Can you tie your llama and see them stand quietly for an extended period of time? This is necessary for grooming and later for harnessing. Tying your animal securely to a post for a time also teaches them to stand quietly in a show line-up or during a visit perhaps to a crowed room in a nursing home. (A note here is to remind you to not leave a tied llama unsupervised.) Let them fuss, even lay down on a short line, if they are wearing a safe halter. They get uncomfortable and get up on their own. Just be close if something goes wrong, and always tie them with a quick release knot.

Can you touch your llama everywhere? I was told, over and over, to NEVER touch a llama's head. Good Grief! How do I get the halter on I ask? I'm asking this question with my audience not knowing my llama stands quietly to be touched everywhere. "Oh, you get it on and them leave them alone," I was instructed.

Folks, if your animal won't let you touch them, teach them to be touched, EVERYWHERE! Duende had a full set of head X-rays without being twitched or tranquilize. I used my index finger while standing in front of him. That was taught to mean "Stand." And he did. Like a statue. I must admit, his eyes rolled a bit as the machine pushed against his head, but everything else remained still.

Touching is especially important if you have made the choice to drive your llama. Your hands and body are the best tools to begin touching and preparing them for all the driving paraphernalia. My cart llamas and horses must accept my touch on every part of their body at all times. From nose to toenail or hoof. I also use an old horse technique called "blanketing." Using a blanket or a towel, I wave it in the air and around them, gentle. When this ceases to frighten them, I touch them with it and then remove it after they stand quietly. At first they may stand for just a second with the towel on their body. Catch that second and move the object away from them. That is the reward, along with a "Good Boy/Girl." They learn quickly that you want them to stand.

Talking about rewards, let me take a few sentences to discuss food motivation. I feel it works more for a horse than a llama, but for horses I use it sparingly. It could teach them to be nippy. I also use it if I have animals that are afraid to touch me. I never use it for animals that are "in my face." You decide, depending on the behavior of your animal.

I want my finished cart animals to be totally comfortable with the equipment, the perhaps unexpected situations, and me. A cart animal, as far as I am concerned, has to totally trust their handler. I want no instinct to flee when I'm in the cart if a dog rushes out, a driver honks their horn, a ball rolls in front of them, or what ever. My life and my animals could depend on them obeying my every command when I have the reins. That could be Whoa, Gee, Haw. Stand. Or even run if the situation is safe to do so.

I also carry a whip and a squirt gun loaded with ammonia. Both are for dogs. I also reserve the verbal command "Get" for dogs. Dogs have learned "Get out of here." for instance. I never use the word "Get" for my cart animals such as the old horse command "Get Up or Getty Up" That way, when I YELL "GET" to a possibly dangerous dog, my cart animal just stands quietly. Duende, in fact, expects me to handle all dog situations even if I have to place my body between him and the dog. My llama is not a guard llama. He is a cart llama. You have to have a different behavioral response. when your animal is attached to a cart and being driven out on the road.

To teach a llama to stand during the touching/grooming/harnessing, etc., what I do is say, "Stand" to the agitated animal. I then keep my mouth shut as opposed to the non-stop vocabulary and fussing with the lead line that I see many people do. I also start teaching this command with the animal tied up. Let the pole take the fuss. And it will remain in place as opposed to the llama being able to drag us around. What good is the command "Stand" if you can't hold them?

For example, I tie an especially agitated llama or horse to teach them to stand. Perhaps they don't want to stand at all, with or without your approach or touch. The pole will have the patience to out stand the animal. They may not want to stand when you approach them or stand next to them. I let the pole hold the line and wait until they stand and then leave for a short time. If they don't want to be touched, it is difficult to teach them to accept your touch if you can't keep contact. I like to move with them with my hand on their body. I try not to lose contact. When they stop trying to move away, I stop touching. The reward is that when they stand, at first this may be for in instance, I catch that instance and stop doing what caused them to move. That is the reward in addition to a verbal "Good Boy/Girl, Stand."

Perhaps it will be a good time to move onto another lesson. Stop with a success in all your training. It works so well! No fuss, no holding on and demanding a stand as the animal takes you on a tour of the yard.

