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Sparks
Jul 31, 2019 15:49:13 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 31, 2019 15:49:13 GMT -6
That was it! Morgan was sure that things would go quite well now. "Good boyo, Nico!" The bespectacled human called out excitedly. Nico was immediately given a treat and then some praise as well as pettings, and then Morgan was ready to keep repeating this action. Morgan would step back, without closing the door, and pretend to be doing something else. Then, the houluh would come up and 'scrape' on the door, and Morgan would let him enter. Then he was praised (Good boyo, Nico!) and then given a treat and lots of pettings. That was the way that Morgan trained Nico it would seem; that easily. The houluh picked up things incredibly quickly and this was no exception. They continued working on this for another thirty minutes, back and forth with lots of praise when the houluh got it right. Finally, after lots of work and the signal of the houluh coming up to any door (they switched around a lot), Morgan was sure that he had gotten the training.
[50] - [END of 'Please'] - [After this they decided to go home.]
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 18:43:07 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 18:43:07 GMT -6
Morgan was having a bit of difficulty recently. Waar was a difficult creature to get settled back into the barn; especially since silica side walls had to be built, silica racks, and of course finding a comfortable sleeping area for him was difficult. His acidic goop was just a mess, but Morgan had finally got him settled in. Until that time period, Morgan hadn't really been training any of their critters, let alone Nico. Nico still followed Morgan around nearly everywhere, but he didn't like Waar a whole lot. That was probably not surprising, because Waar was having to be loosely controlled to keep him from trying to eat Nico.
After making sure that everything was fine at home, Morgan took Nico to the usual place in the park again, convinced that they could get at least a few more things done today. Nico needed to continue to be able to protect himself, after all.
[1] - [START 'Hardy']
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 18:54:11 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 18:54:11 GMT -6
Morgan had been planning on working with Nico's ability to deal with scary monsters a long while back, but the person that they had asked to come with the intimidating pet for pay didn't show up. Today, Morgan came prepared. Someone was supposed to show up today with an intimidating pet; and it didn't take but five minutes from the time Morgan sat everything down on the park bench for the individual to ride up on a rather terrifying v2 equillion. The creature was so terrifying that it even made Morgan feel uncomfortable. Nico didn't want to leave Morgan's side, even under duress, but the opposing creature was absolutely terrifying.
Morgan knew that the equillion had no intent to hurt Nico or them, especially not with the owner standing there, but Morgan knew that this would do just fine to teach Nico to stop letting fear force him into inaction. This was required for his self-protection.
[2]
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 19:12:01 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 19:12:01 GMT -6
Nico was trembling pretty well full-bodily beside Morgan, and Morgan couldn't help but glance down at him. The equillion was literally just standing there, but intimidation was certainly a very strong tactic. It was working on Nico even without there being any actual aggression behind it. Morgan looked down at Nico. "You'll be okay boyo." Morgan said, and then they waited for a moment, until finally the houluh stopped shaking quite so hard. The next phase was about to be in motion; Morgan called him to follow them, and then they walked forward. Nico hesitated hard, finding it difficult to move, but soon the houluh moved forward, following as closely to Morgan's heels as he could get with his fear-stiff muscles. "It's okay Nico." Morgan said again, walking up close to the equillion. Finally, Morgan was standing right up near it, and the houluh was right beside them, trying to figure out whether to protect Morgan, or flee.
[3]
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 19:17:00 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 19:17:00 GMT -6
After about five minutes of being shuddery and mostly locked up, the houluh finally began loosening up. Morgan moved around the equillion a bit, careful to not walk behind him, and kept an eye on Nico the entire time. Finally, the houluh began walking normally, his head up high. Morgan knew that it was time to begin running him through some of his already known commands, so that he could get used to moving and working around an intimidating creature. The houluh was ran through all kinds of commands; Come, stay, sit starting out. One after the other. At first, he was still a bit stiff acting, slinking low against the ground and keeping an eye on the scary equillion. After a while, he seemed to be able to do those without too many issues.
