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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 1:16:27 GMT -6
It took a few more tries of the whole 'give the command, start running, stop, treat, praise, repeat' process before finally Morgan saw the sign that they were looking for; when they gave the simple whistled command for dash, the puppy immediately took off running, without Morgan having to do it first- they were scarcely able to run in time to make sure that she didn't just about choke herself on the leash! That was it! "Good gal, Mink!" Morgan said, stopping her to give her a treat. That was exactly what Morgan was waiting for! Now she would probably do the behavior on command without the leash. The creature wagged her tail excitedly and Morgan gave her a pat. However, she nipped at Morgan's hand. Morgan had to force theirself not to verbally scold her for that!
At least they were making some kind of progress. That was enough for Morgan.
[5]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 1:20:58 GMT -6
After the treat was devoured Morgan gave another of the whistled commands for her. Mink hesitated a small amount and then quickly burst forward, in that speedy sort of dash that was required for this behavior. She'd definitely, for sure, never ever have to use this. Morgan would probably not wind up keeping Mink as a companion animal out in public often because her attitude was harsh. Maybe she would cool down in her elder age? It would be Morgan's luck if she only became more crabby with age. Yuck. Hopefully she wouldn't pass that down to her future pups, whenever that happened.
"Good gal! Mink!" Morgan said, tossing her a treat. Mink took the treat and then immediately turned her nose up at Morgan. Figures, they thought. They might as well flow straight from this one, in a bit, to the endurance training they had planned for her today anyway.
[6]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 1:23:50 GMT -6
However, they still weren't quite completed with the dash behavior yet, so that would have to wait, Morgan decided. The houluh gave Morgan trouble the next few times that they worked on the behavior, obviously just to be trouble and not because she didn't know the command or what she was supposed to do. Morgan was frustrated enough that they probably could have and would have screamed if not for the fact that they didn't want to make Mink have both an attitude problem AND a fear problem. That would be an even worse issue that the human just didn't want to waste time on. They didn't really have enough time to waste to begin with.
"Come on, M-mink. You gotta." Morgan finally coaxed her. Mink counted this obvious tone breaking as a win for her, and the next time the whistled command was given, she took off running as per what she was supposed to do.
[7]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 1:28:58 GMT -6
It was getting pretty obvious that they weren't going to be able to get this in one go, Morgan realized. They huffed with a bit of frustration. With any other houluh, they would have gotten this training done lickety-split and they wouldn't have to worry about it before moving on to one of the other babies that needed attention. However, with Mink, it was obvious that it was going to be a fight the whole way through. Were houluh supposed to even be like this? Morgan grumped about it under their breath before tossing her a treat for the good thing she did do, and giving her some rather reluctant praise for it as well. This could certainly be going better, but it was obvious that she had learned it.
Perhaps at the very least today, they could get her to start doing it every time instead of just when she felt like it.
[8]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 1:31:50 GMT -6
The tiny houluh pup had more sass in her than any person Morgan had ever met before. How did she even have that much sass in her to begin with, at that size? Morgan tsked, and shook their head before giving the command again. Mink seemed to believe that she had finally won whatever argument was going on in her head (the human knew enough from Nico that though they didn't quite have 'thoughts' as Morgan would understand them, they did have 'proto-thoughts', perhaps. Not verbal, it would seem) because she did as she was asked without hesitation. Yes, it was obvious that she already knew what she was supposed to do at least. Morgan didn't have to worry about that too much. Whenever she was done, Morgan tossed her a treat, and let her finish it before patting her. "Good g-gal Mink." Morgan mumbled at her. Would they be able to get the endurance training down at least?
[9]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 1:34:38 GMT -6
They worked like this for some more time, until finally all the kinks seemed to be worked out enough to get Mink to do what she was supposed to at least most of the time. The human was rolling their eyes for some time about how difficult this had been, but finally they were sure that Mink knew it and wouldn't give too much trouble about it. "You are a l-little mess." Morgan mumbled to her, shooting her 'the (angry) look'. That sparked a little bit of a war of wills between them as Morgan had decided it was time to go, and Mink was having none of that, refusing to let Morgan get close enough to her to hook her back onto the leash. What trouble!
She was dashing like a pro now though, so at least that had worked out in Morgan's favor. They decided that they were going to try the endurance training before leaving, since she was giving so much trouble.
[10] - [End of 'Dash']
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 1:44:34 GMT -6
Lucky for the both of them, Endurance training at this point didn't really require them learning anything new. They would be continuing to work on the dash behavior and just make her able to do it more times in a row than once without resting for as long as they had been between the dashes. It wouldn't be too tough, they decided. Mink, on the other hand, had gotten quite bored of her little game of keep away, and was sitting straight on the grass, licking her paw. Silly Mink, you aren't a cat! You're a dog! Morgan thought, but then again, Labs creatures could be pretty weird mixes of lots of different things, couldn't they? Houluh sure were weird. "Alright young'un, let's w-work on your endurance!" The human said. Mink knew that was her name, and knew that tone. She looked up as if to convey 'what now?!'
