Guidelines for spending time
with young llamas
It should go without saying, but somehow
it escapes people anyway -- those who don't understand adult
llamas and the basics of both good and dangerous llama behavior
are ill-suited to be mentors to a young llama. The first and
best piece of advice we can give you is: BEFORE you attempt follow
these guidelines with young llamas, take at least a couple of years to learn about llamas with the
guidance of two trained adults and the support of their responsible
sellers. Any young llamas in your future will be glad for the
expertise you will have gained, and they will also benefit greatly
from the stable guidance and example of your resident, well-trained
first llamas.
Why mentor a young llama?
Humans and llamas coexist in a domesticated
social environment. Just as we define the llamas' role in our
lives, so too our presence shapes our role in their lives. Our
role depends on how we shape it -- each and every time we interact
with any llama, particularly young, impressionable ones. If we
don't define ourselves clearly, then our llamas will do it for
us. The most acceptable goal for both human and llama is for
humans to be unquestionably respected without being frightening.
Having a domestic companion animal that is
afraid of humans is, well, a contradiction. Having a nervous
beef steer is inconvenient when it comes time for, say, medical
treatment. Having a chronically difficult-to-catch llama isn't
what humans really want, even if many humans do accept it. Llamas
do not have to be afraid of humans for us to be safe, but their
early interactions with humans do need to be structured carefully
to be sure that two important goals (comfort around us and respect
for us) can be achieved. This becomes possible when humans have
learned how to shape their role by providing to the cria through
what might be best called mentoring: teaching correct social
behavior around and toward humans.
I've heard handling young llamas makes
them crazy -- is that true?
Based on an incredible amount of misinformation
and lack of understanding
aggressive behavior in llamas (not to mention about llamas
in general), some recommend a "play it safe" policy
by avoiding handling crias or by minimizing contact when handling
is absolutely necessary (such as in bottle feeding a sick cria
or one who has lost it's mother). This does prevent llamas from
becoming comfortable with us during the critical months when
they divide their world into llamas, dangerous not-llamas and
not-dangerous not-llamas. It does not, however, prevent all kinds
of problems. Later handling (and the llama's individual inherited
tendencies) can still result in aggression directed at humans.
There's no doubt that cria handling (or not
handling) has historically received the most comment and controversy.
Although correct socialization for unweaned crias is certainly
very important, an even more crucial age is from 9 to 16 months
of age. We have found that even with crias who have not been
handled much prior to this point, incorrect socialization during
this time -- especially coupled with the wrong dispositional
tendencies -- results in the llama making the rules and progressing
swiftly to levels of misdirected territorial aggression similar
to those generally associated with improperly handled crias.
During this phase (9-16 months), they begin to start testing
just what they can do with the world and what the world can do
for them. They start looking for ways to put their boredom to
use. And . . . the 'ol hormones start kicking in, for some llamas,
sooner and/or more than for others.
How do I get young llamas to understand
what I want?
In order to learn how to be a successful mentor
to crias in terms that they can easily understand, the most important
initial step is to pay attention to acceptable and unacceptable
behavior in llama society, and the consequences thereof. Sit
down for a day and watch a group of adults and crias interact.
You will likely witness quite a bit of corrective responses for
improper entry into another's space directed at crias (particularly
older crias) by the adult llamas. You can learn which behaviors
are acknowledged and which ones are not, and how that is done.
A cria (particularly a younger cria) entering
an adult's space may not be acknowledged unless that entry is
accompanied by other actions (pushing, rubbing, mouthing or attempting
to nurse, for example). Adult llamas certainly don't bend over
a cria who is being submissive and looking for a free lunch,
look him/her in the eyes and say "My what a CUTE little
cria you are!" When the cria is new, some adults may blow
in it's nose, but just as many adults don't, and most inspect
the newcomer on their own terms and for as long as they want,
and baby has to just tolerate it.
