Teaching beginner camels to lead for the first time.

Camels Tashkent, Rumi and Simpson learn to lead for the first time behind ‘Queen Millie’.

There are many ways to teach a camel to lead, or be lead. I’ll always choose the least stressful option for my camels wherever possible.

Camels are easier to teach when supported by another camel, especially an experienced, confident, older camel. We don’t call Millie, ‘Queen 👑 Millie’ for nothing. Mille is one of our proudest older camels having worked on treks for 10 years and more recently she has been a lead camel.
What are you watching in this footage -

Ed and Lucille have been have been working alongside Mille for four months now and they are all very familiar and comfortable with each other, this is a benefit.

Millie walks up nicely, and at a steady, predictable pace. We wouldn’t put the new camels behind another newly trained young camel, as either one could set the other off into a run, verses the benefit of a young camel behind a confident elder who won’t take off or spook at anything. This assists enormously with building confidence in the younger camels.

The rope connected to Millie is a short length to prevent the rear beginner camel from shifting / switching to the other side of Millie. We teach our camels to walk up on the left hand side and to stay on this side. This I hope will make more sense when we start posting videos of how we teach camels to walk in strings.

The position of the rope on the beginner camel being lead is tied at the highest point of the neck, at the junction crease, below the head. This position offers better proprioceptive feedback for the camel whilst being lead.

Full credit goes to Queen Millie and huge kudos to Ed and Lucille for your patience and care with the new recruits in training.

What if you and your camel are on your own - start in a small yard applying gentle leading pressure on the rope asking the camel to ‘walk on’ or ‘walk up’. *Encourage the camel to focus on you, I sometimes make a clicking sound, something different to get their attention. As soon as the camel moves forward release all pulling / leading pressure, no matter how gentle the pressure was, have the rope fully relaxed at this point. Don’t be in a hurry to cover distance, be patient with baby steps. There might be generous pauses between moving forward, this matters not. However try to avoid dragging out any lessons, focus on short sessions, finishing on a sweet note!

Видео Teaching beginner camels to lead for the first time. канала Camel Treks Australia Pty Ltd