We are new in the alpaca business; we have purchased three young ones along with two pregnant females.  We have been working with the little ones to lead and seem to go good.  Then one will decide to go up on her back feet.  How can this habit be broke?  The other female will lead and then go into a stage of throwing herself around and pulling on the lead. 

I have a young male that does pretty good leading but I am not able to touch his back legs.  What do I need to do to make him feel comfortable with my present on the back side?  I have been reading your articles, but have not really found one that gives me suggestion on how to go about the process.

In my purchase of the animals, I have one female that is from Chile and she will not lead.  I have been told that she will never be able to lead.  This makes things hard when a person needs to do herd health.  I need to get her to the scales and etc. 

Also the other female seems to have a bad attitude and will spit on people at times.  I find this hard to have people to visit, I always worry about someone getting spit on, is there a good way to break her of this bad habit?

I would like very much to attend one of your seminars, but I have not seen one for my surrounding area that would be close to travel.  How can a person arrange to have a seminar in a location?

You have asked a lot of questions!  It seems that you need to get my book the Camelid Companion and read it cover to cover.  You can get my book from my website www.camelidynamics.com or many other places.  My book will answer your questions in more detail that I can address here.  I would also suggest coming to a clinic so that you can learn some new handling techniques.  A few comments to get you started. 

Rearing (going up on the back feet) or throwing themselves around on the lead is usually caused by leading with a heavy hand or too short a lead.  These are things you can change by learning about leading and handling.  I recommend leading in a long narrow aisle way to start with until the animal calms down. 

Handling legs is one of the most difficult aspects of handling.  Use a container just about as big as you and the animal rather than tying the animal and do this with a second person who can balance the animal while you trim. It is very difficult to trim toenails by yourself. 

Certainly any animal can learn to lead it may be harder in some cases than others.  Try constructing a lane way to your scale so that you can herd the animal to the scale.  If you decide to try and teach her to lead by using a very long lead in a long narrow space this may help give the animal the courage to try again. 

As far as spitting goes I suggest not noticing the behavior AT ALL.  Dress for dealing with animals and do laundry when you are done.  Use the bracelet technique (more info on this on the Camelidynamics  Forum) as you work with her and you can make sure that when she does spit it will be in the direction you choose.  The bottom line is that you can't keep an alpaca from spitting you can only behave in a way that makes your alpaca feel safe enough not to have to spit. 

Good luck,
Marty