Notice that adults (other than mother) certainly
don't hum back. When a cria walks over into another female's
space (i.e., not it's mother) and says, "I'm a baby, you
got any milk for me? I can smell it! Give me some milk, now!"
(a warbling hum), the response is more than likely to be translatable
as "I'm NOT your mother, and if you stick your nose any
closer, I'll turn it so green you won't be able to eat for hours!"
Certainly the adult female doesn't flip her tail over, put her
neck down, and squeal ecstatically (a mixed message no matter
how you look at it). What must a cria think when a human does
something that seems like submission combined with squealing?
Certainly the conclusion is not that humans are respectable adults!
The following rules, guidelines, and lessons
will help you make clear to a young llama just where humans fit
into their lives. As a mentor, you will be the primary source
of information about humans and the primary force that shapes
young llamas' view of us, and thus, you are the primary guardian
of their futures.
Rules for llamas
First, some guidelines that tell crias and
weanlings, in clear llama language, that humans are dominant
to llamas and thus are to be respected:
1. NO UNINVITED PHYSICAL CONTACT and NO
PHYSICAL CONTACT THAT MIMICS FIGHTING MANEUVERS. That includes bumping, touching, rubbing up against
you, pushing into you, and wrapping necks around human anatomy.
There are many different ways to reinforce this social rule.
Watch the adult llamas and they will teach you.
This also includes running up to you without
stopping at the edge of your space. A llama should consider about
six feet around your body to be strictly "by invitation
only," just as he or she does for other respected adult
llamas.
2. NO MOUTHING
(past one or two weeks old). During the first two weeks, all
a cria is doing is following an instinct to discover what places
milk might come from. They know that certain types of places
are worth targeting, but they don't yet know that there's only
ONE milk bar. We've found that not getting any milk is a much
stronger deterrent than being pushed away or slapped -- so we
don't discipline them unless they bite down hard, and we don't
foolishly offer our noses for sacrifice during this exploratory
period.
After the second week, however, we react to
all mouthing just as another adult llama would -- with NO tolerance.
3. ALL LLAMAS ARE TO MOVE OUT OF THE WAY when humans need to pass through their space. A companion
rule for us is that we don't walk around llamas, and we even
deliberately walk through where young llamas are standing. They
don't get the idea that they can do it to us, but rather the
opposite: Their place is to move away; ours is to go where we
please.
Within a herd of grazing animals, dominance
is reinforced daily without obvious fighting in just this way.
A fight breaks out only if a formerly subordinate animal decides
he or she is no longer interested in moving to accommodate a
dominant animal. Your interaction within a llama herd is constantly
shaping the llamas' concept of your position in relationship
to them whether you are aware of it or not.
Young llamas (often yearling and two-year-old
males) in a "testing phase" will often block a human's
path (or that of another llama). This can happen just as often
with llamas who were previously nervous enough of humans that
they stayed away and never learning the lesson of who-gets-to-chose-where-they-go.
This is a good example of how a llama can develop behavioral
problems without having been handled as a youngster, and the
humans' response to this will quickly shape the llama's future
beliefs about whether humans can and/or should be kept out of
his territory.
If the human (or llama) who was blocked goes
around, the next step for the tester will be to move at the now-subordinate-being
when that being is not moving (similar to what we do with the
youngsters to establish our role, above). Whether that is successful
or not, the final step for the male tester to establish his territory
is to charge the really dense being when it is stupid enough
to wander into the testing llama's real estate -- the "testing
llama" has just become a territorial adult.
4. NO FIDDLING WITH HUMANS' BODIES. That definitely includes playing with shoes and boots
-- an action that is a prelude to fighting behavior.
There are acceptable and unacceptable ways
to get a human's attention. This kind of behavior occurs more
frequently when young llamas expect you to feed them and thus
are hanging around with you, but can happen at other times, or
can stem just as much from boredom as from the expectation that
you are smart and can provide access to food they can't get on
their own.
