Llama Training: What is Involved?

Llama training is not a skill that everyone needs, but if you ever do, you will find it is a pleasure. Llamas are highly intelligent and they learn extremely quickly. Every llama ideally should be taught:

1. To allow you to halter him quickly and easily.

2. To walk along with you when on a leash, keeping the leash loose.

3. To jump into a van, pickup, or trailer for transporting.

4. To let you handle their body, so you can do grooming or check injuries.

In addition, you can train a llama to do many other things. Sitting down (called “kushing”) and getting back up can be taught. Some llamas have been taught to drive to cart, and they are quite a sight in parades. A good number of llamas do what their Andean ancestors did and become pack animals. They are trained in carrying a pack.

“Llamas are very fast learners,” says Bobra Goldsmith, a well-known llama trainer. “When you are teaching a llama something, don’t be surprised if he gets it after just a few trials.”

After hearing her say that, I decided to see how many times I would have to load my llama Whiskers into the side door of our VW van before he would just jump in. It only took me five times. After that, he always knew exactly what to do, even if some months had gone by without an expedition that called for him to get into the van. Try teaching a dog something in just five repetitions! It will rarely work.

Comparing llamas and dogs in another way is interesting. Llamas will learn more rapidly than dogs that walking with the leash loose is really the way to do it! This makes it a lot of fun to take a llama out hiking along backcountry trails. However, if horses come along, do be quick to yield the right of way. Move your llama a ways away from the trail so the horses will be less likely to spook. If they haven’t encountered llamas before, they may be a bit afraid.

Bobra has had many llamas herself and out of her experience she has developed many ways to train them. For instance, she teaches llamas to allow themselves to be haltered by using a slow movement in approaching their faces with the halter. The animals seem to appreciate the calmness, and it’s really quite easy for anyone to learn to halter llamas this way. Her methods are also widely used with alpacas.

While llamas are perhaps best trained while they are rather young (but not babies), Bobra has demonstrated that you can train a green adult llama as well. While in a perfect world every llama you acquire would be well trained, in fact many people just don’t get around to much llama training. You can learn Bobra Goldsmith’s training methods from a DVD which is available on the internet. People buy the DVD for this purpose, of course, but they also buy it when they are thinking about getting llamas and want to know what is involved. In any case, llama training can turn out to be a very enjoyable activity.