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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 19:12:23 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 19:12:23 GMT -6
Morgan could not have been more pleased; the houluh was incredibly well natured and just as Morgan had gathered; the creature was taking to commands with incredible ease. It appeared as if they were made with loyalty and obedience in mind. The creature ran into Morgan's arms, nearly jumping up into their lap as they crouched close to the grass carpeted earth. "Oi boyo, a little too excited there!" Morgan admonished with clear affection in their voice. They gave the creature the jerky piece that it hadn't even seemed as excited about. Perhaps the creature had just wanted to play? Nico seemed to have been taken well care of before Morgan received the creature, but it seemed a bit excited about just being around someone.
Morgan backed up a few more times, always with the same command, and always with the same effect. The houluh seemed to have caught onto the come command with incredible ease.
[5] - [END of 'Come']
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 19:41:43 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 19:41:43 GMT -6
Despite the success that had been thusfar enjoyed, Morgan knew that they had a long way to go. There were still several behaviors that were absolutely required for the houluh to master before Morgan was going to actually go home with the small creature. The one that Morgan had decided to start on now was something that Morgan expected to use on the way home, since the creature was practically non-dangerous at this point. The 'follow' command was going to be quite useful in the long run; Morgan had decided on a similar one to the one that they had used previously for 'come'; the same noise, only doubled. That would be quite similar, and Morgan figured it would be easily trained enough. Morgan stood up, and prepared a few different jerky pieces for the use soon, making sure that they were going to be in teeny tiny chunks for the critter.
[1] - [START 'Follow']
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 19:46:58 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 19:46:58 GMT -6
Morgan was soon done preparing the jerky, and figured that it was as good a time as any to start. Thusfar, they hadn't even been in the park an hour yet. The creature was incredibly well attuned to humans it would seem; and tended to take to things quite quickly. It was absolutely refreshing. Morgan backed up a bit, like they were going to work on the command previously worked with before; and then gave the command using the whistle; this time with two of the exact same whistle. The houluh did, surprisingly enough, realize the difference, but Nico came running anyway. Morgan began walking backwards, making sure that the creature was following along. After a few feet of walking backwards while Nico stumbled forward across the soft grass, Morgan quickly gave the creature a jerky bit for doing so well. It was practically a cinch to train this creature; it seemed to naturally have the inclinations.
[2]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 19:56:25 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 19:56:25 GMT -6
Morgan was still baffled by how quickly the creature appeared to be taking in the behaviors and commands. Of course, it was natural for a creature to try to 'come' if they had previously worked on that, even off into the sunset if the individual kept walking backward, but Morgan was especially impressed by this regular creature's quickness on the uptake. Just a houluh thing; they reminded their-self. It's just a houluh thing, that's all there was to it. Morgan smiled softly, but knew that they needed to do at least a bit more repetition to make sure that this really sticks. Morgan would not bring the creature home without it being decently obedient; it was required. At least with this, Morgan was sure that the creature would follow them out to the correct area to relieve itself, and all.
The bespectacled human backed up quite far, and then whistled the command yet again; the double-one for Follow.
[3]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 20:02:11 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 20:02:11 GMT -6
The houluh was already beginning to get quite savvy; it made no pause as it began walking towards Morgan. The human got a little bit excited about this, and then moved off, walking away, glancing over their shoulder a few times to see if the houluh was still following them. Surprising even to Morgan, their lack of eye contact did not change anything about the houluh's behavior; it followed with a surprising amount of determination for such a small and young creature. Morgan stopped after a moment or two and then gave the creature a teeny tiny piece of jerky and then gave him a few pets, ruffling up his big ole ears. "Smart boyo, good boyo Nico!" The bespectacled human was already enamored with the tiny creature; it was not uncommon for humans to find dogs absolutely adorable, and houluh were no different it seemed. "Yes, good boyo."
