Hello everyone - I am a newbie, just started researching alpacas in Nov. and purchased a female 10-month old in January - she lives with her herd at the farm we purchased her from, where she will stay until we have a farm and more alpacas. In preparation for owning alpacas, I purchased and read The Camelid Companion and the DVD Alpaca Training & Handling. My husband and I are signed up for a 2-day clinic in August and we can't wait to attend and learn these methods "in person." Because we only bought her recently, and she lives an hour away, we can only work with her at most once/week, and we try not to overdo it with a very long lesson. The breeder we purchased from is also trained in CamelidDynamics techniques and uses some of them regulary, even when we are not there to work with her. Our challenge is that she is very nervous and skittish and touch-sensitive. We always use a catch pen with her, and always have one or two other young ones in there with her. She will allow me to walk up to her behind the eye, stands quietly and will halter without fighting me, she will also walk with us very nicely on a lead rope. (I know, this is great!) But if we use just a catch rope on her in the catch pen, to practice standing in balance, she reacts quite differently - as soon as she feels the rope around her she bucks and runs arround the catch pen. If we approach behind the eye in a catch pen and try to stand with her "in balance" using our hands on the back of her neck and under her jaw, she also jerks and bucks away from us. Same if we try to do any t-touches on her head, she yanks her head away and bolts. If you try to inspect her fleece or touch her anywhehere on her body, she bucks and bolts. I do not understand how to proceed when we cannot even do the most basic things with her - use a catch rope to stand in balance, or use our hands to help her stand in balance, or do t-touch on her head. I'm sure we are doing it wrong and that's why she reacts, but I have read your book and watched your video multiple times and I do not know what I am doing wrong. Needless to say, she was not amused by the judge and ring steward touching her at last weekend's show, and we are going to another show this weekend (she could not be left behind as she was now in quarantine with the other show animals until after all of the shows are over). What can we do differently? We definitely do not what to "practice" this type of behavior. Thanks much - Victoria
