Training
at Llovely Banks begins immediately a cria is born ... and
if we're on hand ... those first 5-10 minutes of the newborn's
life are spent desensitizing it.
This
process conditions the cria to accept any future handling
without stress, so training, toenail trimming and veterinary
work become an easy chore. However, whilst applying desentization,
I believe it's important to ensure the cria does not become
over friendly.
Baby
llamas who walk right up when you enter the paddock, give
kisses and chew on your clothes are cute, but sometimes
this behaviour may lead to problems when the animals reach
maturity. Friendly llamas are great, but it's important
to know where to draw the line.
We
have a simple rule ... regardless
of age, a llama must respect your personal space and never
enter that space uninvited.
At
Llovely Banks, our llamas are friendly, coming up to us
in the paddock …but always, they stop a half a metre away,
unless invited to come closer. That half metre is our personal
space and the over-friendly cria is taught to respect it
at an early age. If he walks into that space it's because
doing so feels comfortable … therefore we make doing so
uncomfortable.
We
achieve this by tapping gently on his front leg with a training
wand. Immediately, he'll retreat the required half metre.
Llamas learn fast and consistency in training, soon teaches
him to respect that space.
We
introduce our crias to halters at 3-4 weeks so by weaning
at 4-8 months, they're fully halter-trained. At 12 months
we begin cart; pack and saddle training. But we don't ask
too much cart or pack-work of them, at this young age.
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