[4]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 20:06:26 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 20:06:26 GMT -6
Morgan knew that repetition was key, even if the houluh was taking to the training quicker than the other creatures of similar intelligence took. Morgan had almost forgotten that this was all before the psycho-social bond would have began to truly proc. The thought of that was even more baffling, perhaps, but Morgan hardly worked with juvenile creatures anyway; and the tat-lungs were not comparable, since they were hyper-sentient and posed their difficulties in other ways. The bespectacled human continued to work with the houluh using the repetition and positive reinforcement just as they always had with all of their creatures that they had worked with.
Morgan would back up, call out the command, and then begin walking away. The houluh would follow, his long ears bouncing and his tail wagging, and then eventually Morgan would stop and give him lots of praise. Eventually, Morgan was sure that the houluh had gotten the behavior down quite pat.
[5] - [END of 'Follow']
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 20:24:22 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 20:24:22 GMT -6
Morgan knew that they could most likely move on to something else now; in fact, if something didn't quite get into the creature's mind well enough, they could just go back over it anyway. Morgan was confident with training this small creature; it was quite cute, after all, and learned incredibly quick. The next few behaviors that needed to be worked on were Sit, Stay, No, and Lay Down. Those things, Morgan figured, were the absolute most important. If they were expedient enough with those; perhaps more today? So far, things seemed to be looking quite far up; Nico was speedily picking up the most basic behaviors. Clever boyo.
The first one was going to be sit. Morgan knew a bit of a trick for doing sit; the goal was going to be transferring the natural inclination to follow the food with the eyes (and thus sit down naturally when something was raised above their head) to a whistled command.
[1] - [START 'Sit']
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 20:29:44 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 20:29:44 GMT -6
Morgan hoped that someday, the houluh would follow Morgan nearly anywhere; and would get the daily habits. When they would feed the creatures, when it was time to work with the tat-lungs. In fact, Morgan was especially hoping that the houluh would take to the tat-lungs well enough, so that they could figure out the differences between how pets were treated, and how people were treated. Morgan knew that the education of the tat-lung was completely different than the behavior training that the houluh was receiving; but the tat-lung would probably have to learn that on their own eventually.
Morgan stepped up to the houluh and held one of the tiny pieces of jerky in their hand. The whistle command, Morgan had decided, was going to be a slightly longer and low whistle, though not too long. It was quite different than the other two on purpose; each type of behavior would be separated well enough.
[2]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 20:35:47 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 20:35:47 GMT -6
The human proceeded to call out the command using the whistle; and at the same time, the morsel was lifted quite high above the houluh's head, from a lower level. The jerky piece had caught Nico's attention quickly enough; and naturally as most canids did; his eyes and head followed the morsel as it was brought up. Nico's hind end automatically hit the grass; so that he could still see the morsel without jumping. This natural reaction was certainly a good thing to be exploited for behavior training; the human immediately dropped the morsel straight into Nico's mouth for sitting. Of course, Nico stood up after that. Morgan knew that the 'stay' training would come later, so this would certainly be good for now.
This was a great start; the bespectacled human knew that. Of course, this particular hack with the canid system had worked with every canine Morgan had ever worked with previously.
[3]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 20:40:22 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 20:40:22 GMT -6
Morgan knew that it would only be a matter of time as to when the houluh began putting two and two together well enough to begin equating the noise with the behavior and then the treat as opposed to the action. However, Morgan did want to wean him off of the action as soon as possible to make sure that everything transferred over more quickly than anything else. The less time they spent with that, the better, since it was always possible that the creature would always equate the motion with the action instead. That would not be good at all. Morgan this time emphasized the whistle command for it, and the houluh's ears perked up. Aha; that was the ticket!
Morgan waited for a moment, and then started to raise their hand; they didn't even finish the motion when the houluh suddenly sat down. Morgan dropped down and gave a treat, while petting the creature's soft ears and furry scalp. "Good job boyo, good job Nico." Morgan praised, no longer worried about being too soft.
