Alpaca World Magazine Summer 2005 - Classical MileEnd Alpacas

will compensate for a lack of help. Most alpacaswould rather not get in a confi ned space witha human and will load much better if they canget into the trailer by themselves. Look at yourwatch and be willing to wait 10–15 minutes. Youwould have used that much time haltering a wildinexperienced alpaca and dragging and fi ghtinghim into the trailer anyway. Time is a funny thing itseems to go by faster when you are busy fi ghtingthan when you are waiting quietly for your alpacato fi gure out that the thing you want him to climbinto is a safe bet. It will help immensely to loadtwo or three animals together. An inexperiencedalpaca will gladly jump in a vehicle with anotheralpaca that knows how to do it. Then you canoff load the ones you don’t need. Alpacas arevery agile and can fi gure out how to climb intosmall spaces if they can think and act on theirown. Attach a lead rope and you complicate theprocess fi ve hundred percent.Trying to pull the alpaca in from the head isalmost certainly going to take longer and mayresult in injury. The tendency of an animal whenpulled from the front is to either lie down … (youhave now just taught your alpaca to lie downinstead of load) or to throw all the weight to therear quarters and balance on the lead rope. Whenyour alpaca is physically organised in this way itis not possible for him to jump forward. His onlyphysical option is to rear up and back, against thelead. If you are quick, you may be able to pull himforward into the vehicle when he is balanced onhis two rear legs. This is not particularly safe foryou or your alpaca and is a very scary way for youralpaca to fi nd himself in a strange container. Trythis physical test yourself. Hold on to the end of alead rope and lean back against pressure providedby a second person. Instruct your helper to keepsteady pressure on your hands and then try tojump forward while you have your weight againstthe rope. You will fi nd this to be next to impossible.This is exactly the position we put our alpacas inwhen we try to pull them into a trailer.If you fi nd yourself loading a reluctant alpaca byleading him in from the front, try this; fi rst work yourway close to the trailer or van. Get inside, gettingas far into the vehicle and as far away from theanimal as you can. Use your lead rope only to keepthe animal’s nose and attention oriented towardthe vehicle. Aside from insisting that your alpacalooks directly at the vehicle in question, offer NOpressure on the head. No pressure means that thehook attached to the halter is dangling freely. Oftenhandlers don’t think they are pulling on the headwhen in fact they are. Look at the hook attached tothe halter. If the hook is not pointing at the groundyou have not taken all pressure off of the lead rope.If the alpaca tries to back up set your hand andresist. Tell him with your hand, ‘I am not going topull you into the trailer but … no backing up!’ Whenthe alpaca tries to back up use intermittent signalson the lead rope and do your best to transfer theanimals weight from the rear end back to the frontend. As soon as possible, put slack in the lineagain and check that hook to make sure you arenot putting any pressure on the lead! Look at yourwatch and wait a full two minutes before giving anysignals to the head. BE QUIET. Your alpaca needstime and quiet to think about the trailer. Everytime you let loose with Come on Teddy Come on,Come on you can do it. Come on Come on Comeon Come on Come on Come on. Load up Come onCome on Come on. You can do it. Come on Comeon Come on Come on its okay... you distract youralpaca from the issue at hand. Be totally quiet.Each time you give a signal on the lead you distractyour alpaca from inspecting the trailer and makingthe decision to try getting in. Just be still and quietand look at your watch.Each time the alpaca takes a step forward yourtimer is reset and you must wait a full two minutesbefore giving signals on the lead. Alpacas hate avacuum and they are very uncomfortable standingstill and doing nothing. Your alpaca wants to move.As long as you don’t let your animal either leanbackwards on the lead or back away from thevehicle he will move, and the only way is forwardinto the vehicle. I have used this method whenloading animals when it is time to go home and itworks very reliably and quickly. I have very seldomwaited more than 5-10 minutes for an alpaca tofi gure out how to load himself not very long whenyou think about it. Using this technique ratherthan picking your animal up will make subsequentloading a breeze. Your 15 minute investment willgive your alpaca a chance to actually fi gure outhow to load.When you have the luxury of time to teach youralpaca to load before the day he will actually betravelling, think of your trailer or van as just a newand different kind of obstacle. Plan how you wouldwork your way up to it. Trailers or vans are simplysomething scary to walk under, and something scaryto step up on. Work up to loading by walking youralpaca over and under other natural obstacles in theoutdoors. Accepting something low overhead seemsto be one of the most diffi cult aspects of loadingin a van. Walking under low hanging branches isa very good way to get your alpaca accustomedto having something over his head. Jumping overlogs or deadfall outside is easier for most alpacasthan human made obstacles and serves as goodpractice for jumping into the back of a van or a stepup trailer. A big log under some branches does avery good job of teaching your alpaca how to get thehang of the jump and duck manoeuvre.When it comes to homemade obstacles themost useful ones are those that can be takenapart and made easier. Low jumps leading tohigher jumps, platforms that can begin on theground before being raised off of the ground allowyou address challenges incrementally rather thanall at once. Pulling your alpaca over an obstaclemay get him across but it will also compromisethe trust he will feel for you, his handler. Better tomake the obstacle easier and work back up to thesticking point. All of these obstacles will pave theway for loading in a vehicle.Alpaca World Magazine Summer 2005 | 49