Guide to Halter Training - Stage 4: The Lead-Rope

The quality time with the crew paid off. Today we sailed through The Bucket, The Hand, The Halter and were able to move swiftly onto The Lead-Rope. In this stage I use a long lead rope and place it across their backs and follow them around, encouraging them to move on request by standing behind them, slightly to one side. If I want them to go right, I stand to their left and vice versa. If I want them to stop, I move forwards slightly to their shoulder. I am pretty sure this all comes from a Marty McGee workshop or book. Marty is a genuine alpaca training guru (rather than a time pressed hobby farmer!). I use a small pen and have three alpacas in their at a time so that they don't freak out. The Blitzkreig Approach to halter training (see previous posts) misses this stage out completely but I think from my sleep-deprivation-addled memory that it reduces the am-drams of stage 5 considerably. Repeat this stage as often as time allows.