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Post by Morgan on Jul 5, 2019 2:44:21 GMT -6
Morgan was pleased that the houluh managed to get through the tube just fine, even if it took a bit of work. Nico's desire to be near Morgan was both a blessing and a curse when it came to training, depending on the thing needing to be worked upon. Some behaviors required a bit of willingness to be separated for a small amount of time. Nico hated being much further than a few feet away from the bespectacled human at a time, so it made it difficult to work with other creatures that required more attention than Nico did whenever they were worked with. The tube was a good example of that issue in action, the poor creature absolutely refused to figure out some things without repetition despite his laser-like focus because he was blinded by wanting to be around Morgan. However, once he got out on the other side of the tube, he seemed to understand a bit more. Morgan hoped it would help with future training.
[15] - [168 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 5, 2019 2:59:20 GMT -6
The next obstacle in the path of the smaller agility training area was the poles. These poles were not exactly high quality and probably wouldn't help a whole ton; they were too far apart to do the best kind of help for the creature, but for teaching the creature how to 'weave' through poles, it should work decently enough, Morgan figured. Morgan gave the command for follow again for good measure, and then began walking through the poles. Nico followed outside of the poles, obviously seeing it as quicker and easier than actually weaving through them like Morgan was. Immediately Morgan turned around and went to the very start again. Nico followed, feeling more than anything else Morgan's displeased expression; and the negative thoughts, though nebulous, fell through the RoT like rain. Morgan began weaving through them methodically again, slowly, after giving Nico the command to follow, and this time he followed, having triangulated what he was supposed to do quite quickly.
[16] - [162 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 6, 2019 0:21:45 GMT -6
The pair went through all of the not so great poles, very easily. The houluh was so small that he really wouldn't have had to do anything special to run through them, wouldn't have to contort his body or dash left and right much at all to weave through the poles at full speed. However; it was the principal of it, the practice was important. After the poles, there was another of those upside-down 'v' things, and this time Nico pulls himself up and then leaps down it himself, pretty quickly. Morgan of course was still leading, but it would seem that the second time Nico did something, he grew in confidence with it. That was an admirable trait, though a relatively common one with humanoids. Most animals did not learn things that rapidly. Morgan moved on to the next obstacle in the agility set with Nico following at their heels very close by.
[17] - [154 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 6, 2019 0:40:19 GMT -6
Morgan tried their best not to be visibly proud of the small creature as they made their way to the last seesaw. There were two it would appear in this agility set; and Morgan was curious to see what he would do when confronted with it again now that he seemed to be understanding what they were doing exactly today. Morgan began to walk past it, still giving the follow command, and Nico jumped onto it without any sort of questioning this time; moving up the 'down' side with a grace that wasn't there previously, and then dancing down the 'upside' that reached down to touch the ground as he changed the balance on the fulcrum. Once the seat touches the ground, the houluh moves off of it and onto the grass. Yes, trying not to be visibly proud indeed; and Morgan was failing it hard. The houluh was learning how to use his metaphorical wings like a baby bird, and it was beautiful.
[18] - [164 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 6, 2019 0:52:39 GMT -6
Morgan couldn't help but have a bit of a parental feeling over the tiny pup; perhaps because he was so small, and Morgan was raising so many young critters lately. It was not something that they were proud of in the slightest, because it was dangerous to really give much of a care about anything at all. The human had been taught that at a young age with a high cost. Morgan shoved the parental feelings down and then moved on pretty quickly to the last line of steps. These still gave the houluh a tad bit of a pause as he seemed to figure out which way would be the best to tackle these, and he finally started to pick his way across, having quite a bit of difficulty, but getting through it without falling this time. Morgan hoped that Nico would improve with this after a while, but was quite patient about the subject. The final obstacle was coming up soon.