This will teach them that moving away does not work. They will quickly stop moving away with no restraint. To do this successfully you must work either in a small round pen or have them tied to a post. Both work equally well. I think the round pen perhaps makes them feel safer than the restraint of the rope but eventually they will learn that they are equally safe tied up. Inflict no punishment of any kind. Do not talk a lot. No rambling verbal discussion on telling them to stand, how bad they are being, etc. Just wait QUIETLY until they stand, remove the touch and say "Good Llama, Stand."

Grooming is advanced touching and is necessary for the health and appearance of your llama. The additional touching necessary to properly groom will also prepare them for the cart.

I could go on and on here. Come to the Alternative Livestock Show this year, September 25th, at the Kitsap Fair Grounds, and I will give a demonstration on touching. Like the one finger moving, finger grooming, and then advancing to a full body massage.

This method works equally well in a round pen, if you can keep up with the llama's movement. I just can't. So I use a pole. Both methods work. Don't misunderstand me. I love the round pen. It is an ultra gentle method. I just can't walk or change directions or respond the way one needs to while using the round pen. If you can, study how successful people do it and do it.

I am starting to use a round pen to teach my pony off-line lunging. I can physically do that. Not as well as I wish I could but, with verbal commands and consistent reinforcement, my pony is starting to understand what I mean to say with my sloppy body positions. If you can speak llama or horse with your body position and movement, try to do it the right way. Learn their language. Cathy Spalding gives a great demonstration on this. But animals are very intelligent and can learn to speak sloppy human body language too-if you are consistently sloppy. I'm sure Shugyr is rolling her eyes to the heavens at this stupid human, but she is beginning to do what I ask and I love her for it.

Leading on a loose line is a major challenge for both the llama or horse and the handler. I believe it is the most important skill you can learn and you can teach your animal. You never want them hanging back on the lead line. You also never want to desensitize them by hanging the weight of your arm on the lead line. I see this a lot at shows in the line up. You will create what I call a "heavy headed" llama. It is the equivalent of creating a "hard mouthed" horse. The lead line should ONLY be used as a reminder to follow your movement or command. The driving lines should ONLY be used to lightly balance the animals movement, to change direction, to back, and to stop. You should never be consistently pulling on the lines nor feel the animal pull on the lines.

Especially for a llama, if you are heavy-handed on the lines while driving, they will just compensate with their neck. They can almost lay their neck on their back, so you have to give directions lightly and this begins by learning how to lead on a loose line.

Also remember to lead on a loose line in all directions and on both sides of the llama so that they become comfortable with you being on the off side. No tension on the line is the primary goal in leading. The animal needs to become flexible and responsive. They call part of this technique "bending" in horses. Read about it. It also works for llamas.

I do not begin teaching this from the cart. It all begins on the lead line. I also teach my llama to lunge just like a horse. Lunging is teaching the llama or horse to perform gaits on command while being on a long line. They walk, trot, canter around you, reverse direction, whoa, and come. It is a natural progression from leading and is my first step toward having a llama perform without following. If you can train your llama to lunge you will never need a header. Lunging teaches a llama to perform away from your body, teaches obedience to verbal, visual, and physical commands, and is a great exercise, improving stamina and balance during all gaits. It is also a great warm up tool and keeps an animal prepared for the cart when you don't have the time to drive.

Can you train your llama to pull a cart without teaching them to lunge? Of course. I may have the only lunging cart llama in the country. But, all my cart animals are taught this skill and I believe it creates a superior cart animal. Just what I believe.

In my clinics, I began to call lunging "ground driving with one line" and ground driving "lunging with two lines". Lunging teaches so much. Collected gaits, for example. Especially in the canter. When Duende was in his prime, he could canter in harness around his cart. The cart just swiveled around its wheels. This skill came from lunge training. It requires the llama to feel safe and comfortable performing in turns and develops their muscular strength and flexibility to maintain the tight circle safely. I know you have all seen or experienced llamas that are trotting or cantering just fine down the straight away in the arena. Then, they come to the corners and slow to a walk. Lunge training is one skill that will prevent this from happening.

I also had to reinforce my original understanding of training for a behavior when it came to training Duende to lunge. My horses all learned it so much faster. "Who said llamas were smarter than horses," I heard myself saying in the beginning. But, I reminded myself to teach for the behavior. To teach Duende to walk around me in the beginning, I was holding the lead line about 12 inches from the halter and giving the verbal command "Walk", while encouraging him to walk around my body. I was actually leading him around me but, slowly, as the days passed, the line got longer. When he became uncomfortable, I shortened the line back to a length where he felt comfortable and then slowly let the line lengthen again.

