Positioning

A "must know" for optimum training success
with alpacas and llamas

Page 7

Be Aware Of Your Body Language

 In positioning one’s self for moving forward and/or stop and standing, your body position should be such that you are facing in the same direction as your llama - your noses should be pointed in the same direction. For turning, you must adjust your body position to face the llama. Interestingly, once again your nose will be pointing in the direction you wish your llama's nose to head in order to make the turn. We all tend to move in the direction our nose is headed. Again, watch the balance. When you and your llama are first experiencing positioning, it is important for you, yourself, to consistently face in the direction you wish your llama to go. Llamas are keen observers of body language. Our work that day experimented with facing towards our llama and facing the same direction as our llama. We discovered when facing towards our llama, particularly when initially learning the nuances of positioning, we often created the effect of blocking, cornering or trapping our llama. Facing our llama created closed shoulders and the ability to outstretch our arms along our llama's body length. This is a common stance by humans for "cornering" or "catching". Facing the same direction as our llama opened our shoulders and greatly lessened the usefulness of our arms reach providing a more obvious and clear "escape route". This same direction positioning facilitates the opportunity for feeling a higher level of security, safety, attention and communication for both human and llama. Thus, applying the notion we are giving signals by our body language, by our turning and facing our llama when asking our llama to turn, we have basically created a physical block as well as the image or idea of what we want to have happen. We are, in effect, giving signals - communicating - with our overall body positioning. And llamas, as we have noted, are keen observers in this area.

Keeping A Correct Distance

When using positioning it is important to keep the personal space zone in mind. This zone is not a matter of inches or feet and varies from llama to llama as well as from person to person. Do not crowd nor stand far away. I've found the most consistent distance is an arm's length plus about one hand more. And, believe it or not, it is your particular arm's length not anyone else's. The distance is relative to our own unique size. In solving the mystery, we discovered a shorter person's (like myself) arm length distance was actually crowding for a tall person.

A Fruitful Collective Effort

I truly thank those many who were in attendance at my clinic that day for their help, support and enthusiasm in providing the opportunity to solve this long-standing mystery. We are all much better for the experience and I could not have solved this mystery without their willing participation and thoughtful input. As a result of this collective effort, I have been able to add the valuable art of positioning to my understanding of llama behavior within my own herd and share it with others in my behavior and training clinics. The increased success for participants, not to mention myself, is truly noteworthy.

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'Tis skill not strength that
governs a ship.

     Thomas Fuller, MD

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