Terry Crowfoot of the UK clicker trains llamas.

This weekend at a horse event I met a new friend who has llamas and wants to clicker train them. Since I don’t have any experience with llamas, I decided to do a bit of research. What I learned is that llamas are very smart and highly trainable, especially the males.

Jim and Amy Logan of Mead, WA are the foremost authorities in the US on clicker training llamas and have been using this method since the 1990s. They have produced two clicker training videos for llamas.

Useful training for llamas includes putting on a halter, loading and unloading from a trailer, giving their foot, and basic obedience. Fun things you can do with llamas includes picking up objects or retrieving, laying down, rolling over, and negotiating obstacle courses (which would be helpful training if you plan to take your llamas on the trail).

Here Jim explains the process for teaching Spunky the llama to ring a bell. All clicker trainers can benefit from Jim’s description of how he slowly shapes Spunky’s behavior bit by bit to achieve the final desired outcome.

When we are working on a new behavior like ringing the bell, we just don't put the bell in Spunky's pen and stand and wait for him to walk right up to it and ring it. We need to break down the behavior into smaller parts so that Spunky has a reasonable chance for success. First of all, Spunky is already clicker-wise. He knows that the clicker means 'Yes, that's exactly what I wanted you to do!' and that the click is always followed by a reward. We present the bell to Spunky. We watch for even a LOOK from Spunky towards the bell. Click/reward. We look for a movement towards the bell. Click/reward.

We slowly build our behavior until we have Spunky near the bell. Then we work on reinforcing movements towards the bell cord. We start to click/reward any movements and contact with the cord, then we'll reinforce mouthing the cord, then we'll click/reward pulling on the cord, and so on.We can move forward in the shaping process by reinforcing a behavior, such as mouthing the cord, then by withholding reinforcement and asking for more. For example, Spunky may mouth the cord, click/reward. Mouth the cord, click/reward. We have the behavior of mouthing the cord, but we want more. We want Spunky to get more aggressive with the cord so we withhold reinforcement. Spunky mouths the cord. No click/reward. Spunky is surprised! It worked before! Mouth the cord, no click/reward. Spunky will try something different; typically he will modify the current behavior and PULL on the cord. Click/reward

The following charming videos come from Terry Crowfoot in the UK. Her humorous and informational website is listed below and is a must-visit web stop for those wishing to clicker train their llamas. For treats Terry uses fruit and vegetables (carrots, apples, bananas and raisins), crushed corn, horse treats, alfalfa cubes, rabbit food, and even Life Savers candy! Terry is approachable, funny and will respond by email to your questions (her email address is on her website).

More info
Terry Crowfoot’s Mostly Off-Lead Llama Training
Click & Reward Training For Llamas Volume I: Clicker Training Basics
Click & Reward Volume II: Training for Llamas and Alpacas