[19] - [163 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 6, 2019 1:02:12 GMT -6
The final obstacle was a set of hoops all at different heights. Some of them were going to be a cinch, but some of them were going to be quite difficult for the smaller creature. He would probably be unable to do all of them this first time, until he started getting more athletic. The human wouldn't judge him on that this early in the game. He was a small pup after all, even though it was easy to forget that with how confident he typically was. Morgan gave the command for through the hoop for the first one, and the houluh hopped through it quite quickly. The second one was done the same way, just a tad higher. Another command was given and the third one was quite difficult for the pup. Morgan knew based off of his reaction and the attempt that the fourth one was going to be way too high for him, so Morgan called him to follow them around that one and the next few. Then, the hoops started descending again.
[20] - [176 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 6, 2019 2:22:26 GMT -6
The descending hoops were going to be much easier, Morgan was sure. Nico was given the command for through the hoop, and he leapt up, having significantly less trouble this time on the highest one than he had the last time. Either that was what happened, or it was possible that he was just getting good at hiding when he was having difficulty; that was always quite possible. Nico was beginning to take from Morgan's personality a bit, so it would be a big surprise to Morgan, even if they didn't like admitting that to theirself. The next two hoops were quite the cinch; and this was the end. Nico was certainly breathing at just a slightly more elevated rate than usual, which meant that he was okay, but a rest was in order. "Alright boyo, let's get some water." Morgan said, leading Nico back over to the bucket that had been prepared earlier. Morgan wanted to make sure that he stayed hydrated under duress.
[21] - [167 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 6, 2019 2:34:33 GMT -6
Too much hydration could be an issue, of course, but Morgan was sure that Nico would probably not drink too much water. It wasn't like Morgan had connected drinking water to a command or anything. However, the houluh did appear to be quite thirsty, which was understandable. It was pretty hot outside this time of year, and today was no exception, even though Morgan had attempted to mitigate this by choosing a later time during the day to start this. The bespectacled human waited for the hound to finish up his drinking, and while they did so they wondered what they needed to do next. They could indeed go through the agility course yet again, and that wouldn't hurt at all. However, Morgan wanted to late until it was a bit cooler to do that again, since the houluh had a bit of difficulty with it, and it would tire him out quicker if they worked on that in the heat of the late evening.
[22] - [165 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 6, 2019 2:43:39 GMT -6
Morgan had brought several toys, as they typically did whenever they took Nico out anywhere; perhaps they would be a good choice? Morgan had previously taught the houluh how to play fetch, and how to use their back to jump through hoops. Morgan had brought a large amount of toys, and figured that they could combine these two training techniques to actually play with a frisbee. That was an exciting idea; his agility could be trained quite well by continuing with the frisbee idea; especially with the leap and fetch tricks coming in handy. Soon enough, Nico was done being re-hydrated, and Morgan gave him a command to follow them just outside of the range of the agility stuff that was set up. Morgan pulled the blue frisbee from their backpack, testing it. It was quite hard and plastic-y, with a slight bend to it, perfect for throwing for a pet. "You ready to play, Nico?" Morgan asked, smiling softly.
[23] - [162 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 6, 2019 2:56:47 GMT -6
Nico's tail was wagging ninety miles a minute it would seem, and Morgan tried not to think it was cute. The houluh's deep reddish-brown eyes stared up with a shimmer at the frisbee. The houluh's weakness was toys, it would seem; he absolutely adored them. That was partially Morgan's fault, the tiny creature had been absolutely spoiled for toys since the first day that Morgan had received him. Hopefully it would not allow for someone to make him follow them off due to toys in the future... Ah well, Morgan would find a way to make it difficult to do, if they could find a way to do so. Morgan wound back and tossed the frisbee, finding it a bit easier than they had expected to make it fly. It wasn't that they had never thrown a frisbee before, it was that they had done so when they were much younger, and much weaker. The houluh didn't mind that it went so far though, and took off tearing after it.