[11] - [Start 'Endurance']
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 2:53:02 GMT -6
After this, Morgan thought, we can take a quick jog around the mansion to get her to clear her mind before hopefully working with her on the next thing. Morgan was a little concerned that they wouldn't manage to get her to learn everything that they needed for her Debutante show all in one day. It was a mess that she was the way that she was, with all of that aggravation that she caused. However, it couldn't be helped. Morgan started by giving the command for dash yet again. The houluh took off running, and Morgan couldn't help but be thankful that she was still deciding to do what she was supposed to. Morgan whistled again as soon as she started to slow down, and just like a charm, she took off running yet again. Morgan was pleased with this so far, she was taking to it as quickly as houluh tended to.
[12]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 3:03:41 GMT -6
That was all that endurance training really usually entailed, forcing a creature to dash a ton of times in a row until they stopped huffing for breath and started to enjoy it... It was really a simple task. Of course Mink was going to continue to make it incredibly difficult to get her to learn this. After about five calls, Mink decided that she didn't want to do this anymore, and simply laid down in the grass. Morgan frowned, but gave her a treat anyway for doing what she had done, at least. Mink did seem very tired, at least, so Morgan went ahead and gave her some time to rest. After that, though it was back to work for both of them, with Morgan giving the command and surprisingly, Mink doing what was asked of her for once. Morgan was thoroughly surprised that the creature was acting properly enough for now.
[13]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 3:10:41 GMT -6
Morgan gave the command using the whistle for the spotted houluh to dash, and then the houluh would dash. As soon as Mink would begin to slow down, Morgan would give another command the whistle for her to dash yet again. Mink did not find this fun, Morgan could tell by her facial expression (Morgan had been around enough houluh to pretty much have a great idea of what their individual expressions meant). However, they pushed on, until finally she flopped down on her side, heavily. Six times, that time. It was much better than the five that they had just done! Morgan gave her another treat, lead her to some water, and then brought her back to start on it yet again. The next two attempts were six dashes a piece, and Morgan wondered if they were perhaps going to plateau there... The human sure hoped not, that wasn't enough.
[14]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 3:19:58 GMT -6
They continued working repeatedly until Morgan was just about frustrated, theirself, just watching it. Just when they thought that they were going to have to give up, Mink began slowly improving. At first, it was just a few steps, and then it was entire dashes. She went from practically getting worse, to getting leaps and bounds better pretty well half way through! Morgan was incredibly pleased with her progress but continued to force her to keep on going, past her limit. Finally, she was able to do what Morgan expected her to be able to do with having a certain endurance for dashing, which is exactly what Morgan was hoping for.
Finally, Morgan was pleased enough to feel like she had learned this, after two hours of work. Morgan was just as tired as she was. It was time to go on a long walk to get her to shake it out, and then return a bit later!
[15] - [End of Endurance] - [Leaving Temporarily]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 4:04:44 GMT -6
The pair returned for the final step of Mink's training before her Debutante Show. They were planning on her learning something relatively easy for a creature completely covered in fur; the trick to allow them to loosen their fur to keep bites from getting a good hold on them. Of course it wasn't going to be useful for her since she was never going to fight (not ever), but at least it was something that could be considered proper for a houluh to learn before it grew. Best of all, it didn't really require a command, and Mink didn't seem to like commands very much so they were going to be able to skip that typical fight. The human sat her down on the grass and she woke up. Morgan kept her on the leash though, and then reached out to grab her nape. Instead of grabbing the full nape, they grabbed some of the fur there.
[Back] - [16] - [Start of 'Loosen Fur']
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 4:53:25 GMT -6
Morgan was glad that they were nearly done with Mink's training. They needed to work with others again, and at this point it was mostly just getting Mink to understand the training anyway. Mink obviously did not like her fur being grabbed, so she tried to get away. At first, she was unable to, finally resorting to growling. However, Morgan would not let her snap at them, so Mink was going to have to find another way to get away from Morgan's grasp of her fur. After a little bit of trying to figure something out and trying different things, Mink finally allowed her fur to be removed, much to her chagrin. Morgan let go just before the fur was actually ripped out, and Mink looked pleased. Morgan knew that they were onto some progress now, just a few more attempts should work. Morgan had trained this before, after all.
[17]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 5:18:29 GMT -6
Morgan continued this a few more times with very little success. It seemed like Mink was especially stubborn, and was refusing to do what most of the creatures they had trained up to this point would naturally do, which was willingly remove their own fur (and make sure that Morgan would grab the fur instead of the skin) in order to better escape. The human continued to try though, sure to move to different parts of the fur instead of repeatedly going for the same place to try to get her to understand the concept. An hour passes with the pair continuing to do this until Mink finally seemed to get that Morgan wasn't trying to hurt her, but something might. The next time that Morgan reached forward to grab her, she turned just so that her fur was grabbed, then she immediately took off, leaving hair in Morgan's hand- but she was free.
[18]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2020 5:46:39 GMT -6
That was exactly the turning point that Morgan had been looking for! They continued to work on this, with Morgan giving her some time to rest first (and some water) before they actually did continue. It took another fifteen minutes of work for the snappish little houluh to finally do what she was supposed to do, and it happened the same as it had the first time. Mink moved just enough away that Morgan could only grab a bit of the fur, and then it was removed without apparent pain to the houluh, at least too much. It was perhaps not one of the nicest things to train, but it worked. "Good gal M-mink." Morgan said, because immediately giving her a treat. Morgan hoped that perhaps they would continue to make progress like this.
And continue to make progress they did! Mink was becoming more pliable as she became more tired, and she seemed more determined to get this done.
[19]
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