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Post by Kheisa on Dec 17, 2017 18:00:58 GMT -6
Note to self: Link to trick list
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 17, 2017 18:42:22 GMT -6
Burying her nose in the scarf she was wearing, Kheisa gave the Vultion dragging her to the park a little envious look. Her fur was thicker in winter, sure, but... Not nearly as thick and insulating as Soko's was year-round. He didn't have to wrap up for winter like she did; as he happily trucked along with his nose to the ground, tail waving proudly behind him, she wondered if he just felt today as she would feel a crisp autumn day, despite that both of them were leaving behind visible breaths like steam engines.
As they approached an empty area of the Public Park she paused for a moment to be grateful that he happened to be curious today about smelling all the Park smells rather than the City smells or Docks smells or another person's farm smells. The Vultion was almost taller at the shoulder than she was, and the leash offered little in the way of control when his sheer strength was so much greater than hers. If he'd wanted to go elsewhere, she wouldn't have been able to change his mind.
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[ Soko: 1 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 17, 2017 18:58:53 GMT -6
Soko began to pull Kheisa past the empty area she had been aiming for, so she took the opportunity to give him his first lesson of the day, by hauling back against his leash and exclaiming "Soko!" just loud enough to get his attention.
The Vultion was at first barely dented in his forward momentum, but his head dragged around slightly, and after a beat he paused in his sniffing, lifting it and looking back at her.
"Yes!" she exclaimed brightly, trying to psychically impart to him her feeling of being pleased that he'd redirected his attention to her. But they didn't have a telepathic or empathetic connection, so whether it was successful was unclear. He didn't seem to have any sort of reaction aside from a slight perking of the ears at her tone. Unfortunately she didn't have her training treats at the ready yet, being not quite set up in the Park plot she'd chosen, so she couldn't let him know via reward either, because at this point if she rewarded him he'd have no idea what she was rewarding him for. Well, it was a start, anyways.
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Name: 1
[ Soko: 2 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 17, 2017 19:17:39 GMT -6
To keep his attention and prevent the pony-sized crossbreed from taking off sniffing again, Kheisa reached up and gave Soko a pat on the hip, then moved up and around his front while gently patting him. When she reached his face he opened his mouth and tried to grab her hand in it, so she took it away, but at least she had his attention.
She backed away from him and towards the plot, humming and doing some kind of odd wiggling movement to keep his attention, while she dug around in her fanny pack for some of the treats she'd brought. She managed to grab one and wave it in his direction to smell. "Soko," she said again, backing away from him but holding the treat flat on her palm to entice him forward, "Soko!"
The Vultion put on a great show of stoicism, but his twitching nose gave him away, and in a moment he was following her onto the plot she had chosen, mouth slightly ajar in anticipation of his soon-to-be reward. She backed away in time with his movement and said his name once more, then when she was sure they were reasonably within the Park plot and off the path, she stopped backing up and let him catch up and eat the treat out of her hand. He seemed to like it, which was always a good sign.
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Name: 2
[ Soko: 3 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 17, 2017 19:31:20 GMT -6
Now that they were in the right place, she could start with her usual name-teaching method. Except... Hm. Kheisa looked around, breath fogging the air, and frowned thoughtfully at the amount of space allocated to this area of the Park. It would have been fine to teach a small pet its name, even a few small pets at once, but Soko was probably too large to let him wander so she could sporadically catch his attention with his name.
She chewed on this dilemma and pulled out another treat, saying "Soko!" and, after half a beat to make sure the treat was perceived as following the name (rather than vice versa or at the same time), let him again have it out of the palm of her flat hand. She did this a few times, each with a little longer delay than the last: "Soko!" Treat. "Soko!" Treat. "Soko!" Treat. Soko didn't seem to be as food-motivated as some of the other creatures she'd trained, but he was interested enough to stick around and wait for the next treat to be given rather than run off to explore, which was all she needed right now. He seemed to be pricking his ears in anticipation of the treats following his name, even.
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Name: 3
[ Soko: 4 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 18, 2017 4:34:30 GMT -6
After a couple more repetitions with the crossbreed looking right at her, Kheisa decided to try just taking an extra step in the process. She let the leash slacken in her hand, holding it loosely by the loop (but not so loosely she couldn't grasp it firmly at a moment's notice), and showed Soko her empty hands, to try and show him there were no more treats right now so he might as well entertain himself.
