Hi, Marty and forum friends, I recently acquired four male llamas (not yet gelded) ranging in age from 1.2 months to 2 years of age. They had minimum handling at their breeder. In the past three weeks since I've had them, I've made significant progress with them. They now come to a small yard inside their paddock when I call – I have associated feeding them inside this small yard. I can also herd them into 9x9 foot pens inside this yard. I showed them the escape route in the pen and have used the wand & rope to catch them. I can do TTouch on their necks, top of the head between ears, top of nose, and side of their mouths. Some don’t accept the finger between the upper lip yet. All of them accept my TTouch hand under their chin. Here's where I'm getting stuck and need help (I will try to operationalise the llamas behaviour): Haltering Rusty. After TTouching the head, I buckle the halter crown piece and show the large opening to the llamas. Rusty immediately turns his head to the opposite side of the halter. I have attempted to move the halter up, down and to the side to see if it would make a difference. Rusty maintains his ears lowered and looks away, moves his head up or down away from the halter. After this, I don't persist. I do some TTouches and release the catch rope. Haltering Gustavo. When I show Gustavo the crown piece halter opening, he looks at it and then quickly jumps back. I have to slide my hand down the catch rope and bring some distance between us. I then start the process of getting close to him again, do some TTouches and then release the catch rope. I'm trying to look at this and solve it by using the ABC of behaviour, looking at my antecedents and how I can change them. Do Rusty and Gustavo need more time with me doing TTouch? If they accept the TTouch now, I don't think that's the issue. Am I being too close to them? Am I holding the halter or presenting it in a way that causes them discomfort? I don't think so. I check my arm and hold of the catch rope, and it appears to be in neutral position, without pulling. I have left the halters hanging from the pen so they see them. I have also placed the halters on top of their hay, so they touch the halters as they eat. I will try to upload a video below.
