Guidelines for Spending Time with Crias and Young Llamas - Part 2 of 2
– by Gwen Ingram and Jim Krowka

Editor's Note: This is Part 2 of 2 of a lengthy article. Part 2 was in the March ILRe-port. You can check it out on the ILR's website www.lamaregistry.com or call the ILR office (406-755-3438) for a copy of the article.

• 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 the llama-llama interactions, intent is never considered by the receiving party. All transgressions are consistently met with the same reaction. Young llamas that accidentally bump an adult llama immediately learn 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 its tail over its 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 with 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 . . . yeaaaaaaah.” In this instance, submissive posturing is used as part of manipulation (and is not itself the problem), and the actual transgression should be corrected immediately.

• AVOID BENDING OVER YOUR 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 non-aggressive posture. This can be a good tool, but once its 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 with any way, shape, or form, however. Bending over to sniff noses need not look like a submission to the cria. Be careful not to bend over so far that you hold your back parallel to the ground, and teach them to reach UP to you.
• 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 make him abruptly 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 adult 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.

• DO NOT LEAN AWAY FROM ANY LLAMA. A llama that 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 she/he’s young, lean OVER (or perhaps more explicitly, “tower” over) her or him as well, continuing to “tower” until the llama takes at least one step away from you. That indicates the llama has accepted a role that is subordinate to yours, and she/he’ll remember to exercise caution the next time she/he’s around you, the tall, fearless one.
• DO NOT FORCE YOUR WILL ON A FRIGHTENED YOUNG LLAMA. Overwhelmingly we find that the bigger reason llamas end up being labeled dangerous, berserk, or just plain aggressive is that the llama has had a darned good reason to become frightened of humans in the past and has, with maturity, decided the best defense is a good offense. It is not a weakness to respect a llama that is being respectful of you, being respectful invites a respectful, non-instinctual interaction. For example, if a llama is clucking, that doesn’t mean to give up and go away. It means to back off and try again more slowly. This tactic builds trust and, eventually, respect for humans.

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 your 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, she/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).

• 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 valuable 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).
• Touching is something that humans do, and it’s completely harmless. This is actually a multiphase, ongoing lesson that you will 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).

Touching “lessons” or desensitization is best done gradually, with the llama off-lead to keep the human honest. The llama will give you permission to touch her or him in easier areas before she/he’ll be comfortable allowing you to proceed into more sensitive areas. If the llama protests with a possible threat, the appropriate action to instill respect is not to force the touching issue, but rather to get the llama to yield (move its feet away). You can then begin desensitizing the last place the llama felt comfortable with.

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 llamas 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 nor 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”). This is, in essence, the llama giving you permission to proceed. Respecting that every llama needs some time to consider whether to give permission doesn’t make us targets for disrespect, but actually the opposite. If we respect llamas’ deepest emotional needs, they feel safe with us and loathe doing anything that might turn us against them.

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 who 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 females results in similarly positive changes. 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.” And, as if that weren’t incentive enough, well adjusted geldings – particularly top-notch animals – are in demand.

BLOW DRYING NEWBORNS FOR OPTIMUM TOUCH ACCLIMATION
Many have 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 ½ to 1 pound weight gain the first day instead of the commonly accepted ½ 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. Then take the cria to the area where you will blow dry (remember not to block the mother’s view of her baby – keep the cria visible and between you and her so she can feel assured of its safety).

Next, begin to 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 or a bit longer.

We initially allow crias to get up and wander around whenever they choose, bringing them back to the blow drying spot when they get tired and cush (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 convey 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 extremely helpful for mutual safety) – and that omission of this lesson now makes it that much harder and exponentially more traumatic when it must be learned later in the same fashion.

After blow drying, further structured touching of the neonate doesn’t seem to have any advantage in our experience. We instead leave the cria with its mother (usually the cria is close to nursing if it hasn’t actually done so already) 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 the 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 new-found instinctive distrust. Blown-dry crias respond much more quickly and completely at this stage.

Continued leg handling is important, even for blown-dry crias. If an older male cria or male weanling has age-mates 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 something dramatically counter to everything she/he’s experience thus far.

Don’t despair, if a young llama wasn’t blown dry as cria, it is certainly possible to achieve touching acceptance and instill respect for restraint 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.

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It should go without saying, but somehow it escapes people anyway – those who don’t understand normal adult llama behavior and how to spot and head off dangerous llama behavior are ill-suited to be mentors to impressionable young llamas. The first and best piece of advice we can give to you is: BEFORE you attempt to 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. These “teacher” llama will not only teach you, but also will later prove an invaluable asset for socializing any immature llamas you might later acquire.

Another good learning approach is to arrange to apprentice at a llama farm with any llama owner / trainer (whether they breed or not) who is getting good results as evidenced by respectful and happy, well-adjusted llamas. Any young llamas in your future will benefit from the expertise you will have gained.

Crias and young llamas can be very enjoyable, but that joy must be tempered with responsible handling on our part if the fun and joy of a relationship with the adults they will become is to be lifelong, safe, and comfortable. As long as we keep our responsibilities and the llamas’ well being foremost in mind, the potential for enjoyment throughout each llama’s lifetime is boundless – beginning at the miraculous moment of birth.

About the Authors
Gwen Ingram and Jim Krowka have had llamas in their family since 1985. They have successfully rehabilitated many difficult and dangerous llamas as well as offered international email consultation for anyone needing to resolve llama-human problems. Gwen and Jim have always handled their crias continually beginning at birth, resulting in 100% well-adjusted adults, including many singly-raised males. They have recently begun offering “Get Connected” workshops that incorporate their vast experience and effective techniques, which are proving wildly successful in naturally forging strong, trusting, and respectful relationships between llamas and their humans.

You can contact Gwen and Jim at lostcreekllamas@att.net

Reprinted from The Llama Lletter Vol. 20, No. 3 – the newsletter of the Willamette Valley Llama Association.