For his part, Soko didn't seem to understand right away that empty hands meant no treats. He came towards the mammalian, sniffing her palms and giving the one that had had the treats a lick, before trying to put his mouth on it again. But it was taken away immediately; she shoved the hand in her pocket and dropped the other one to be less enticing, then looked off to the side, so she didn't look like she was paying attention to him.
Soko sniffed around her fanny pack and grabbed it in his mouth, probably to try and rip it open, but before he could start pulling or shaking his head Kheisa gave him a firm shove in the face with her forearm and turned away, twisting it out of his mouth. Finally the Vultion was dissuaded, and he looked away at the creatures being trained in the distance with interest. Kheisa watched him out of the corner of her eye as he looked from creature to person to creature to person, and when he began to walk away from her she abruptly exclaimed "Soko!"
He started slightly; he had been paying such rapt attention to the other things in the park he had already forgotten the small mammalian was there. His big head turned to look at her again, and there was a treat, ready and waiting for him in her palm! The Vultion eagerly ate it.
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Name: 4
[ Soko: 5 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 18, 2017 5:17:17 GMT -6
Now he was sure he just needed to keep watching her to get treats. He'd been looking at her before and she'd given him treats, and just now he'd looked at her again and she'd given him treats, so surely if he kept looking at her she'd give him treats. Soko kept watching her, tail swaying and flicking slightly in a way that was probably an approximation of wagging, and even after she showed him her palms, pocketed her hands, and turned away again, he kept watching her for several seconds in anticipation of the treat he would definitely get just for keeping his eyes on her.
Unfortunately, that treat wouldn't come just yet, because though watching her was definitely a trick she would move on to in the future, it wasn't what she was looking for today. Kheisa waited for him to give up again, and when he turned away she exclaimed "Soko!" and said "Yes!" and gave him a treat when he looked back. For good measure, she also said "Good boy!" and "Good boy Soko!" and scratched his face and around his jaw the way she'd seen Equillion people do. Since he was half Vulticus she wasn't exactly sure what he would like, but he seemed to at least not mind it.
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Name: 5
[ Soko: 6 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 18, 2017 5:28:13 GMT -6
This repeated a few times. Kheisa feigned disinterest until the Vultion looked away, then said his name, and when he looked back she gave him a treat. A few times in, though, she noticed Soko began to move his head back almost at the same time she said his name, and when it happened that him moving his head back clearly preceded her calling his name, she frowned in dismay, gave him a few good face-and-neck scratches instead of a treat and decided to take a break.
"You know what I think," she said, moving away from him, "is that you're just learning that if you turn your head away and turn it back you get a treat. That's not your name, mister!" He followed her, not understanding a word she said, and nudged around her fanny pack again, which she quickly zipped up to avoid him getting his muzzle right into the treat bag.
She shoved at his face again, laughing a little. "Maybe we should work on something else in the meantime, like a 'leave it' or a 'no.'"
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Name: 6
[ Soko: 7 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 18, 2017 5:57:30 GMT -6
Kheisa scratched Soko's fluffy mane while she decided what to do while taking a break from name training. She'd been half joking about the "leave it" and "no" training, but he was being pretty cheeky about trying to get into her fanny pack and eat her hands, so maybe she could wrap all of that in together and give him something else to work on.
She pulled out a treat, showed it to him, and when he came in to eat it she closed her hand, telling him "Leave it." He sniffed and licked and nibbled at her hand for a minute, trying to find a way in or convince her to give it up again, and when he stopped for a moment and looked at her face instead of her hand she said "Yes!" and gave him a treat from the other hand. Then she repeated the exercise, this time with the treat in her other hand, telling him "leave it" and waiting until he stopped trying to get it out of her hand before saying "Yes!" and giving him a treat from the first hand.
This was very much like the name training they were just doing, it turned out, so Soko picked up quickly that he was given a treat when he looked at her. It was only a few more repetitions (switching hands every time so he didn't start associating one hand with no-treats and one hand with treats) before he was only giving her hands a halfhearted nudge before looking at her for his reward.