Bored young llamas (overwhelmingly males)
often pass time fiddling with another animate being. Normally
this is a male age-mate, and the ear or neck mouthing, head-ducking,
neck-pushing, and such leads to what is commonly recognized as
an adolescent wresting match. The problem comes when the llama
is bored (or wants your attention, or for something like feeding
time to HURRY UP AND GET HERE) and YOU, the human, become the
focus of his fiddling.
Our experience is that people who do NOT have
any particularly friendly or touchable llamas find it really
exciting when a bold young male comes up and "spends time
with them just out in the field." However, unstructured
time is precisely what should NOT be spent with those llamas.
When a yearling starts "fiddling," he is soundly corrected
and we leave (on our own terms) to remove temptation. If we MUST
stay in that pasture for some reason, we stay alert for a possible
second transgression, which usually merits a bit of stall time
(a "time out" for the llama).
For bored adolescent llamas, structured interaction
is more productive. Deliberately approaching a llama that likes
to fiddle and scratching him (without mimicking any llama fiddling
or fighting behavior) works well for casual interactions. Advancing
lessons such as walks are also good. This may not, however, be
a good opportunity for "foot" lessons, unless the llama
is short-tied. Picking up an adolescent male llama's feet can
seem very much like you are toying with him and want to wrestle.
Having him short-tied keeps you safe and short-circuits his instincts.
Another technique to address and short-circuit
"fiddling" is to do some fiddling of your own. Don't
use any actions that mimic fighting (such as foot handling) or
do anything that results in the llama adopting any postures that
are part of fighting (such as head down and neck across you).
When your bored young llama comes up, invade the llama's space
by stepping towards him, and do something that IS attention but
won't lead to problem behaviors and postures (see above for examples).
Rubbing cheeks or muzzles with both hands or rubbing/scratching
the llama vigorously under the chin can all work well. The end
result should be that the llama tires of being fiddled with (without
progression to wrestling) and walks away -- not afraid of you,
but understanding that you are not the answer to his boredom.
5. NO THREATENING HUMANS. Crias don't usually threaten humans, and when they
do, we have found a clear familial pattern (including father-to-cria
links, eliminating environmental influence as the cause in those
cases). This points to a primarily genetic cause (and a fine
reason for timely
neutering).
We usually see threats emerging from yearlings
and two-year-olds (although a few precocious weanlings get started
early). It is important, though, to understand that some llamas
cluck and posture out of fear. Clucking is a good clue that this
llama is feeling defensive, not aggressive. Incorrect diagnosis
(that the llama is being aggressive) can escalate that fear and
may lead to an attack.
Usually threatening starts around feeding
time -- particularly if "feeding time" means "special
food." Llamas who threaten in order to get something do
it precisely because they got what they wanted that way in the
past. Llamas don't get anywhere making forceful displays at a
bale wagon, because it just sits there instead of moving in a
way that suggests it might fork over the grub, and so they don't
threaten the bale wagon -- or the barn door -- if that's what's
standing between them and getting the chow. But they do threaten
other llamas to get them to leave a disputed portion of food,
and they quickly transfer this successful behavior to those SLOW
humans who just can't feed super-impatient adolescents fast enough
to suit them.
Realize that a young llama may adopt a subtle
spit-threat posture as he or she waits for the food. There may
be a passing thought of spitting out of impatience. If your back
is turned, this can occur without you being aware of what is
going on, and when you hand out the chow as you normally would,
the llama gradually begins to think that his or her mini-threat
had something to do with that. It is the subtle ways humans often
reinforce the llamas' behavior and the llamas' resulting view
that humans can be controlled to their personal benefit that
causes aggression to finally erupt.
If you are feeding in such a way that you
CAN correct bad behavior and reinforce good behavior, and if
you are structuring feeding in a way that makes competition between
llamas impossible, threats rarely occur. When they do, you will
know that the llama in question is out of line and the threat
can be dealt with very clearly. As an example, two different
yearling males have spat (out of impatience) at Gwen so far.
