The last time I was out with my alpacas was when my friend and neighbor, Kathy Parson brought some young children over (that she was tending) for a tour of our little hobby farm and its animals.
This happens all the time, people wanting to see my animals. So, I didn't think much of it. Usually, I have no problems with how my animals act around other people, but what I had forgotten was that, no tours has been done since our second alpaca, Princess had arrived. I did not anticipate the surprising behavioral changes in Queen.
Without taking time to tell you the entire story let me say that Queen has gone from the bottom of the pecking order (in her original herd) to the Queen bee, and she is not dealing with the pressures of leadership well.
Kathy was caught in the crossfire of Queen spitting at our goats. An unfortunate situation of collateral damage in a barnyard sqwabble. And, I received a direct (spit) hit from Queen when I intervened in Kathie's defence.
To make matters worse, not only was I mortified that Kathy had been spit on, intentionally or not, but the kids were now scared of the animals. And for the icing on the cake, Steve and I had a dinner engagement to attend that night, so, earlier in the day I had spent hours at the salon getting a cut, color and highlight. (Kelsey loves to straighten my frizzy hair when she styles it, this allows me to enjoy straight hair once every few months.) Now my new hair do was full of nasty, stinky alpaca spit! I was not a happy camper.
Kathy took the now frightened children home and I set to the task of spending some unscheduled time working with my alpacas.
My ignorance in the behavior and the handling of alpacas became apparent immediately. This led me to a wonderful website called CAMELIDynamics. Here is a link to it http://www.camelidynamics.com/what-is-camelidynamics/.
I am in the process of ordering their CAMELIDynamics Starter Kit.
http://www.camelidynamics.com/store/product/camelidynamics-starter-kit/
Wish me luck!
This happens all the time, people wanting to see my animals. So, I didn't think much of it. Usually, I have no problems with how my animals act around other people, but what I had forgotten was that, no tours has been done since our second alpaca, Princess had arrived. I did not anticipate the surprising behavioral changes in Queen.
Without taking time to tell you the entire story let me say that Queen has gone from the bottom of the pecking order (in her original herd) to the Queen bee, and she is not dealing with the pressures of leadership well.
Kathy was caught in the crossfire of Queen spitting at our goats. An unfortunate situation of collateral damage in a barnyard sqwabble. And, I received a direct (spit) hit from Queen when I intervened in Kathie's defence.
To make matters worse, not only was I mortified that Kathy had been spit on, intentionally or not, but the kids were now scared of the animals. And for the icing on the cake, Steve and I had a dinner engagement to attend that night, so, earlier in the day I had spent hours at the salon getting a cut, color and highlight. (Kelsey loves to straighten my frizzy hair when she styles it, this allows me to enjoy straight hair once every few months.) Now my new hair do was full of nasty, stinky alpaca spit! I was not a happy camper.
Kathy took the now frightened children home and I set to the task of spending some unscheduled time working with my alpacas.
My ignorance in the behavior and the handling of alpacas became apparent immediately. This led me to a wonderful website called CAMELIDynamics. Here is a link to it http://www.camelidynamics.com/what-is-camelidynamics/.
I am in the process of ordering their CAMELIDynamics Starter Kit.
http://www.camelidynamics.com/store/product/camelidynamics-starter-kit/
Wish me luck!