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Don't eat that! ("Leave it"): 1
[ Soko: 8 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 18, 2017 6:10:40 GMT -6
It was only a few repetitions more before Soko started anticipating Kheisa's command and ignoring her closed hand unbidden. That wasn't quite what she wanted, so she decided to try broadening the scope a little bit. She held a treat in one hand, and with the other she obviously rooted around in her fanny pack, repositioning the treat bag so that the edges of it were peeking out of the zipper. She saw Soko's nose start to twitch again as he smelled the freshly jostled treats, and mentally crossed her fingers that he would pick up quickly on what she was asking of him.
She started to move away from him, pretending not to look but paying attention out of the corner of her eye again, making sure her fanny pack was facing him the whole time. The Vultion moved towards her, tail up, clearly interested in stuffing his face with as many treats as he could steal from the small bag, and just when his open mouth was about to close on the edge of the treat bag, she said "Leave it!" and moved her (treatless) hand in between his mouth and the bag so he couldn't reach it. He tried to go around her, easily moving her hand out of the way with his superior strength, so she said "No," and then said "Leave it!" and moved back away from him again, this time giving him a push on the nose to try and break his attention on the treat bag. He looked up at her, and even if it was mostly because of the push on the face it was still what she'd asked, so she said "Yes!" and gave him the treat from her other hand.
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Don't eat that! ("Leave it"): 2 No: 1
[ Soko: 9 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 18, 2017 6:29:17 GMT -6
Kheisa tried again, holding a treat in one hand, rustling the treat bag, and walking away from him (so that if he followed he would be walking beside her). He again followed, but this time he didn't go for the fanny pack right away. Whether he was trying to fake her out or was trying to exercise self-control, she couldn't tell, but in any case they walked around together for at least 30 whole seconds before he started moving his face towards the treat bag again. She blocked his hungry nose and said "Leave it," still walking, and when he turned his head away (this time not looking at her in the face! Score!) she said "Yes! Good boy, good boy," and gave him the treat from the other hand and some vigorous neck scratches.
While she was scratching him, though, he went for the treat bag again. He actually got his nose inside and managed to get a couple of treats before she realized and, alarmed, exclaimed "Ah! No!!" while ducking away and pushing at his face again to break the contact between his muzzle and the treats. But he'd already gotten some, and he ate those in a way that suggested he was clearly very self-satisfied about getting around her silly "rules." Kheisa groaned a bit and peered into the treat bag to see how much damage he'd done. He hadn't gotten too many, but... It was a setback she had been hoping to avoid. Maybe she'd just pushed him too fast.
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Don't eat that! ("Leave it"): 3 No: 2
[ Soko: 10 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 18, 2017 8:43:18 GMT -6
The mammalian stepped away again, thinking. Soko finished his mouthful of stolen goodies and flicked his tail, eager to come in for more.
"Okay," Kheisa said, even though he wouldn't understand her, "Let's try something more intermediate for a bit."
She moved towards an area with sparser grass and he followed, partly because of the leash still around his neck and partly because he was still interested in those treats. It seemed, to revise her previous estimation, like he was fairly food-motivated, but just not very... exuberant? In the past when she'd worked with babies and younger, smaller creatures, they'd been more enthusiastic and energetic about everything, period, which had of course meant that they went crazy for bits of food and tasty snacks. Soko, on the other hand, was fairly big, and it took more energy for him to move any part of his body, so he just wasn't as energetic, even if he still wanted the treats enough to stop sniffing around and pay attention to her for them.
Taking out a treat from her pack, Kheisa plopped down on the ground, and showed the now towering over her Vultion the treat. She guided his nose with the treat all the way to the ground, then covered it with her hands, said "Leave it," and waited. The first thing he did was sniff and lick her hands, of course, but this was a pretty different position for the treat to be in, so he tried pawing at her hands with one of his big hoof-paws.
This, of course, was pretty painful, so Kheisa yelped loudly to communicate to him that it had hurt her, before quickly saying "No!" and taking her hands and the treat away. Soko sniffed thoroughly at the spot the treat used to be, and, finding nothing, looked back at Kheisa, who had closed the treat in one hand and was inspecting her hands to see just how badly they'd been scraped up and/or bruised. They weren't bleeding, luckily, and though they hurt she was pretty sure they would stop hurting soon, so she tried again.
