I love this website because I LOVE camels!!!! I always liked this animal, and after riding a camel in Israel, I was hooked. Gobi sounds like a really cool guy...I'm enjoying looking at these photos and reading these cute anecdotes.
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Hi Roger!! Long time no hear. Well, we took the plunge last year and we have both a Bactrian camel and a Drom. The Drom was two when we got him and had never been kooshed or had anything done with him aside from leading a little. We followed the protocol for kooshing, but stopped immediately when the poor fellow started bellowing. I thought for a moment about how I train the zebras and Przewalski's horse that I now have. (First one in the world that has ever been successfully trained) So I just drew his head down as I lowered my own down, then sank to my knees, while keeping his head down. Within ten seconds he was kooshing. I then went and got the 3 month old Bactrian. I got her to lower her head again, as I lowered mine, used the koosh word to begin recognition of it, and then dropped to my knees. She immediately dropped to her knees. There was not a sound out of either one of the camels, and they happily repeated the process three , then we quit for the day. The next day we repeated the process, and within seconds both camels lay down. By the third day, we just bent over a little and they lay down with the word. By the 5th day, they both just lay down with the word and lowering their head just a little.

Now, I'm a zebra/equine expert, certainly not a camel expert, but by training them the same way we train the zebras and Przewalski's horse, we now have the Bactrian stepping up on the pedestal to the song "I'm the king of the castle", playing the "Hokey Pokey" game in the tire, doing the entire in hand trail course, including tarp, bridge, carpet, water, and all the other obstacles, as well as teaching her to retrieve. We just havn't worked with the older one as much, but will start him again in a couple of weeks. We use our "Friendship Training" techniques and they seem to be working perfectly. We never use a whip or any other corporal punishment, although we do make it clear that we are the 'boss' of the friendship, when any particular event arises that could put us in danger. Usually just a harsh sound like the camels make is enough to settle the matter.

We pulled out one of our rescued alpacas, one that was older and did not like people very much at all, was hard to catch, and often kicked in order not to be caught. We began our Friendship Training techniques with him, and have now taken him to several events, where he loves being touched and handled. He learned to koosh using this same technique in about 5 seconds and now walks straight up to us to be haltered. That all happened in the space of just two weeks from when we brought him in and started him. So, I'm going to work with a friend's camel that is totally out of control starting next week, and will get another one this year of our own to work with. I'll let you know how our Friendship Training works with the 'bad boy'.

I found this on wikipedia:

Most surprisingly, is the story of a Canadian-born camel jockey named Natasha Wakaruk.[6] Raised in a small town called Terrace, British Columbia, Wakaruk spent her early years riding sheep dogs in preparation for camel training. To make it more realistic, she would attach stuffed, double-d sized bras to the back of the dogs, giving them a camel's hump-like appearance.[7] By her 12 birthday, she was riding full-sized cows by replacing the bras with cut off-roading truck tires, and, being small, she earned the nickname "Terrace's Little Toe Jockey", aka, "The Camel Toe."[8] When she reached adulthood, she became famous in the Qatar racing circuit for her ability to scream like Xena the Warrior Princess. [9] Her career ended in a bizarre scandal, known as Code Brown, in which she was banned from the international camel racing community. [10] Her last known location was Buffalo farm in Northern Alberta where she was reportedly living exclusively off of farmed food. [11]

I need to buy four camels and bring them to Argentina, I don't know about the rules about importing animals, if you can sell me the camels or know the rules please contact me. Thanks.

I love camels, but its hard finding a website of camel lovers that doesn't border on the amoral. Maybe I have finally found my Sanctuary??

In a recent past-life regression, I went back to being a two-year-old child on a camel. I was wearing an adult's headwrap; I had asked to wear the adult size, and it was huge on me. Adults were supporting me, holding the camel still. No harm could come to me. I held the reigns from the camel's harness and felt like the best camel rider in the world. In my mind, we were galloping across the horizon, even though the camel wasn't moving at all. I felt perfectly supported, safe to do anything I wanted. It was absolutely adorable!

I really liked this web site and it's really interesting. I own around 60 camels here in Saudi. There are a lot of different types of camels that are not listed here.. thanks

I have a six year old male dromedary and 5 zebras (2 males and 3 females) that I need to sell - do you know of anyone in Oklahoma who raises these animals and might be interested in them? Thanks so much!