Camel training incident

Coolgardie — 1999-10-10

Tom says it would be good to let Sebastian and Hardy graze on his front lawn for a while. “Sure, we’ll get him”, Tanja and I say. I have great difficulties trying to get Sebastian to move through the passage between house and fence that is about 2 metres wide. Narrow walks which are limited by something on both sides, be it dark shrubs or vehicles, houses, fences, or anything else, are often a nightmare to camels. Sebastian struggles with all his strength to go into the front yard. “Walk up, Sebastian!” I shout bravely. But Sebastian refuses to go another centimetre. On the contrary, he runs backward and simply pulls me along with him. I try to stop but Sebastian with his 800 kilograms of weight seems only to smile about my attempt to run him through this absolutely harmless arcade. Grimly I fight and call my commands . Suddenly the nose cord breaks! Tom immediately comes running to help me. I fasten a new nose cord and start the game anew. This time Tom drives Sebastian from behind and gives him an slight smack on the bottom. You’ve just to know how to do it! This time it works without difficulties. In order to get Sebastian out of this bad habit, Tom recommends that I repeat the whole procedure three times. In the end I stand proud as a nutcracker in his front yard. By the way, Tanja leads Hardy, and she has hardly any trouble with him at all.