Did I use a different method than with my horses? No! Did it take longer? God yes! Why? I'm not an expert to get into difference in intelligence etc. But, in my opinion, however horses evolved, they are more willing to "please." That is my human attempt to connect with the reason.

I do believe if llamas are handled gently, they will do just about everything that is asked of them barring physical limitations.

However, to successfully train a llama, you have to prove you are not going to falter in your commands. They will challenge you until your persistence tells them you are not giving up. I believe they understand way before you see the correct response. I absolutely believe their apparent misbehavior is really that they just don't want to take direction.

Llamas are very intelligent, so beware all you smart people. Duende learned when he misbehaved in the cart, I got out, called him a bad llama while in his face, and then ground drove him for the time required to improve his performance before I got back in the cart. What did he learn faster? That the cart was lighter when I got out and ground drove him.

"Great" I just know he said to himself. "Stop pulling, Carolyn gets out, and commands me to pull a lighter cart-much lighter."

My brain finally caught on. My solution. I carried tires in the foot well that were tied to a rope attached to the cart axle. For one week, every time I got of the cart to correct a behavior such as refusing to pull the cart, I pushed the tires out, did the whole bad llama routine and ground drove him. He quickly realize that since the cart was no lighter than when I was in it, he would rather have me in the cart than in his face.

From this stage of training on to the actual cart driving I use old horse techniques, which are lengthy to describe here. As stated, the most important thing is to make the animal feel safe and to be consistent.

Why am I not training another llama to pull my cart? I can't put in the extra groundwork I believe is absolutely essential. So, I am fine tuning a great cart pony-Shugyr Dahitt. Her name is Gaelic for Burnt Sugar. We are making a great connection, which leads to my last, and perhaps controversial, beliefs that I apply when working with animals of any kind.

For the greatest successes in your training program, I hope to convince you that animals can see your intentions and feel what you feel. If you do not or can not hold a well formed picture of what you want to accomplish in your mind, your confusion, your concerns of failure perhaps, will only confuse the animal. Not just because you may be giving poor physical and verbal commands and reinforcement. It will be because you are sending confused, ill willed, angry, frustrated, or some other disruptive command through your thoughts. If you approach a jump while thinking that you just know your llama is going to fail or give you problems, they most likely will. Tell them in your mind what you want, be calm, and you will achieve great things together.

I also believe, through our close connection and relationship with domesticated animals, that we are helping to developing their soul. Metaphysicians named it a "peri soul." The more you practice a mental connection with your animal, the better they will respond because you are also developing their self-awarness. You will be speaking their language. Visualizing what you want them to do will not only perfect your physical and visual directions, it will also open up a new line of communication.

Animals also don't understand teasing. It is cruel because animals only understand yes or no, black or white. Teasing or cruel treatment destroys your connection with your charge on a spiritual level. Trust is destroyed. Good treatment is our moral obligation and you will be rewarded with a great companion.

There is much more to tell you. For example, ground driving techniques, equipment, harnessing, attaching the cart, solving specific problems, show techniques and rules, and helping your cart animal through fearful situations. I love teaching others to train their cart animals and could make this a huge training manual. I just hope I touched on enough to inspire and to help you with your training program. Most important, keep it light and make it fun for both of you.

Putting the cart before an unprepared llama is at the least foolish. The object of driving, either behind the wheel of an automobile or at the reins of your llama, is to go where and when you choose with your trusty companion. To accomplish this takes time and patience to focus your llama on the task until he is trained to consistently and willingly respond to your commands. Success depends on acquiring good training skills so that you will become a great and kind master. So check out you and your llama's elementary skills and requirements and make progress from there. I hope you too will enjoy a great cart ride.

Suggested Workshops:
Any clinic given by Jim Logan in Chattaroy, Washington
Any clinic given by Cathy Spalding in Olympia WA.
My demo this year at the Alternative Livestock Show and All Specie Competition at the Kitsap Fair Grounds in Silverdale, WA.
Horse Driving Clinics held at Happ's, INC
Happs@happs-inc.com
http://www.happs-inc.com/
Maureen Harkcom, Event Organizer

Be open. If you see consistent results, watch and see if they may be doing something that would work for you.