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A school environment is a very different environment
from the normal one that most animals would be used to.
There’s a much higher frequency of handling required in a school,
bells go, students come, they don’t necessarily understand
that animals require the quietness and the calmness
to keep them in a stress free way.
Many students are unaccustomed to working around animals
and it’s our job to train them in what animals require.
Most animals like slow movements, so we need to teach
our students to not run around them.
We also need to teach our students to speak nice and quietly
around the animals, screaming, yelling, throwing bags,
all those sorts of things can really unsettle an animal
and make our handling of them much more stressful.
In a classroom situation you’d first explain exactly
what’s expected of them.
Students also need to know animal behaviours,
so they need to be able to stand and observe
what’s happening to the animals in a paddock.
A calm animal is an easier animal to handle,
it’s also a much safer animal to handle.
These are important things when dealing with
large animals particularly alpacas.
They can tend to be quite flighty, but if you deal with them
quietly and consistently in a normal tone of voice,
speak to your animals whilst you’re handling them,
touch your animals frequently, get them used to being touched
around the places where they wouldn’t normally,
for example around their head and their bonnet and their ears.
This will also ensure that management time when you’re
shearing or drenching or vaccinating or hoof paring
that the animals would become less stressed and the
management practice will be much safer, much cleaner
and much more efficient.
Alpaca harnesses are different from sheep harnesses,
they’re basically in a different proportion and generally
a bit softer around the nose.
Alpacas are obligate nose breathers which means that
they breathe through their nose.
If you pinch over the top of their nose or have their harness
too low on their nose, then they actually interferes
with their breathing.
It’s important that you fit the harness properly and you
instruct students on how to fit the harness properly
so it’s snug up at the top of the nose and nice and tight
around the back of the neck, this prevents the animal
from becoming distressed with breathing difficulties.