Training a llama to accept a halter consists of a series of moves that you do, generally in slow motion so as not to alarm the llama. Here you see a series of photographs which I took from our DVD, Llama Training with Bobra Goldsmith. The photo quality isn’t ideal on a few of them, but you can get the idea. This approach works for halter training alpacas too — they are very similar to llamas.
This llama had already been haltered once by someone else, and that did make it easier. Here, Bobra isn’t having much trouble getting her hands on him.
Once she has her arms around the llama’s neck, she gives him a nice firm massage with her fingers, while talking steadily to him in a reassuring manner.
She’s got the halter in her left hand below, and the llama is leaning into her, seemingly enjoying the continuing neck massage.
She’s moved the halter to below his head. Bobra calls this the slow motion haltering technique, as she doesn’t rush any of the steps.
Now the halter is approaching his face. He knows what she has in mind, since he has been haltered before.
And here she is sliding it up over his nose, but not making contact with his face yet.
Now that she finally has it where she wants it, she lets it touch his face. She is still massaging his neck a bit and also talking to him.
In the last shot in this sequence, she is continuing to massage as she moves the halter around the back of his neck. She will clasp it in a moment.
To see a similar sequence with another young llama — a more reluctant one — watch the 2+ minute llama training video on the homepage of this site. It’s a short snippet from the two-hour program we made with Bobra.
