Why CameliDynamics is as Good for me as it is for the Alpacas and How it has Translated into my Parenting

When I first started working with alpacas in the summer, one of the first thoughts I had was that I wasn't sure if I could possibly do this job because they were so strong (surprisingly strong) and I couldn't restrain them on my own to do the husbandry tasks. Fast forward five months and last week I rubbed lotion onto the nose of our biggest, most anxious girls on my own. Alpacas and llamas are extremely head shy because their heads are fundamental for their survival. Breathing and eating are pretty important. It takes time to get them used to any contact on their heads and faces and it's important that we take that time as they need treatments, tooth work, haltering etc. and if they're always thrashing about it's much, much harder on us and on them.

The only reason I was able to do this was because of a technique called CameliDynamics.

There's an amazing woman called Marty McGee Bennett who has worked with South American camelids (llamas and alpacas in terms of domesticated species, originating from vicuñas and guanacos in terms of their wilder cousins) for over thirty years. In her words it is, 'a collection of methods that represent the most positive least intrusive techniques for training and managing camelids'.

It's truly beautiful work. (And it also involves the use of a wand! Working with animals using a magic wand?! What's not to love. Living the dream - see photos below for more context). It's all about understanding their behaviour and why they react in certain ways and part of the approach requires us to pay a lot of attention to our own body language, movements and behaviours too. It requires complete presence. The idea is that we move from cornering, grabbing, chasing, restraining and force to allowing the animal their escape route, slowly desensitising them to our proximity and helping them to remain in balance whilst we work with them. Alpacas and llamas are much more fearful of being grabbed and restrained than they are of the work we need to do. When we stop doing those things, the theory is they learn to stand in balance whilst we work instead of trying to buck us off and escape.

I didn't believe this was possible but I've now seen it in action myself. And this is the explanation for how I was able to handle the animal and accomplish the work on my own. I wasn't trying to restrain her or force her to do anything and if she wanted to move I followed her. It makes our lives infinitely easier but it requires a heck of a lot of patience and presence to accomplish. They sense if we're stressed, they sense if we're time pressured, they sense if we're frustrated. More on this later.

Animals are still deeply connected to their instincts. Humans have often disconnected from most of ours. So when we encounter animals we can easily behave in ways that scare or even harm them without even realising because we're not being present or attentive to how we're being perceived and how we're behaving. Trying to administer oral medication to a head shy animal that's significantly taller and stronger than you, whilst not appearing stressed or anxious is the ultimate yoga.

In the case of camelids (and most agricultural species), we're a predator species working with a prey species and they sense this acutely. They know how we use our arms because most of them have been grabbed by us. They know how long our arms are and how to evade our reach. If we have handled them in the traditional ways then they have become experts at protecting themselves from us and remain out of our grip. It becomes very frustrating to try to catch them.

The idea of CameliDynamics is that we position ourselves out of reach of the animal and offer them continuous access to their escape route whilst remaining intensely aware of our body language. They're used to us taking their escape route away so in giving it back to them we're slowly rebuilding their trust in us. Part of CameliDynamics is breathing deeply and audibly and this is one of my favourite parts of the technique. It relaxes me and it relaxes them. Suddenly husbandry tasks become enjoyable and an opportunity for connection rather than stressful and damaging to our relationship with the animals. The reason for the breathing is all about our predator prey dynamic. To alpacas a sharp intake of breath followed by a retention is a pounce preparation breath. If we're not conscious of it, it's really easy to breathe like this when we're preparing to inoculate or administer oral medication for example. We hold our breath as we insert the needle adding stress to our systems and making the animal feel more stressed than they need to.

The past few weeks I've been combining CameliDynamics handling with a series of skin treatments I've needed to do on some of our black girls who are losing fleece on their face. The first couple of weeks I spent a huge amount of time standing behind them and out of arms reach whilst they walked around and around in circles. (Standing behind their eye and 'looking with the animal' ie. facing in the same direction as them, helps them to access their escape route and helps disengage their flight response). I wondered how I'd ever get this to work. I had to be completely present. I had to breathe, consider my position in the pen, consider other factors such as where Kierra who was helping me was standing. I had to watch their body language and how they were moving. It was an intensely present moment orienting experience.

And once I'd finally got my hands on the animal, I had to think about the animal's position, whether they were standing in balance and how I could adjust what I was doing to bring them back. I had to watch for signs or stress and signs of relaxation and take my time to gradually progress to making contact with heads and noses. At first there was a lot of resistance, particularly from our more feral girls.

Then a few weeks in, I had a magical moment. Annie stood completely still whilst I offered TTouch techniques on her ears, head and nose bone (a massage approach for animals created by the phenomenal animal behaviour expert Linda Tellington-Jones). I was remembering to breathe deeply, relax my shoulders, keep a light hold on the catch rope and let her just stand. It was so profound that it stayed with me for the whole week. The relaxation in our systems was palpable. I was getting a huge amount from the contact and she seemed to be calmly receiving the touch. I can't say she was enjoying it because who knows but her body language was one of relaxation - loose moving ears, tail released from her body, standing in balance, breathing evenly.

Since that moment with Annie, I've only had one session where we were at a stand-off and it was a day when I was under more time pressure than normal. The sun was setting, I had left myself too little time and I had to get back to teach a class. She knew. Bina the other girl I was working with and generally have no issues with knew. They were near impossible to catch and then reacted badly to my touch. I thought I was being calm but I wasn't calm. It just wasn't there because I was rushed. It was so interesting to me and reminded me how crucially important it is to not feel the pressure of time. It's not always possible, we have a set amount of time to get things done. But it doesn't help at all and it makes things doubly harder!

It's also had me checking in with myself when I'm parenting. Stressful moments of the day like Dolores refusing to open her mouth to brush her teeth or refusing to have her hair brushed have changed in their dynamic. I am remembering her creaturely nature and 'getting light' with her as Marty would say. Noticing if I'm gripping her shoulder whilst trying to help her brush her teeth (why am I doing that?!), noticing if I'm not breathing well when she's having some big feelings, becoming aware of my own behaviour if she's being resistant for any reason.

The crossovers between yoga, meditation and CameliDynamics are huge. Presence, breath, body awareness, awareness of environment... So I'm very excited that in February I'll be taking a course that will allow me to work with alpacas for the benefit of human well-being and I just can't bloody wait. Watch this space.

And thank you for nerding out with me if you made it this far!

Carly x

Originally shared on my Patreon page here.

(I don't usually wear make-up at all, let alone for farming 😂, I was about to head to our Christmas party on the farm and indulged in one of my twice yearly make-upping sessions. Dolores told me she didn't like my face and wanted it off 😂).

Me with gorgeous Annie working her ears.