Last week I was with my husband Peter and my son Kevin, to an address where they had shorn an alpaca last year. They had told me about a whopper of a llama, apparently he was bigger than Peter and his head would be the size of a horses head! Since I am not so tall, I was already thinking of the safety precautions. The reason for our visit was alpaca ‘Roberta’ desperately needed her toenails trimmed. The owner had also ordered some CameliDynamics materials, so we thought some explanation from our side would be desirable. After an hour drive, we arrived and straight away there was a pretty big llama greeting us. The llama, Bob, was clearly demonstrating his size and was clearly guarding Roberta. Bob continually tried to be in between Roberta and me. Assuming Bob is stronger than me, I gave him the opportunity to meet. He wasn’t aggressive, but he is one of these fooddriven, personal space invading llamas. Thank goodness he is castrated. So I ignored him while he tried to pick up my scent and find out if I was there to harm them. When Bob and I connected you could clearly see he no longer perceived me as a threat, and accepted my presence. I often meet with other alpaca owners and it strikes me that in the Netherlands it isn't common to have a pen or paddock. I keep telling people they need one. Fortunately we had some portable fences with us. So I got Peter and Kevin to do the heavy lifting and make me a pen. I lured Llama Bob and Alpaca Roberta in the pen with some food and allowed them to settle in. Once I started with the CameliDynamics Catch Rope and Wand, Bob returned to its protective role again. He tried to stand between Roberta and me. However, by Weather-vaning and using my body position, this wasn’t easy for Bob and he accepted my presence, as I gave both of them an escape route. With the wand and catch rope I got in touch with Roberta. I let her know I was there and in touch with her but I'm not threatening her. I fixed the buckle of the catch rope and made sure she was in balance. Now it was time to try some TTouch so she could relax. As she wasn’t handled before, I did not expect her to fully accept being touched. But soon she began to enjoy it and I was even allowed to touch on top of her head and almost reached her nose. What a surprise for her but also for me! All in all; a miracle within 15 minutes. For some reason, Bob wanted to come between us again, but when he approached Roberta, it seemed as if she gave him a signal that all was ok, and he had to leave us alone. So he backed off. That was a nice moment. For a first session 15 minutes was enough, so I talked with the guys about how we were going to clip her nails. She is a big alpaca, we had to deal with a pushy llama and the alpaca didn’t have much experience being handled. So we considered for a little bit to end the session, and the guys would use their shearing technique to quickly clip her nails. Involving some grabbing and pushing, which would mean two minutes of stress, but wouldn’t necessarily cause any negative associations with the wand, the pen or me. If I would try to lift her legs and spook the llama, we could possibly do more damage. Whilst we were discussing our plan of action, I stroked her flank to see how sensitive she was about her legs being touched. I did some ttouch on the neck in the meantime. An untrained alpaca would normally pull her leg away but Roberta was so relaxed she pretty much lifted her leg straight into my hand. So I called the guys into the pen and they did her nails whilst I kept her in balance and continued ttouch. One minute later all nails we had given her a full pedicure without a single protest. Roberta was rewarded with some more TTouch and a little bit of food. I unbuckled the catch rope and let her go. All in all, we found an untrained alpaca and spend 15 minutes. By being patient and using my skills and knowledge, the alpaca accepted us and because of the ttouch pretty much ignored that we were touching her on sensitive areas like the head and legs. Furthermore, it was yet another confirmation that the CameliDynamics methods works! I am very curious what llama Bob and alpaca Roberta discussed afterwards about our visit. The owner was very excited. Mind you, the vet doesn’t visit her animals because he is scared of Bob. We invited her on May 24, to follow at least the introduction course CameliDynamics with Julie on our farm in Holland. From our experience, we believe that anyone who has to deal with camelids in any way should follow at least an introduction in Camelidynamics. It would be even better if they would complete the basic programme!
