How to Herd Alpacas

I don't claim to be an expert on herding alpacas, but I can usually get ours to go where I want them and often with a minimum of fuss. I've read books, watched training videos, and watched other breeders herd alpacas. I've got lots of suggestions I can offer. They won't all apply to all alpacas and owners and all situations, but based on what I've seen, most alpaca owners can learn and apply these tricks at least some of the time.

Many, many years ago, I played a year of high school football. As a rather slow-footed defender, I learned that I could not chase the running back. Instead, I had to put myself in a position to make the tackle. When in lateral pursuit of the running back, I wanted to stay one step upfield and one step behind the running back. If the running back didn't turn, he would run out of bounds. If the running back turned upfield, I would take one more step laterally while he took a step upfield -- putting me in position to make the tackle. If the running back cut back, I was right in the cutback lane ready to make the tackle. If I got as deep into the backfield as the running back and the running back turned upfield, I was still a step behind. If I was upfield of the running back and he cut back, I was out of position.

Let's apply this same analogy to alpacas. Alpacas are faster than humans. Just like running backs, they don't want to be caught. Like a slow linebacker, a human herding alpacas has to learn to use the fence -- sideline -- and how to be in the right position.

The first mistake I see alpaca owners making when they're herding alpacas is getting too close to the animals. If it is going to take you five steps to close the escape route when the alpaca dodges, then you better be far enough away from the alpaca that you have time to take five steps before the alpaca gets there. If you're two steps from the alpaca, you'll never get there in time. If you're seven to ten steps back, then you can take five steps sideways before the alpaca arrives.

Even better, the alpaca knows you have time to take those five steps, so they know the potential gap isn't worth exploiting! This means you seldom need to take those five steps.

This brings me to my second point. Escape routes. Alpacas are prey animals. If you're chasing them, they see you as a predator. They will try to escape. They'll take the best available escape route. If you chase them, they will run around the pasture all day making a fool of you because they're faster than you are and they have very good escape instincts.

Fundamentally, herding alpacas means convincing the alpaca to choose the escape route you want the alpacas to take.

As a general rule, if the alpaca is running, it means the human is chasing. If the alpaca is walking, the human is herding. Like all general rules, this one isn't always true -- sometimes the alpaca will run to where you want it to go. If the alpaca is running someplace other than where you want it to go, this general rule applies.

Let me say that again. Herding alpacas means you choose the escape route the alpacas take.

And one more time. Chasing an alpaca means the alpaca chooses the escape route. Herding an alpaca means you choose the escape route.

If you want the alpaca in the barn, you herd the alpaca into the barn by manipulating conditions so the alpaca sees the barn as the best way to escape from the pursing human.

It's a very simple concept -- one that's not always so easy in practice.

For more information on herding alpacas and suggestions regarding catch pens and pasture layout, please see Camelidynamics, an excellent website maintained by Marty McGee Bennett.

Merry Christmas!

Our alpacas had some holiday excitement. These events are described from both Georgia's and Chloe's perspectives.

Merry Christmas!

Alpacas on a Frosty Morning

One of my least favorite chores as an alpaca breeder is breaking ice on water buckets first thing in the morning -- while the coffee is still brewing and before I'm fully awake.

The frost was so pretty this morning that I took the camera out with me when I went to chip the ice and pour hot water into the buckets.


Donovan and Percy in the frosty morning.

Note the dark patches on the ground where there is no frost. This is where the alpacas bedded down for the night. There is a nice, deep, bed of straw on the floor in the shed, but the boys generally spend the night out in the pasture unless it's raining.

All that frost is on the tips of their fiber. The animals are nice and warm at the skin. Because of the cold, I checked carefully and none of the alpacas were shivering this morning. They're hardy and they have enough fiber at this time of year that if they can stay dry and out of the wind, they'll be fine.


Donovan covered with frost.

Note the tufts of hay hanging over Donovan's eyes and the heavy frost at the tips of his ears. Donovan has long tufts of fiber on his ears and these hairs were covered with heavy frost this morning. All the frost on his ears, however, is on the tips of the longer hairs, not on the short hairs covering the skin. His ears are plenty warm.

Most of our alpacas seem to think the hay at the bottom of the bin tastes better than the hay at the top. When they eat, they make little tunnels into the hay bin as they munch and burrow the way to the bottom. Some of the hay from the sides of the tunnel gets caught on their topknots. That's what you see hanging down over Donovan's eyes.


Percy covered with frost.

Christmas on Clearance -- a Digression

Warning: Today's entry is a digression on Christmas and corporate retail. It has nothing to do with spinning, knitting, fiber, or alpacas. Fiber blog purists may wish to stop reading now. Sentimental traditionalists read on!

When I was growing up, Christmas didn't really start until the 24th. Partly this is due to my father's tradition in which the Christmas season lasts from December 24th to January 1 and the children don't see the tree until Christmas day.

But mostly it's due to the fact that we ran a Christmas Tree Farm.