They were both promptly removed from their feeding area by the
wool and went without their pellets that night. Neither llama
has so much as given any sign that they would consider trying
THAT (or any other misconduct) again -- it didn't work at all,
and the clear negative consequences were understood by the llamas
very well.
Rules for humans
The next group of guidelines also give clear
messages in llama language, but the rules are for us, not for
the llamas:
1. LOOK FOR BROKEN RULES AND METE OUT CORRECTION
PROMPTLY AND CONSISTENTLY. You are
the only one who can teach llamas the rules-about-humans in the
foregoing section and make sure they are understood and followed.
Correction must occur regardless of supposed
intent (or lack thereof), or the body language that accompanies
them. Accidents do happen, but in llama-llama interactions, intent
is never considered by the receiving party. All transgressions
are consistently met with the same reaction. Young llamas who
accidentally bump you and are not corrected might expect to be
able to bump you in the future. A young llama who accidentally
bumps an adult llama immediately learns to be more careful at
all times around adults. Your goal is to demand that same level
of respect.
Some people have been told that a baby that
lays it's tail over it's back will grow up to be aggressive.
Not so. Submission is acknowledgment that we are in charge, and
approaching with submissive posturing is OK -- as long as none
of the other rules are broken. Breaking rules is the important
issue.
Be aware that sometimes a cria (or more often,
a weanling) uses the submissive posture as a deception in order
to gain access to something they want. The difference is that
those llamas also break a rule, usually entering our space and/or
pushing. When a llama enters your or another llama's space with
a submissive posture accompanied by a warbling hum, the attempted
communication translates as "See, I'm a baby llama and the
rules say you can't hurt me, so now you have to give me what
I want...yeaaaaaaaah." In this instance, submissive posturing
is used as part of manipulation (and is not itself the problem),
and we correct the actual transgression immediately.
2. AVOID BENDING OVER TO CRIAS after they are comfortable with you. Bending over
makes a scared or concerned llama more at ease because it is
easily read by the llama as a submissive (rather than aggressive)
posture. This can be a good tool, but once it's purpose has been
accomplished, we generally avoid this because we need to convey
that humans, like adult llamas, stand up and are to be respected.
That doesn't mean you can't bend over in any
way, shape, or form, however. Bending over to sniff noses need
not look like submission to the cria. Be careful not to bend
over so far that you hold your back parallel to the ground, and
make them reach UP to you.
3. A companion
rule is that IF YOU MUST BEND OVER TO DO A NORMAL TASK
(like shoveling manure, or picking up something off the ground),
ALWAYS WATCH OUT.
First, bending over or squatting (facing away)
can trigger a male cria's emerging sexual instincts and suddenly
make him decide we are interested in becoming pregnant. This
is a normal mistake for a young male who feels new hormonal urges
and isn't sure yet where to direct them (this behavior can be
directed at dogs and other animals as well). Swift, sound correction
will mean this normal mistake occurs only once.
Second, bending over to shovel manure can
trigger one (or both) of two instincts in adolescent males: the
human appears submissive, and the human is (GASP) interfering
with ... TERRITORIAL MARKING! We've never had a llama we raised
take exception to us removing manure, but a number of rehabs
have hysterics over the notion and attack; many normal males
have a tizzy fit and run up to mark the spot as soon as we've
departed with the wheelbarrow. We ALWAYS watch out when scooping
poop -- better safe than sorry.
4. DO NOT LEAN AWAY FROM ANY LLAMA. A llama who comes close enough to you that you feel
like leaning away has just invaded your space. If you step back
or lean away, you are sending a clear message of submission (or
fear). That encourages more spatial encroachment. Instead, lean
at the llama, and if s/he's young, lean OVER (or perhaps more
explicitly, "tower" over) him/her as well. That puts
the llama on the defensive, and the lesson will be to exercise
caution the next time s/he's around you, the tall, fearless one.
