Understanding behaviour

Victoria Barrett, from Simply Alpaca, outlines how applied behaviour science offers a better understanding of alpaca behaviour and explains how Camelidynamics can help you to handle your animals without using force.

Presenting a BAS webinar Victoria said that when she first learnt about applied behaviour science “it required a fundamental shift in the way I thought when I interacted with them”.

“To really change our animals’ behaviour first we have got to change our own, and in Camelidynamics we are looking for a commitment to facilitate rather than force behaviour to change the quality of our relationships with our animals,” she explained.

The definition of behaviour is “the way a person or animal behaves in response to a certain stimulus or situation”. Research in the 1800s resulted in a set of laws and one, ‘The Law of Effect’ finds that “in any given situation, the likelihood of a behaviour occurring is related to the consequences that behaviour has produced in the past”.

Behaviour is therefore a tool used to produce consequences – for example alpacas may act in an affectionate manner for food. And, in behaviour science, a consequence is defined as “the event that strengthens the behaviour that it immediately follows”.

“When the consequences of a behaviour results in something of value such as food, freedom or females for example then that behaviour will be repeated and strengthened,” Victoria said.

“When the consequence is adversive – being grabbed or being caught, being injected, or having toenails clipped, or many of the other things that we do – then that behaviour is less likely to be repeated.”

Feedback that influences behaviour comes from the environment including inaminate objects, other animals and people or handlers; it then follows that learning can be described as behaviour change due to experience. “This means when it comes to the way our animals behave around us, or for us, understanding how our animals experience us and our behaviour couldn’t be more important,” Victoria said.

Victoria is often asked about alpaca and llama behaviour by owners who may give their animals labels such as dominant, sad, aggressive or stubborn “or anything else to describe what they think is going on”.

However, a working definition of behaviour is not what an animal is or has, but rather what it does that can be measured, or observed given certain conditions, Victoria explained. “The problem with labels is that we think we understand the problem when we have just given it a name. Labels also create self-fulfilling prophesies often causing the owner to get what they expect.”

Refusal to walk on a halter and lead rope is an example. “Steady pressure is applied to the lead by the handler and the animal applies equal and opposite force. The animal is labelled stubborn and the owner pulls more so the animal pulls back more and no one is going anywhere.”

Labels describe an animal rather than what they do, Victoria said. More importantly they absolve human handlers of any responsibility as they decide it is the animals’ fault. “We can’t teach animals what to be, they will be who they are, but we can teach them what to do and when to do it. So, when we focus on behaviour, we are really looking at changing the way we think about it and describing accurately what we see.”

Describing what we see, rather than labelling, is known as operationalisation and offers the potential to prevent and change problematic behaviour. For example, rather than saying my alpaca is happy we can say that it is quiet, grazing and ruminating; or rather than my alpaca loves me, she will come when called and allow herself to be stroked, particularly when offered food.

Beserk male syndrome

Victoria described how Eddie, a llama came to her with the label ‘beserk male’ which some owners believe is a syndrome an animal is born with. “This makes the assumption that his human care givers had nothing to do with it, but more recently it is better known as novice handler syndrome and this is exactly what happened to Eddie,” Victoria said.

Eddie was an only cria with an owner who “wasn’t well versed” in alpaca behaviour. As a friendly, outgoing cria Eddie ran up to his owner as a playmate because he had no other cria to play with. His owner interacted with him, he found this positively reinforcing, therefore his behaviour was reinforced.

“We all know that when they are little and 10-15kg alpacas are cute, but when they start jumping up at you having grown to 80-90kg then that behaviour which used to be cute is suddenly dangerous.

“It’s purely from handlers with limited experience, or knowledge, that creates this behaviour, and creates these individuals known as beserk males,” Victoria explained.

Reducing such problematic, and often dangerous, behaviour is difficult as it occurs as a result of an ongoing interaction between genetics, behavioural history and the environment. A systematic and simple ABC approach, taking into account the antecedent stimulus (A) immediately before the behaviour (B) and the consequence (C) of that behaviour, is needed to resolve any problematic behaviour including kicking, spitting or cushing.

Victoria said: “It is possible to stop pushing our alpacas’ kick, spit and cush buttons but first we need to know where they are, and identifying the antecedent stimulus is where to start. It’s the consequences that will then strengthen or weaken future behaviour in the same situation.”

Owners want alpacas to be comfortable around people and humans are “a touchy feely species” that enjoy hugging soft, cuddly animals “and this tends to make for a no man’s land around camelids”. Understanding non-verbal communication cues, or body language is key to an appropriate, and positive, interaction. “Once we understand their body language then we can see the effects of our attempts to hug, stroke or reach out to them and we can start to see that it is really quite uncomfortable for them. So, reaching out consistently will reinforce to the alpaca to step no closer than an arms’ length away from us.

“The same logic applies to the method that many people use to catch their alpacas – if you use the corner, grab, hold method with any animal that gets close enough then an animal will learn that if I get up and run away then I can’t be caught, and that’s really not what we want for our animals.”

A better approach, Victoria said is “to operationalise trust as we all want our animals to trust us”. An animal with trust in humans will have a certain level of certainty that an interaction will result in good outcomes. “Animals that are able to trust humans will use their behaviour to confidently approach rather than escape opportunities to interact with people,” she added.

Camelidynamics is a collection of methods using the most positive least intrusive methods of training and handling. Based on behavioural science it uses methods that focus on containment rather than restraint. It is also an approach that has an awareness of the need to provide an alpaca with company, an escape route, and an environment that feels safe as well as the opportunity to experience positive reinforcement.

Developed by Marty McGee, Camelidynamics also focuses on progressive densensitisation; working in small steps to address problematic behaviours including biting, spitting or cushing, or being used to human touch. It is about working in balance, and without force, but with an understanding of an alpaca’s behavioural needs.