Hi! Can we do something together?

Elahn, just over 3 months of age.

Early on, Elahn made it clear that being touched and handled was NOT fun for him — unlike Gaiya, who thinks it's just fine, even a good thing. Well, llamas are domestic animals and domestic animals get touched and handled, so something had to be done to change Elahn's mind ... before some need (medical attention, for instance) arose.

The first step was to do soooo little that Elahn could realize, over time, that it wasn't that big a deal. Doing a touching lesson once a day (when letting the llamas out) gave Elahn plenty of time to digest things, and also kept me from becoming the "always bad person".

When Elahn was OK with the first lesson's material, then just the smallest bit more was added, same lesson time and interval. If Elahn jumped away (whether out of fear or pent-up energy), fine ... I'd just wait for him to calm down, back up a step and repeat what he'd already agreed was OK. No, he did not "learn to get away with stuff." He learned I would listen to him, and through that, he learned to trust.

A couple of weeks ago, Elahn made a huge breakthrough in his own head. He is now not only OK with being handled, but is OK with being handled in the pasture, whether he approaches first, or I approach him. I still pay close attention to his body language to be sure I never ask too much of him; he's still learning so much, and like all babies, his attention span is limited.

It's gratifying when the tailored-to-the-individual approach with trust as the goal (rather than doing specific tasks) brings out such great results. It seems like it's the slow approach, but in the end, it's really the fastest and most lasting. :-)