Get help from Lost Creek Llamas!

Behavior and/or management consultation

We offer behavior consultation (email and, if necessary, phone followup) for problem and pre-problem llama behavior, including management tips to maximize the chances that a difficult llama or situation will have a happy ending, or that a potential problem never manifests.

All that's required is for YOU to be willing and able to safely do the work and implement suggestions and tips. We don't pretend to have the magic one-step secret code to change a leopard's spots ... but chances are we can definitely help you understand and work with the llama you have.

For especially complicated cases, it helps if you have the ability to record and post (not send!) video.

 

Build skills & shorten your learning curve!

Hands-on instruction and experience

Sessions are structured according to each student's needs; topics run the gammut:

We use the Get Connected! principles of relationship first and natural handling techniques to build comfort and competence in humans so they can accelerate gaining trust and maintain that trust with their own llamas. YOU get trained; our llamas help us teach and they do all the grading! :-)

2023 fees:

• Lessons by the hour, tailored to your needs — $25/hour, 1 hour minimum
• Half-day — $100 (4+ hours)
• Full day or two half-days (afternoon + following morning) — $200 (8+ hours)

Half-days can be scheduled for mornings with Jim or afternoons with Gwen, or can span the middle of the day with either one or both of us.

You will be responsible for your own meals and (if applicable) overnight accommodations in the area. There are multiple motels, RV parks and campgrounds located 15-30 minutes away.

Prices are for one adult, and remain the same for one additional family member.

ALL VISITORS MUST be fragrance-free, and NO ONE is to arrive in vehicles with “air fresheners” or other scent-emitting devices.  Chemical exposure to either of us will result in cancellation and forfeiture of fees paid.  We thank you for understanding.

 

Bring your llama

Llama-human pairs can visit Lost Creek Llamas for personalized Get Connected! training sessions. Build your partnership under skilled guidance. Your llama will thank you, and you'll be happy you made the effort!

We offer shearing and toenail trimming on-site for llamas who require a chute for safety, and instruction for first-time llama owners who want to learn to do their own maintenance. Shearing is $40 per llama ($50 for llamas with woolly necks and/or legs) and $10 per llama for a complete toenail inspection and trim.

We have a llama scale on site. If your llama is already here, ask for your free weigh-in!

NOTE: We DO NOT accept outside llamas to be trained by us. Llama training is overwhelmingly a process of trust-building and establishing a mutual language; the human who will handle the llama MUST be fully involved in the process.

NOTE: We reserve the right to decline to provide services for any llama. The health and well-being of ourselves and our own llamas will always take priority. We are pretty savvy and extremely resourceful, and thus have never needed to turn away any animal to date ... but the clause remains in force, just in case we are someday presented with an unusually dangerous, ill, infected, or parasitized llama.

 

Off-site instruction

We can, in some cases, provide similar educational sessions with peoples' own llamas at their own locaction.

A travel fee will be assessed for sessions held at locations other than our farm, and we still require a fragrance-free environment — including fragrance-free restroom facilities for ourselves.

NOTE: We CANNOT offer llama pack trips for renumeration, even if they are only for educational purposes. This falls within the definition of "guiding" according to the USFS, which requires a valid and current outfitter's permit.

 

Apprenticeships

*** NO APPRENTICESHIP SLOTS AVAILABLE IN 2023 ***

Applicants for apprenticeship MUST be fragrance-free and MUST commit to a regular schedule (typically between 1-8x per month, with a certain level of two-way flexibility).  Length of apprenticeships vary depending on applicant goals and current skill level with llamas.

Farm duties expected in return for instruction include manure maintenance, weed removal (by hand — no chemicals), and potentially assisting with both routine and emergency repairs. As task-appropriate skills are gained, duties will gradually include weighing llamas, grooming, handling llamas who are ready for their “stranger training" component, and accompanied day hikes with llama trainees.

Apprenticeships typically cover all basic educational material — handling, care, savvy, and an introduction to Get Connected! training techniques, plus in-depth focus with hands-on experience in an area chosen by the apprentice. A FEW examples of possible in-depth focuses include:

• learn to llama pack including actual trail time
• learn to drive a trained llama with actual outings
• basic llama grooming, shearing, and maintenance as a business
• evaluating llamas for conformation, soundness, gait and biomechanical suitability
for specific working pursuits
• training young llamas
• introducing a llama to a pack saddle and panniers
• introducing a llama to a driving harness and cart (this particular opportunity will be extremely limited; inquire when applying if this is important to you)

The in-depth sessions will come towards the end of the apprenticeship — that is, when prerequisite basic skill have been gained and the amount of farm work independently completed advances to the point that our time is free up to devote to those extra learning activities.

Applicants who have taken at least one basic handling session from us are generally given preference. Contact us by email if you are interested.

*** NO APPRENTICESHIP SLOTS AVAILABLE IN 2023 ***

 

Meet some llamas, no strings attached!

Farm tours

For people who would really like to meet some llamas for the fun of it, even though they are not in a position to own them. Tours typically lasts around one hour. Best time of day to visit will depend on the time of year.

Visitors will learn appropriate conduct around llamas, and then get to meet our llamas and witness normal llama behavior and personalities in appropriately-sized herds. Some llamas will be interested in meeting visitors; others not so much. That's llamas!

Visitors will also have the opportunity to meet our Norwegian Fjord horses if they wish. 99.9% of all Fjords love people, and ours are no exception.

$15 for the first adult; $10 each additional adult. Children MUST be accompanied by and actively supervised by an adult.

ALL VISITORS MUST be fragrance-free, and NO ONE is to arrive in vehicles with “air fresheners” or other scent-emitting devices.  Chemical exposure to either of us will result in cancellation and forfeiture of fees paid.  We thank you for understanding.

 

Links to more services

Get Connected! workshops

Classic Llama stud services

lost creek llamaprints