And it's not like we didn't do anything for Christmas before the 24th. I have no idea how mom managed to purchase (and hide) all the presents and fill the fridge for the Christmas feasts, but somehow she did. Somehow I managed to get to all my rehearsals and Christmas concerts. It's just that we really didn't start doing any decorating or celebrating until after the last weekend before Christmas. There were years when we finally cut our own tree about noon Christmas Eve, decorated it in a hurry, stuffed the presents underneath, and hurriedly opened them so we could get up at 5:00 AM for the four-hour drive to Grandmother's on Christmas day.

No wonder we didn’t do much between Christmas and New Years. We were tired.

I remember the time between Christmas and New Years quite fondly. Dad usually took the week off from his day job. We'd spend a few hours working on the farm, and then hole up in the house to read or play board games. It was family time -- close, relaxed family time.

Except for a tradition of the Christmas carols hitting the stereo the Friday after Thanksgiving, my youthful Christmas celebration really started sometime after December 20th and ended with a return to work or school after New Years Day. I think the family time between Christmas and New Years is a lot of what makes Christmas so important to me today.

And that's why I object so much to the "Christmas" season of my current retail employer. I arrived at work one day in late September to find a Santa and Jumbo Snow Globe on display outside the store. Now, two weeks prior to the actual holiday, Christmas is almost over for the store. Markdown of holiday merchandise has begun (but lest you rush to my place of employment on reading this blog, please note the keyword is begun.) Christmas shelves are being reset to the usual items. And, we can't get any more Christmas trees for the garden center.

Yup, Christmas is almost over and it's only the 12th.

Sad. Very sad. And, I think, very symptomatic of what's wrong with the big retail industry in the United States.

To explain, I once again digress to my childhood Christmas.

As a child, we would happily re-arrange our Christmas Eve schedule to help somebody purchase a last minute Christmas tree. It wasn't that we really needed the money from those last few sales, but helping somebody else celebrate Christmas was the right thing to do. Part of giving at Christmas was giving of our time and schedule to help make somebody else's holiday -- and it felt good to do so.

Last minute sales were sometimes a pain, but they were an expected part of the holiday. Christmas never went without glitches in my childhood household and customers were but one more aspect of the adventure.

Adventure makes for a wonderful, if interesting, holiday.

So here I am working retail for a major chain. It's two weeks before Christmas. Just as I'm getting close enough to Christmas to really get in the Christmas mood, Christmas is on clearance.

No wonder the retail industry keeps disappointing Wall Street with Christmas sales figures. The holiday is being pushed so hard and so early that Christmas revenue is being moved into September and Christmas sales tail off before December really gets going.

It's December 12th. Christmas is on clearance. The party's over before the holiday has really begun.

Still Catching Up

I'm still catching up from the Christmas Fair.

The accounting has been done -- twice. Hopefully, all the last-minute expenses have finally been submitted so that we don't have to do the accounting a third time. It's amazing how much time -- and particularly mental energy -- sorting out the accounting for the Christmas Fair booth takes. And, I shouldn't be the one to complain since Pam does 99% of it.

The spinning wheel is still dumped in the middle of the living room floor approximately where I sit and spin. I have not yet taken the effort to set it back up -- and of course this means I haven't taken advantage of any odd moments to spin.

The major recovery, though, is energy. Because I spent the days off from my day job at the Christmas Fair, I really didn't get any rest. I just feel tired. The adrenaline from the Christmas Fair carries me a while, but then I just get tired.

I did start some knitting. After about three false starts, I ripped out the knitting and grabbed a crochet hook instead. I'm working on an open pattern hat and it is about half complete. The pattern is a fairly simple one that I think of as a double crochet "V". The basic pattern is dc-ch1-dc in next stitch, skip a stitch. Once you're beyond the starting chain, the pattern works very well if you set it up so you dc in dc - ch1 dc in next dc - skip one chain. It's a nice open pattern for lace to sport weight alpaca. The pattern is open enough to look lacey, but closed enough the item still provides warmth.

I still want to learn to knit lace and I wish I could simply pick up some knitting needles and create a similar pattern and make a hat on the fly. I'm not that good yet. When I want to actually make something and finish it, I still reach for the crochet hooks. (And I couldn't find any knit hat patterns worked in the round on two straight needles …)

In other news, the Christmas lights are up and I have started putting decorations around the house. We use the Christmas lights in the Christmas Fair booth so I can't start putting them up until after the fair. We've gone from "waiting for Christmas" mode to "omygod Christmas is coming realsoonnow andthehouseisamess" mode. Fortunately, our major event for the season is over and we'll soon be able to start relaxing enough to enjoy the season.

Radio and Newspaper -- the Story

It always seems to take longer than I expect to recover and get re-organized after an event. Here is the story behind the teaser post from December third.

Friday evening at the Roseburg Christmas Craft Fair, I was sitting and spinning at our booth. Pam, Marilyn, and Sheryl were standing at the back of the booth. A gentleman wandered into the booth and asked if anybody wanted to be on the radio. The three exchanged quick glances and then Pam pointed at me.

