1. To be haltered.



2. To walk along with you when on a leash, keeping the leash loose.

3. To load into a vehicle.

4. To allow you to touch him all over his body, as you might do when combing out his wool, putting on a pack, or examining a wound.

In addition, you can train a llama to do many other things. Sitting down (called "kushing") and getting back up can be taught. Some llamas have been taught to drive to cart, and they are quite a sight in parades. A good number of llamas do what their Andean ancestors did and become pack animals. They are trained in carrying a pack.

"Llamas are very fast learners," says Bobra Goldsmith, a well-known llama trainer. "When you are teaching a llama something, don't be surprised if he gets it after just a few trials."

After hearing her say that, I decided to see how many times I would have to load my llama Whiskers into the side door of our VW van before he would just jump in. It only took me five times. After that, he always knew exactly what to do, even if some months had gone by without an expedition that called for him to get into the van. Try teaching a dog something in just five repetitions! It will rarely work.

Speaking of dogs, llamas learn much more quickly than dogs to walk easily when on a leash. Where a typical dog will be pulling this way and that at first, llamas are far more likely to keep the leash quite loose. So it's great fun to hike with them. By the way, if you are out hiking with a llama and you see one or more horses coming along the trail towards you, do give way to them. Horses can be rather afraid of llamas when they first meet.

Bobra has had many llamas herself and out of her experience she has developed many ways to train them. For instance, she teaches llamas to allow themselves to be haltered by using a slow movement in approaching their faces with the halter. The animals seem to appreciate the calmness, and it's really quite easy for anyone to learn to halter llamas this way. Her methods are also widely used with alpacas.

She trains llamas of all ages, and you can learn to do it too. While you might wish that all your llamas would be already trained when you get them, you are likely to find some that need more work. This is because people often don't know how to train or they just don't bother. But you can get a DVD online which shows Bobra Goldsmith's methods. It's useful for learning to train llamas, naturally -- that's what it was made for -- but it also turns out that quite a few people get the DVD before they get llamas, to get a sense of what is involved in llama training.