"Leave it," she said, sternly, showing him the treat and covering it with her hands again. The Vultion's nose followed it to the ground, but after a couple seconds of sniffing he picked up his head to just stare at her hands without trying to get through them. As soon as he'd spent a full beat not trying to get the treat, Kheisa said "Yes! Good boy!" and got him a different treat out of her fanny pack, delivered with some forehead scratches around and behind the horn.
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Don't eat that! ("Leave it"): 4 No: 3
[ Soko: 11 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 18, 2017 9:30:05 GMT -6
Feeling more confident this would work, Kheisa tried a few more times with this exercise. Cover treat, say "Leave it," wait until Soko stops trying to get the treat, reward with a different treat. Thankfully he didn't try pawing her hands again (though he did lift his foreleg once like he wanted to, but then seemed to think better of it and put it back down), and the aching was starting to go away.
Eventually he seemed to get it, and didn't even try to get the treat through her hands, so she bumped the difficulty up a little. She gave him the treat she'd been using for nothing so he knew it wasn't just that treat he couldn't have, and so she could use a fresh one for this slightly different task. This time, when she waved the new treat in front of his nose and put it on the ground and said "Leave it," she only half-covered it with one hand, essentially cupping it from one side. The Vultion noticed this at once, and sniffed his way down to the open side with the fresh treat peeking out.
"No," Kheisa said, lowering her hand to completely cover the treat. He lifted his head to look at her hand, then her, then her hand again, and because he wasn't trying to get it, she said "Leave it," lifting her hand on one side again. His nose twitched and he leaned in a bit, but he stopped himself short of actually trying to get the treat, so she said "Yes! Yes! Good boy!" and gave him a treat from her other hand, feeling pretty positive about his progress.
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Don't eat that! ("Leave it"): 5 No: 4
[ Soko: 12 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 18, 2017 10:12:04 GMT -6
Since it seemed like he was really starting to get what she meant by "Leave it," Kheisa repeated the one-handed exercise until he was reliably not going for the treat, before upping the ante again.
She gave him the treat she'd been covering for nothing again, took out a fresh treat, and placed it on the ground, saying "Leave it" and leaving her hand close by, but not covering it at all. Soko looked put out, and lowered his nose to sniff at it, but when Kheisa moved her hand like she was going to cover it, he let out a low, quick whine and picked his head back up.
"Yes!" the mammalian said, snatching away the treat on the ground and giving him a fresh treat out of her fanny pack all at once. She also made sure to give him some big whole-head pets and scratches to reward him for a job well done. "Good boy!"
This exercise she also repeated a few times, and though he still seemed put out by not being able to eat the treats off the ground, he was exercising his self-control admirably, she thought.
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Don't eat that! ("Leave it"): 6
[ Soko: 13 ]
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Post by Kheisa on Dec 18, 2017 10:41:53 GMT -6
Kheisa picked herself up and dusted off her butt and thighs to get off the dirt and grass that inevitably would have collected there while she was sitting on the ground. "Alrighty," she said, "let's make it a little different! Try something a little harder."
She selected a few treats from the treat bag and put them on the ground in the open where she had just been sitting, and used a different treat to lure Soko away and get him walking next to her on the leash (giving it to him once they were walking together and taking out a new one so he didn't think she was just teasing him). They made a loop, and she gave him a treat just before he saw the pile on the ground. Once he did, he made for them, as expected, and Kheisa allowed him to, this time.
She made another pile, and they made another loop on the leash, Kheisa still enticing Soko with treats but not letting him have them as frequently. As they approached this time, however, when he started to go for the treats, Kheisa said "Leave it!" It gave him a little pause, but the pile of treats was too tempting, so he started towards them again.
"No," the mammalian said, pulling back on the leash, waving a hand in front of his face to break his focus, and pushing against his body with hers to try and move him away from the pile a bit. "Leave it."
The Vultion was thoroughly jostled by her response to him going for the treats, and raised his head to look at her instead of the tasty pile. He seemed a little surprised when this earned him a "Yes! Good boy!" and a treat from her fanny pack, but his tail waved gamely and he stayed put.
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Don't eat that! ("Leave it"): 7 No: 5
[ Soko: 14 ]
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