I had attended a clinic years ago and have used many of Marty's techniques, but somehow missed how useful a mini catch pen could be. I attended another clinic this May and the light bulb went off. It's not the procedure you are doing with the llama, so much as the fact that they are restrained that upsets them. One of my llamas screamed and spit when I tried to shear her in the chute. I put her and her sister in a small pen, and easily did a barrel cut on her with hand shears. She still spit some, but nothing like before. As it has heated up, she needed to be given a full body cut. This time she was in a small pen by herself, with other llamas in the next pen. Again she still spit some, but midway thru she calmed down and just stood there. I just got 6 more llamas who were not worked with much. They were quite matted and needed to be body sheared, so again I put them in the mini catch pen and was pretty successful getting them sheared. Wow! Now if I can just get a pair of clippers to work consistently, and not get the cord draped on everything I'll be set! Thanks Marty, for figuring this out for us!