Important lessons for humans to
teach to young llamas
There are two lessons that tell crias and
weanlings what they can expect from humans, and that these things
won't harm them and can be tolerated. An important difference
between these lessons and the foregoing guidelines is that the
lessons cannot be put into easy-to-understand llama language
-- the young llama must put aside fear to discover that our predator-like
actions are not, in fact, at all predatory. An important benefit
of teaching these lessons is that as the young llama accepts
these, s/he is not only becoming less scared of us, but more
respectful of our position in llama-human interactions. And the
younger these lessons are learned, the safer for all concerned.
When possible, we begin these lessons at birth (see "blow
drying," below).
Lesson One: Struggling and aggressive attempts
to escape when restrained don't work.
Crias who learn they CAN get away have some information that
is very valuable, but not for us! The lesson we want to teach
is actually "DO stand still" (not "DON'T struggle")
-- and the desired result (going free) happens whenever the cria
stands still. This isn't a very clear lesson, so we expect it
to take a number of repetitions, and we don't expect very lengthy
"stands" from young crias (their attention spans are
very short) or previously unhandled llamas (their fear is too
great).
Lesson Two: Touching is something that
humans JUST DO, and it's OK. This
is actually a multiphase, ongoing lesson that you will teach
or reinforce every time you handle a young llama. Making touching
a part of every interaction is an important way to both retain
desensitization and to have them come to expect, even like, this
type of behavior from us. Young llamas learn that allowing touching
reinforces us in a way that they like (our behavior becomes predictable,
not scary), and that allowing it usually brings other good things,
such as attention or progressing through the steps that lead
to food (i.e., going in the pen, being haltered, being tied,
being given pellets in a feeder).
Many young crias will, with proper socialization,
become comfortable with approaching you. Correct reinforcement
for this is to send a message that both humans and llama will
get something out of the interaction: "If you want to approach
the human, you get to say 'hi,' but you are going to get a touching
lesson. It is not going to be bad or too long, but it is a tradeoff
that must be tolerated."
For older crias who are OK with the touching,
the lesson becomes, "Humans get to approach me and I will
stand still 'cuz that's how it works." Once they realize
that you are after them, most crias will present their side and
put their ears in the "conflict" position -- neither
forward not back, and indicating that their intellect is in conflict
with their instincts. This is good -- it says they respect your
position (instinct says "be careful") as well as your
wishes (brain says "I am expected to stay right here").
The touching lessons reveal when a young llama
is reacting to instinctive triggers (such as defending legs)
and needs careful work to form a learned response: human touching
is different from other-llama touching. This further reinforces
our position as somebody not to be challenged, but to cooperate
with.
A final key ingredient
Not all male llamas are stud quality. Moreover,
there are far too many male llamas that can be considered "stud
quality" to justify keeping them all intact, even if they
are equally excellent. In all likelihood, their sisters (and
some brothers) are already contributing to the gene pool. There
is no advantage given to the species when individual llamas are
bred just because it can be done.
Although it is certainly not true that
castration is necessary to make safe any llama who was handled
at a young age, it is also not true that a male llama
is happier or more valuable if he is intact -- rather the opposite.
Timely
castration is a key ingredient to having a llama friend you
can enjoy with the least amount of stress, and a llama who is
fun to be around is far more valuable than one that requires
constant attention and discipline (and hormonally-driven instincts
have a way of keeping even the best-trained male llama consistently
testing his environment and his handler). Spaying
results in similarly positive characteristics. For llamas with
inherited tendencies that make them anything less than super-easy
to handle when intact, you not only do yourself and the individual
llama a favor by neutering them, but when you remove them from
the gene pool, you take a worthy step toward preserving "the
very best of the breed."