[24] - [170 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 6, 2019 3:03:30 GMT -6
Puppies had a ton of energy; a lot more than Morgan had, despite the fact that the houluh tended to sleep a lot of the time too, about as much as Morgan did plus some it would seem. He just had those bursts that would out-do Morgan often enough. They could hardly wait until he settled down a little bit into more of a schedule like most mature animals wound up doing. That was the hope, anyway; who knew how long it took houluh to actually grow? Some species took substantially longer than others, possibly purposefully due to the labs. Despite Morgan's disdain for the houluh's incessant excitement most of the time, it was nice to see him play. The houluh was swifter than most creatures of his age and sort; running through the grass of the field out here he almost looked as swift as a flier. Of course, he was not, but it gave a bit of poetic verbage to mind to watch.
[25] - [165 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 7, 2019 2:25:35 GMT -6
The blue frisbee spun in the air; almost floating, when Nico rapidly caught up with it and leaped up; grabbing it in his mouth. Morgan couldn't be more glad that they had taught a critter something so menial; this had a lot of uses. Fetch was a really neat trick to learn, and the tiny houluh did so well with it, even though he was still quite young. "Good boyo, Nico!" Morgan raised their voice and it carried across the field. The houluh came running back, holding his head up high so as not to fall over the frisbee. He was narrowly avoiding falling over the frisbee, and when the field dipped even a little bit, he nearly went tumbling over. Finally, he managed to get to Morgan's feet, where he held up the frisbee so that Morgan could get it from him. Morgan cracked a grin again; they were enjoying this quite a bit.
[26] - [157 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 7, 2019 22:09:59 GMT -6
A singular good moment there was just really nice, even in the warm sunlight of the evening. The houluh was just really getting warmed up it would seem; Morgan petted him on the head for bringing the frisbee back, and Morgan took the frisbee. After that; the frisbee was once again thrown, flying through the air with that same floating grace. The houluh was on it, chasing it down, racing over the grass and nearly falling over his ears just a couple of times as he raced across the fields. Morgan smiled as they wanted him rush away, tongue lolling out. He was really adorable, and he also learned so quickly! Hopefully after this game of fetch, the houluh would be ready to get a drink and then go back over to the agility equipment, so that he could hopefully get better at walking through that. Sooner or later, he'd run through it, right? That was the hope.
[27] - [158 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 7, 2019 22:14:55 GMT -6
The houluh practically flew over the grass on swift feet, far swifter than Morgan would have guessed such a creature could be; perhaps because they were supposedly created by the labs to honor some goddess or whatever. The human didn't really subscribe to all of that, but it was hard to forget how orderly the creature looked as he ran. Finally, the creature caught up to it and then leaped up, clamping his mouth on the frisbee just so. Morgan bent down as the creature returned with it, nearly stumbling over his ears and the dips in the field again due to the frisbee being quite large for his tiny size. "Good boyo, Nico!" Morgan called out again, knowing that the creature tended to do even better with positive reinforcement. The houluh raised his head up and practically pranced back, looking absolutely adorable. He comes up to Morgan and pushes his head into Morgan's hands, holding up the frisbee as he did so.
[28] - [165 Words]
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Post by Morgan on Jul 7, 2019 22:25:42 GMT -6
Morgan couldn't help but chuckle out here in the field, knowing that there shouldn't be anyone around here to see them crack for just a moment. They were super happy to have the pup; they couldn't believe that they lucked out so hard and managed to get this creature. The length of time between wanting one and getting one had been so long and the wait was totally worth it. Morgan wasn't used to actually having a good time with much of anything, so it was uplifting to just be able to play fetch with a 'dog' for once. Something so simple, the idea was almost preposterous. "Alrighty, good boyo, let me have that frisbee." Morgan said, really needlessly, simply to let out the good feelings that they were having; the happiness and protectiveness over the creature. Morgan took the frisbee easily, and then wound up to throw it once again. The houluh watched it, not letting it out of their eyes.
[29] - [164 Words]
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