After a little while, Morgan had him lay down, and then follow them. The combat crawl was a bit sticky movement-wise.
[4]
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 19:22:42 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 19:22:42 GMT -6
Morgan was wanting to teach the creature as much as they could today, self-defense-wise. They knew that they wouldn't be able to finish his training today, but he was doing quite well and tended to learn very quickly. He was learning this incredibly quickly, as well. After a while of combat crawling in circles around the intimidating creature, the houluh finally straightened up and moved properly, combat-crawling like a champ as he had been doing before being introduced to this intimidating creature. Finally, Morgan began working on the creature's other commands, Running and dashing, and even playing kick the can. After a lot of work and patience, Nico was ignoring the intimidating creature quite a bit; just checking to make sure that it wasn't attacking them every once in a while. Finally, Morgan was pleased with his looseness and lack of fear; despite the intimidating creature. His agility and strength were completely unaffected.
Finally, Morgan was pleased enough to pay the individual and continue working with Nico on other things.
[5] - [END of 'Hardy']
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 19:30:42 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 19:30:42 GMT -6
It was finally time, in Morgan's opinion, to start on a more direct attacking skill. Of course, the houluh had already been trained to kick, but now it was time to work on biting with him. The bespectacled human had been putting this off out of fear that training him to attack first before being trained to protect himself would be a bad idea in the long run. Morgan was taking this sort of approach with most of their creatures, it was quite important to them that the beasts be able to protect their own selves just in case. Once the equillion and owner were gone, Morgan gently pats the houluh for being such a good boy, and then picked up a big stick. It had been a long time since Morgan had trained a bite attack, but with a hound it ought to be pretty easy, they remembered. The houluh was sitting still, his tongue lolling out.
[6] - [START 'Bite']
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 19:48:23 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 19:48:23 GMT -6
Morgan had previously trained the 'bite' behavior by poking critters in the mouth with a stick, and Morgan was sure that the houluh would take to it decently well. This one would require a whistled command, Morgan was sure, since he would need to be told to do it from a distance in some instances for self protection and all. Morgan gently patted him on the head while they came up with a command whistle. Finally, they settled on a quick one-two of a whistle, one sharp and one flat. That would be distinctive enough, Morgan was sure. Morgan put their whistle in their mouth, and immediately the houluh's ears perked up. Nico knew exactly what this meant; this was a training session.
Morgan put the stick near his mouth and then used the whistle to call out the command they had chosen. Then, the pushed the stick gently into Nico's mouth.
[7]
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 19:55:07 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 19:55:07 GMT -6
Nico didn't seem to know what to do with it at first. He gnawed a bit, but only because he was trying to get the stick out of his mouth. His tongue flapped around as he did so, eventually pushing it out of his mouth. He looked at Morgan, trying to figure out what was wanted out of him. Morgan shook their head, knowing that the houluh would know what was meant by this, and then they called the command again, while putting the stick near the houluh's mouth. This was repeated a few times, with the houluh not being treated since he wasn't doing any of it properly, and finally, out of frustration, when Morgan gave the command again and put the stick near his mouth; Nico bit the stick rather hard, crushing part of the outer bark with his teeth. For a small creature; that was quite a strong bite for sure!
[8]
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 19:58:55 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 19:58:55 GMT -6
Morgan removed the stick from his mouth and then gave him a quick pet, lots of praise, and a piece of shredded jerky. The bespectacled human was super pleased with him, knowing that this was just the breakthrough that they needed in order to get him all set up with this command. The houluh learned things way faster than any of Morgan's other creatures, perhaps just because of what his actual species was built for. Houluh were, after all, supposed to be Order's creatures, a sort of emblem for this deity's idea. What was more orderly than a very loyal creature that wished to please an owner? Morgan figured that it was a bit ironic that a chaos elemental found a houluh so enjoyable to train.
After the houluh finished his treat, Morgan picked up the stick again, calling out the command on the whistle for the bite yet again. Nico lunged for it.