Blow-drying newborns
for optimum touch acclimation
We've found that the best possible foundation
for ensuring that llamas are comfortable being touched by humans
is to blow-dry the newborn cria with an electric hair dryer.
Drying the cria saves its energy (resulting in an average 1/2
to 1 pound weight gain the first day instead of the normal 1/2
to 1 pound weight loss). It allows you an opportunity to observe
the cria for difficulties and defects. And it presents your touch
as a very positive experience.
First, remove all of the membrane from the
cria. Take the cria to the area where you will blow-dry (remember
to not block the mother's view of her baby -- keep the cria between
you and her so that she can be assured of its safety). Next,
blow every part of the cria dry, including the legs and feet.
Use your hands to move and fluff the soaked fiber, and to evaluate
dryness. Be very careful around the cria's eyes, and be sure
you don't burn delicate, relatively unprotected areas such as
the ears and scent glands. If your bare hands are not comfortable,
you can bet that the cria is also uncomfortable. Thorough blow-drying
(including interruptions) usually takes about an hour.
We initially allow crias to get up and wander
around as they chose, bringing them back to the blow-drying area
when they get tired and kush (or plop!). However, when the cria
is nearly dry, we make sure that we hold the cria down firmly
at least once, preventing it from getting up, until the cria
itself chooses to cease struggling. We've found this to be an
important lesson for the cria -- that we are FAR stronger and
not worth fighting with (eventually to become an illusion, to
be sure, but one that is necessary for mutual safety) -- and
that omission of this lesson now makes it that much harder and
exponentially more traumatic when it must be taught later in
some fashion.
After blow drying, no further touching lessons
seem to be necessary, and in fact don't seem to have any advantage
at all. We instead leave the cria with its mother (usually the
cria is close to nursing, but hasn't actually done so) and check
up on the pair occasionally for awhile, greeting the cria briefly
if it shows interest in us.
It is important to remember that crias who
have been blown dry won't retain their initial lesson very well
unless you continue to reinforce it through their various maturation
stages. At about three days, crias' flight response kicks in,
and you will have to work for a week or so to break through their
instinctive distrust. Blow-dried crias respond much more quickly
and completely at this stage.
Continued leg handling is important, even
for blow-dried crias. If an older male cria or male weanling
has agemates that wrestle with him and try to bite his legs,
you will find that touch acceptance backslides dramatically.
Again, a week or so of careful work on your part will quickly
restore the young llama's trust in your actions. A young llama
who was not blow-dried as a cria or whose leg-handling lessons
were ignored will take much more time because he must not only
put aside instinct, but learn a lesson that is dramatically counter
to everything he's experienced thus far.
Don't despair if a young llama wasn't blown
dry as a cria. It is certainly possible to achieve touching acceptance
and instill respect for human strength with a reasonably good
outcome. However, a good foundation is always preferable, and
it's one more thing that separates the dedicated llama breeders
(who produce a few, well-adjusted llamas) from the cria mills
(who produce large numbers of wild-eyed, frightened weanlings).
Food for thought . . .
Instead of taking on the expense and risks
of breeding -- remember that you can experience and enjoy working
with young llamas by fostering and training youngsters through
Llama RescueNet. With
that experience under your belt, you can later birth and raising
crias from rescued llamas who were pregnant at the time of intake.
Llama RescueNet's foster care and remedial
training options allow you to try before you buy: You will have
first right to adopt the animals you work with, but any that
don't "click" with you will then have the advantage
of being able to find a suitable home thanks to your training
work and an established network of devoted volunteers. Those
who have tried the breeding gamble agree that picking out a llama
who is already in existence works a lot better than breeding,
waiting and hoping for a year for your own baby, only to find
that it doesn't really have the personality, looks, or functional
features that you'd planned on.
And best of all, you'll experience the
unparalleled satisfaction of having turned a young llama's life
from a cruel dead-end of misery and fear into a world of hope
and promise.
Make a difference in a llama's life!
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