Prince - 1st Lesson

Prince is a male in-tact alpaca and is almost 4 years old. I have had him since he was about 16 months and I have never tried to halter him. My first lesson with Prince was 7/31/08 and is described in this post. Since I catch all my animals with the mid-line catch, I went into the pen with my handler helper and a halter. I caught him as I normally do with no issue, balanced him and put the handler helper on. He was calm and in balance and allowed me to put the halter on with no issue. I used my newly acquired skill of ratcheting, but he was not getting my signals, so I stepped back, removed the halter and decided to do some more balancing work with him and the catch rope. After he accepting that, I did some TTouch and called it a day. I worked with him for about 10 minutes and he seemed calm and unafraid during the entire lesson. He seemed to enjoy the TTouch. I think I need to practice the ratcheting technique a bit more on other animals who already lead before I can go back and work with Prince on this. I will continue the other techniques on him, but will not work with him on leading until I get better at this technique myself.

My Work With Camelidyamics

I just returned from Oregon on Thursday 7/31/08 after attending an advanced seminar with Marty. It was amazing! I have been using her methods for years to work with my alpacas and llamas. I have learned from her books and videos, but it was nothing like being there in person and learning one on one. We learned balance and respect for the animals and I am using this blog to discuss my case studies and handling techniques. Chronicling this information is important for me to see my progress as a handler and I hope that it can help others to gain a mutually beneficial relationship with their animals.