picking up feet of young male

[Anonymous]

Dear Marty -

Can't thank you enough for all I learned at your clinic. I have been working with my girls and boys with wonderful
results. My friend who co-owns a couple of animals with me commented
on the difference in the animals since I began. Even my import has
shown HUGE progress. Another friend commented on how she looks at me
with such love in her eyes. My heart simply explodes every time she
does.

I do have one problem I'm not sure how to handle. The son of my
import!! I began running my hand down the legs of everyone in
preparation for picking up legs to do toenails. For the most part,
this is tolerated but for this one guy. Whenever I get my hand even
to the mid thigh part of either hind leg, he kicks VIOLENTLY and I do
mean VIOLENTLY. I'm not sure what to do. Do I keep at it, or is
there a TTouch thing I could do, or what do you suggest. He's going
to need his nails cut in the next couple of months and I'd rather put
my life at risk if I can avoid it. Any suggestions would be greatly
appreciated.

THANK YOU!!!!!!

[Marty McGee Bennett]

HI, Good for you that you are doing so well. I would take your son
of import for walks and not worry about his legs for awhile. Do fun
and challenging obstacles and make sure to walk him over under and
through lots of scary things. Remember structure the obstacles so that
they can be made easier so that they are like a confidence course and
don't worry about touching his legs for quite some time until he is
really responding well to difficult obstacles and then try again and
see what happens. Remember that teaching your alpaca to trust you handling his legs without attempting to pick them up is MUCH more important than picking the feet up. When we stroke the leg and the animal picks the leg up automatically it isn't because we are miracle worker trainers... it is because the animal is frightened. Ignore that fear and continue and the animal will begin to protect his legs by doing other things like cushing and fighting to get them away from you once you have picked them up.
Work with the legs with the intention of keeping them on the ground. More detail on picking up feet and strategies for toenail trimming is available in the guild library.
Cheerio Marty