, this didn't work, for once the four llamas reached the trailer, they would not get in. At Marty's suggestion, I nudged each llama down the chute, one by one, and once at the trailer, hit their feet with the bottom of the four-foot-gate. Done with some persistence, each llama chose to jump onto the trailer rather than be subjected to this discomfort. Once at the new farm, they stayed away from me for days (even reluctant to enter a pen with me holding onto their food dish) seemingly wondering what I would do next. Slowly but surely, trust was restored enough so that I was able to resume clicker training during the winter. I thought to pass this experience on to the forum for others who might also face difficulty loading their llamas onto a livestock trailer. Perhaps Marty and others might have some additional thoughts on the matter. Ben Levy