[9]
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 20:08:28 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 20:08:28 GMT -6
Now it was all repetition on this breakthrough all the way through. The houluh would be commanded to bite using the whistled command, and then the houluh would bite the stick; pretty hard. Morgan was a bit surprised with the ferocity at which he was able to do this, for a pup anyway. Then again, Morgan had noted that he had a strong desire to protect them earlier; when the equillion was causing the houluh to be fearful. Perhaps he had been wishing that he could do something to protect Morgan during this perceived strife? Morgan continued to work with the houluh repeatedly, every time that the creature bit down, he was given a treat and lots of praise. That was how it typically went during their training, and the RoT hadn't changed that. Perhaps the houluh tended to get things a little more quickly nowadays, but it wasn't too surprising.
Finally, Morgan was convinced that he knew the bite command perfectly.
[10] - [END of 'Bite']
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 20:28:16 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 20:28:16 GMT -6
Now that the houluh had some semblance of an offensive move that he could use, Morgan wanted to continue on with some self defense training. Eventually, they would be able to work on more advanced offensive work, but for now, it was almost all defense that the bespectacled human was worried about. He needed to be able to hold his own in case Waar managed to get around Morgan to him, somehow. It was a legitimate worry that Morgan had, and Morgan really didn't want to have to deal with having a zombie dog too. That would be the worst. The first of the last two things that they were going to work on today was the easier of the two; the idea that he should release some of his fur if grabbed. Most fully-furred creatures could learn it, and since he had a lot of fur on his body, Morgan was sure that he could learn it too.
[11] - [START 'Loosen Fur']
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 20:39:40 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 20:39:40 GMT -6
Morgan knew that the only real way to train this was to hurt the houluh, and they hated that. They'd already had to do some amount of harm to the sarane to get him to learn how to heal himself, and of course the houluh had already been trained to lick his own wounds in the same manner. However, this was required, absolutely required, they knew, in the long run. The houluh's ability to remove himself from a grip might save him in the future. "Alrighty Nico, you're a good boyo, you know?" Morgan gently said, petting him along his body. After a little bit, they looked him in his chocolate eyes, trying to let him know that he wasn't being bad or anything. Somehow, Morgan knew that he got it, that he understood. At this, Morgan put their hand down on the houluh and grabbed a handful of his hair sharply.
[12]
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 20:45:11 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 20:45:11 GMT -6
The houluh nearly cried out; since Morgan had pinched his skin as they did so; but the houluh managed instead to sharply pull away; leaving a handful of hair bits in Morgan's hand, but not releasing nearly enough to really get out of the grasp of a biting creature. Morgan gave him a treat anyway, and gently patted him. "Good boyo, so sorry, we've got to keep working on it, okay boyo?" Morgan knew that he didn't understand the words, but Nico did indeed understand the tone, body language, and bits coming across the RoT altogether. Morgan waited for a moment until he seemed ready to try again (they weren't sure how they knew yet of course) and then grasped the houluh's body again. This time, Nico kind of half-danced away, forcing Morgan to grab just hair, and then he immediately jerked, leaving hair in Morgan's hand, and got away.
[13]
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Sparks
Aug 12, 2019 20:49:54 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Aug 12, 2019 20:49:54 GMT -6
That was what Morgan had been looking for; but it still wasn't really enough hair to really stop a creature from grabbing his body. However, it was indeed a start and a good one at that. The houluh learned quickly and aimed to please, somehow he was capable of telling from Morgan's reactions what things he needed to continue to work on, and what things he needed to stop doing. He wasn't letting the slight pain of it keep him from reacting, thanks to the earlier training at least today. Morgan gave him a quick pet and a treat. "Good boyo, you're doing so great, we've got to keep working on this, okay?" Morgan said, gently, petting him. They were nearly done with this today, Morgan could just tell with how quickly he was learning. After he was done with his treat, Morgan leaned forward and snatched at him again; this time the houluh got away quickly, not allowing a good grab, leaving a good amount of hair in Morgan's hand.
[14]
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