[4]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 20:44:18 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 20:44:18 GMT -6
Repetition, repetition, repetition. There was so much to be done today; but there was enough time to really make sure that the houluh got the commands and that the behaviors stuck well enough. It didn't take a lot of time for Morgan and the small houluh to get into a bit of a repetitious loop, which was a good thing of course. Morgan would call the command, and the houluh (tentatively at first, and soon doing it like a pro) would sit down onto the grass, looking up with slightly raised ears, expecting that praise and treat. Of course, he would be given the tiny treats (not enough to fill him up too badly as a puppy at least) and lots of praise and petting. The entire situation was not too annoying to Morgan, the human found their-self enjoying the training, surprisingly enough. This probably would have bothered them with Michiryuu; who learned especially slowly. Eventually, Morgan was convinced the creature had gotten the behavior.
[5] - [END 'Sit']
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 21:11:47 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 21:11:47 GMT -6
Morgan had perhaps not tried to work on so many behaviors with one creature in a row since they were a teenager; trying desperately to make enough pocket cash to keep the mansion's lights running (even if half of them were cut off) before they found out that their father's account was still getting paid. Morgan was set now; and hadn't really been training other people's critters to make ends meet in a long time. The more tricks, the better, right? Morgan wanted to get to the point to where they could teach the critter to play a game, at the very least by the end of the day, but they may not be able to get that done. The houluh was a puppy, and would probably get tired eventually, right? The human was mindful of this.
They would need to work on stay now; Morgan wanted to use a hand signal for this one.
[1] - [START 'Stay']
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 21:15:29 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 21:15:29 GMT -6
The bespectacled human was already baffled by how lucky they had been to have had their advertisement answered, but also they were lucky that they hit the jackpot with the creature's personality. Nico was an interesting character already; picking up on things quite quickly. What else was he going to be like in the close future? Morgan could hardly wait to find out. Morgan gave the whistled command for sit; and was not surprised to see the creature immediately sit. Then, Morgan put their hand up in the 'stop' hand signal, and then gently touched it to the creature's nose to get it's attention. The houluh watched the hand, and then Morgan stood all the way up. Nico went to stand up, and Morgan bent back down, putting their hand up. The houluh could tell, Morgan could see it, that the hand meant something. This was the first non-noise command, after all.
[2]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 21:18:02 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 21:18:02 GMT -6
Morgan had to continue repeating the 'stay' hand signal again, and again, and again. Their first snag, it would appear, was switching to hand signals. Soon enough, however, Nico appears to be focused on the hand signal, shaking their tail and making a soft noise; not quite a whine, as if he was trying to let Morgan know that he was trying, but he hadn't quite figured out what to do yet. Morgan was patient and focused on the creature; they owed the houluh that since it had been picking up behaviors hand over fist so far. A single setback wasn't going to be any issue in the long run, Morgan was absolutely sure.
After a few different repetitions on this hand signal, Morgan finally rose up and took a few steps away, while the houluh stayed in his sitting position, his tail wagging nervously. Morgan tossed a jerky piece to him, excitedly. The first success!
[3]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 21:20:46 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 21:20:46 GMT -6
"Very good boyo, Nico! Very very good boyo." Morgan could not have been more excited, suddenly. That was the first time he got the 'stay' command; and that one was super important! Morgan could have practically danced; they were really in deep when it came to this training, it meant a lot to them. Nico would be cleared to come home today, Morgan just knew it! "Such a good, good boyo, Nico." Morgan babbled excitedly. Their energy level was a bit higher today, but it wasn't anything that was completely unheard of, just not exactly the most common thing.
Morgan proudly petted the creature's soft head and played with his ears gently. "You got it, boyo!" Morgan was reminded sharply of Spice whenever Nico let out a gentle but excited bark. He sure didn't bark a lot, did he? Time for repetition, now that he got the basics!
[4]
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