Marty McGee Bennett
08-02-2005, 04:15 PM
Dear Marty,
I have a 2 yr. old female alpaca(Olivia) that has been quite a handful lately. She has always been very friendly and not afraid of pretty much anything. She was not a bottle fed cria. When she was only about 3 or 4 wks old, she curled up on a visitors feet out in the pasture and fell asleep! My daughter was checking on an expectant mom in the pasture and Olivia came running and knocked her right to the ground.When she sees us, she snorts and comes prancing up sideways to us. Tonight I was in the barn raking, minding my own business and she blind sided me and ran into my back. We had a friend stop by and we were standing looking at the alpacas and Olivia got up on her hind legs and tried to hit our visitor. Luckily I was on the ball and grabbed my friend and basicly put myself in the line of fire! She hasn't always been this bad. How can I curve this behavior? We don't do anything to encourage her to act like this. I would say she's treating us like an alpaca but she doesn't act like this with her herd mates. HELP!!!
Thank you for your time,
Lori
HI Lori, Thank you for your question.. it a an important one. Disrespect toward humans is not strictly a male animal issue. Females can learn to be disrepectful of humans too. I wrote an article about Type A and Type B babies. (Check out the GUILD LIBRARY at http://www.camelidynamics.com/guildForum/forumdisplay.php?f=15 for more detailed resources on this.)
Based on the description of your female she is a classic type A. These babies seem to be born with no fear of humans. This in and of itself is not a problem what causes the problem is our reaction to their lack of fear. We do not set boundaries when these babies are young and they get the wrong signals from us about what kinds of behaviors are going be acceptable. These young babies need to be taught about our personal space and should be discouraged when they follow too closely touch humans by pulling on shoelaces, clothing or hair, or otherwise encroach on our personal space. There are a variety of ways to prevent and to correct this behavior.
The bottom line is that prevention is much easier and corrections are more effective the younger the animal is. Females are not immune to becoming aggressive and spoiled brat alpaca girls that grow up without boundaries can be very unpleasant to live with. I think you can fix your situation pretty easily by becoming vigilant about your space, using a frisbee to demonstrate where your personal space begins. It is very important that other humans who relate to this girl consistently correct her so that she doesn't become confused and angry about what the rules are.
I have a 2 yr. old female alpaca(Olivia) that has been quite a handful lately. She has always been very friendly and not afraid of pretty much anything. She was not a bottle fed cria. When she was only about 3 or 4 wks old, she curled up on a visitors feet out in the pasture and fell asleep! My daughter was checking on an expectant mom in the pasture and Olivia came running and knocked her right to the ground.When she sees us, she snorts and comes prancing up sideways to us. Tonight I was in the barn raking, minding my own business and she blind sided me and ran into my back. We had a friend stop by and we were standing looking at the alpacas and Olivia got up on her hind legs and tried to hit our visitor. Luckily I was on the ball and grabbed my friend and basicly put myself in the line of fire! She hasn't always been this bad. How can I curve this behavior? We don't do anything to encourage her to act like this. I would say she's treating us like an alpaca but she doesn't act like this with her herd mates. HELP!!!
Thank you for your time,
Lori
HI Lori, Thank you for your question.. it a an important one. Disrespect toward humans is not strictly a male animal issue. Females can learn to be disrepectful of humans too. I wrote an article about Type A and Type B babies. (Check out the GUILD LIBRARY at http://www.camelidynamics.com/guildForum/forumdisplay.php?f=15 for more detailed resources on this.)
Based on the description of your female she is a classic type A. These babies seem to be born with no fear of humans. This in and of itself is not a problem what causes the problem is our reaction to their lack of fear. We do not set boundaries when these babies are young and they get the wrong signals from us about what kinds of behaviors are going be acceptable. These young babies need to be taught about our personal space and should be discouraged when they follow too closely touch humans by pulling on shoelaces, clothing or hair, or otherwise encroach on our personal space. There are a variety of ways to prevent and to correct this behavior.
The bottom line is that prevention is much easier and corrections are more effective the younger the animal is. Females are not immune to becoming aggressive and spoiled brat alpaca girls that grow up without boundaries can be very unpleasant to live with. I think you can fix your situation pretty easily by becoming vigilant about your space, using a frisbee to demonstrate where your personal space begins. It is very important that other humans who relate to this girl consistently correct her so that she doesn't become confused and angry about what the rules are.