Marty McGee Bennett
08-07-2005, 06:17 PM
This is a lovely email from Australia. It is amazing how alpacas bring the world together.
Hi Marty
I've just finished reading your Camelid Companion book for about the
third time in a week and wanted to contact you to tell you how much
I've enjoyed and learned from it. I'm a behavioural scientist and
neuropsychologist.
I teach mainly neuropsychology but just recently started up a new
course in animal welfare, the first one of its kind where I live. My
research interests are in human-animal interactions, particularly
working with companion animals such as dogs. I've worked with
racehorses and other animals in the past but in different contexts.
When I'm not working I live on a 100 acre property with eight
Australian Shepherd dogs, forty angora goats, three geese, one human
partner and, since last week, eight alpacas (hence the recent book
reading). I met alpacas only a short while ago and decided I needed to
have some in my paddocks. They seem like the nicest animals and I'd
love to find a way of making a living from home so that I could spend
more time there. Hopefully breeding and selling alpacas will
contribute, although I imagine I'll end up keeping more than I sell.
Anyway, enough of me. I've spent the christmas break working with my
new girls using your methods and can't believe how quickly they've
progressed. I've always worked with animals and have gradually moved
from the old crash and burn methods to the more gentler ones but I've
never met an animal so much suited to these methods. When we visited
alpaca studs to select our animals, they were universally caught by
being herded into a small pen, jumped on and wrestled into submission.
I was sure there had to be a better way. Within a week of their arrival
I can catch and handle all of my girls in their catch pen and they come
to meet me when they see me walking out. I've had halters on five of
the eight with very little fuss. I expected it to be much more
difficult. My original plan was to get this generation to a point where
I could get close enough to work with their babies, and to concentrate
on the next generation, but I've now revised that considerably. My new
aim is to have these ladies quiet enough to be shorn standing up by
this time next year. Well some of them anyway!
I loved the way you expressed your ideas in the book in a way
that 'normal' people can understand. I always struggle to convey the
basic concepts of body language and where you should stand in relation
to an animal. Not that I'm anywhere near competent myself, of course.
I'm still very much a learner but feel like I'm doing OK at present.
Would be much better if there was someone else here who could watch
what I did and correct mistakes, but haven't met anyone else using your
methods yet.
I'd love to keep in touch personally. I feel
really strongly that educating people is the best way to promote animal
welfare and hope to move more and more into that field in the next few
years.
Hi Marty
I've just finished reading your Camelid Companion book for about the
third time in a week and wanted to contact you to tell you how much
I've enjoyed and learned from it. I'm a behavioural scientist and
neuropsychologist.
I teach mainly neuropsychology but just recently started up a new
course in animal welfare, the first one of its kind where I live. My
research interests are in human-animal interactions, particularly
working with companion animals such as dogs. I've worked with
racehorses and other animals in the past but in different contexts.
When I'm not working I live on a 100 acre property with eight
Australian Shepherd dogs, forty angora goats, three geese, one human
partner and, since last week, eight alpacas (hence the recent book
reading). I met alpacas only a short while ago and decided I needed to
have some in my paddocks. They seem like the nicest animals and I'd
love to find a way of making a living from home so that I could spend
more time there. Hopefully breeding and selling alpacas will
contribute, although I imagine I'll end up keeping more than I sell.
Anyway, enough of me. I've spent the christmas break working with my
new girls using your methods and can't believe how quickly they've
progressed. I've always worked with animals and have gradually moved
from the old crash and burn methods to the more gentler ones but I've
never met an animal so much suited to these methods. When we visited
alpaca studs to select our animals, they were universally caught by
being herded into a small pen, jumped on and wrestled into submission.
I was sure there had to be a better way. Within a week of their arrival
I can catch and handle all of my girls in their catch pen and they come
to meet me when they see me walking out. I've had halters on five of
the eight with very little fuss. I expected it to be much more
difficult. My original plan was to get this generation to a point where
I could get close enough to work with their babies, and to concentrate
on the next generation, but I've now revised that considerably. My new
aim is to have these ladies quiet enough to be shorn standing up by
this time next year. Well some of them anyway!
I loved the way you expressed your ideas in the book in a way
that 'normal' people can understand. I always struggle to convey the
basic concepts of body language and where you should stand in relation
to an animal. Not that I'm anywhere near competent myself, of course.
I'm still very much a learner but feel like I'm doing OK at present.
Would be much better if there was someone else here who could watch
what I did and correct mistakes, but haven't met anyone else using your
methods yet.
I'd love to keep in touch personally. I feel
really strongly that educating people is the best way to promote animal
welfare and hope to move more and more into that field in the next few
years.