Nominated.

Pam and I talked about what I would say as we walked over to do the interview and we agreed I would emphasize the Christmas Craft Fair rather than our booth in an effort to encourage listeners to come visit the whole craft fair and all the booths.

One of our local radio stations was attempting to do a live broadcast from the Christmas fair. After several false starts due to technical difficulties, the interviewer introduced me and explained to the radio audience how I was sitting and weaving at our booth.

Yes, the word she used was, "weaving".

Gulp.

I was mentally prepared for a lot of questions. Introduced as weaving, however, was not something I was prepared for. After a second, I said, "That's right, I'm sitting in front of my booth spinning some lovely alpaca fiber to make handspun yarn …" After that very smooth transition from weaving to spinning, I proceeded to start mumbling and thoroughly mangle my words.

Just as I was fully inserting both feet into my mouth, the technical guy interrupted and said we were off the air due to additional technical difficulties. Actually, I think the technical difficulties began prior to my interview, so I don't think any of the interview made it onto the air. Considering how I mangled my carefully considered words, perhaps it's just as well.

On Saturday, a photographer from the News-Review, our local newspaper, spent quite a bit of time in the booth. He took some pictures of the booth and spent a lot of time taking pictures of me at the spinning wheel. I tried to focus on what I was doing and to ignore him, so I'm not sure if he was taking pictures of me spinning or talking to customers. I think that he was trying to capture expressions on faces when people felt how soft our alpaca teddy bears were.

And to explain this, I must digress.

One of the predictable features at a show is the way people react to alpaca. At fiber shows, the reaction is different because spinners know what alpaca feels like. At general shows, though, people think they're walking by a booth full of clothing. If they're even looking at the clothing at all, they're looking at cut, style, and color. They stop to look at the spinning wheel or to talk to me, or because the person in front of them stopped. I go into my spiel talking about alpaca. They listen politely. They're skeptical -- and why shouldn't they be. After all, the advertising world is full of inflated claims and while I'm sure I'm enthusiastic, my claims probably sound no more believable than half a million others we're faced with every day.

I ask, "Have you ever felt alpaca fiber to feel how soft it is?"

Bystanders shake their heads and look a little put on the spot.

Then, I pull out my secret weapon -- really soft alpaca fiber! At the Christmas fair, I was using a basket full of alpaca teddy bears.

I hand the basket of teddy bears to the bystander. They touch it out of politeness. Their face lights up, and they exclaim something like, "Oh, that's really soft!" Then, they take the fiber from my hands and hand it to a more hesitant member of the group and say, "Here, feel this." The hesitant person is now put on the spot and has to touch the fiber. They do so and another face lights up.

Happens every time.

Now back to our photographer. I think he was trying to capture the expression on people's faces when they felt how soft the alpaca was. There is an instant when faces really light up and I suspect it's a very photogenic moment if you can press the shutter at the right time.

The photographer said the pictures, if they were used, would be in the Sunday News-Review. To my knowledge, they weren't used.

I guess I'm zero for two on media coverage from the Christmas Fair.

Still, I think it's very interesting that I'm getting coverage. We must be doing something right. There are over 400 vendors at the Christmas fair and some of those people have been selling at the fair for twenty or thirty years.

Radio and Newspaper

I spent most of yesterday and much of today spinning and the Roseburg Christmas Craft Fair at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. Our both is in a great location in the brand new Conference Building. We have a double booth on the back wall opposite the central aisle so our banner can be seen from the far end of the building. We're set up so I'm sitting and spinning at the front of our booth so I can talk to everyone as they walk by. My job is to attract attention so customers enter the booth where others can conduct the sales.

It's a lot of fun. I'm talking about spinning. I'm talking about alpacas. I'm telling folks, "No, they aren't llamas." I'm saying, "No, it isn't wool and I don't have sheep!" Mostly, though, I just sit and spin and talk and enjoy myself. Even with all the talking and sales pitches, I managed to spin an entire bobbin of very thin singles using some lovely black, suri alpaca. Someday, I'll spin the other bobbin full and have some wonderful yarn for lacework or other lightweight, open pattern garments.

Most of the kids want to try the spinning wheel. Lots of people want to know if I built my own wheel. Even though this is my fourth year at the show, a lot of people don't believe a man can spin -- if I'm not at the wheel, they start asking Pam how to use it. These shows can take patience.

Unlike some booths where customers aren't supposed to touch anything, the rule in our booth is, "You must touch everything!" It's one of the my best sales lines -- I must have used it 100 times today.

If you're in the Roseburg area, the fair continues tomorrow from 11:00 AM until 5:00 PM. It's a great event. Stop by the booth and feel just how soft alpaca is. (Unfortunately, I have to work my day job tomorrow, so I won't be at the craft fair until just before teardown.) If you've already been to our booth, thanks for stopping by.

And what does this all have to do with the title? That's another story from the fair. You'll need to post some comments to remind me to tell the tale.