Hi everybody! We have a group of females who came to us directly from Chile a year ago. They all are 2-5 years old, born at the Altiplano. There is a wide range of personalities. Some of them are so easy to handle and walk happily with halter and lead rope. Others, however, are extremely careful about their noses. I can hold my hand under their chin and I can touch them on top of their heads and necks with no problem but when I want to touch their nose they say definately NO. I have now tried during MONTHS, carefully not forcing anything. Less is more. Some have become much better but with others I am making no progress at all. I have hold the halter in front of them countless of times but when I slowly and carefully try to put it over the nose they just lift the head and refuse. Do not say I should try holding some pellets in front of them as food is the last thing they have in mind when we are training. I realize that they have not been nicely treated before they came to us but they now know us and should understand that we do not want to harm them. In other situations they are getting more and more safe, some of them eat apples from my hand (even such girls who definately refuses nose touche). My question is if it is useless to try to halter these import girls and we should just leave it? Or should I carefully force the halter on so they realize it is not dangerous once it is sitting there? I know it will take lots of time to earn their confidence and I do not want to distroy what we have achieved so far. But haven´t you, Marty, always said all alpacas should be trained - for their own good? Thanks in advance! Ann Marie
