As a farm we're always trying to improve the way we're doing things. This year we've been introducing natural methods of taking care of our herd and as a part of that Carly has been learning about a handling technique referred to as CameliDynamics and trialling it out on some of our most troublesome girls.
There's an amazing woman called Marty McGee Bennett who has worked with South American camelids (llamas and alpacas in terms of domesticated species, originating from vicuñas and guanacos in terms of their wilder cousins) for over thirty years. In her words it is, 'a collection of methods that represent the most positive least intrusive techniques for training and managing camelids'.
It's truly beautiful work. It's all about understanding their behaviour and why they react in certain ways and part of the approach requires us to pay a lot of attention to our own body language, movements and behaviours too. It requires complete presence. The idea is that we move from the traditional method of cornering, grabbing and restraining to allowing the animal their escape route, slowly desensitising them to our proximity and helping them to remain in balance whilst we work with them. Marty explains that alpacas and llamas are generally much more fearful of being grabbed and restrained than they are of the husbandry work we need to do. When we stop doing those things, the theory is they learn to stand calmly in balance whilst we work instead of trying to buck us off and escape.
So yesterday we had our monthly husbandry day where we administer winter vitamins and check herd health and we decided to try using CameliDynamics handling techniques. And it was a success! The animals we'd been working with regularly were easier to handle and the others adapted well to our different approach.
Oral medication is often a challenge because alpacas are extremely head shy. They are protective of their heads (and legs) because they are fundamental for their survival. Breathing and eating are pretty important.Â
CameliDynamics offers a series of approaches to touch that gradually accustom the alpacas to touch on their heads and even get them to learn to enjoy it. It takes time to get them used to any contact on their heads and faces and it's important that we take that time as we regularly need to be in contact with them in this way, when we're haltering, tooth trimming or administering oral medication for example. If they're always thrashing about it's much harder on us and on them.
We'll be sharing more about our journey to using CameliDynamics and our progress, sign up to our mailing list and continue to read our blog to follow along! Carly will also be sharing her personal reflections and experiences with CameliDynamics and the alpacas on her Patreon. You can find her here.
Team Hideaway Wood xÂ
Comentários