|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 0:32:22 GMT -6
Sevyrn understood why the pup didn't want to give her toys back - she wanted to play and didn't realize that if she gave the toy back, she was going to get it back again. They were training for better play! The last thing that she had tossed to Sweetie was a rope toy that the little creature was now trying to tear apart.
"Drop it," Sevyrn said in a stern tone, repeating the command when Sweetie didnt listen to her the first time. When that didn't work she grabbed the toy by one tassled end, careful to keep her hands away from sharp puppy teeth, and with that gentle pressure on it told Sweetie to give up the toy. Only once her jaw freed from the body of the rope did Sevyrn let go herself.
"Good girl!" She praised as she pulled out a treat. After that it was time to try again.
31 Drop It - 2
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 0:40:49 GMT -6
There was no real motivation to drop the ball... but that didn't mean that it didn't need to be done. As much as she could tell that Sweetie wanted to be playing, they had to get through this part first and then she would let fetch be a very fun activity!
"Drop it," the girl repeated with her hand held out, making direct eye contact with the pup in front of her. In a twist of fate this time as soon as she grasped the ball in her hand, coating her fingertips in a rather generous glob of saliva, and was about to tell Sweetie to hand it over, the pup's grasp on it relaxed. Great job! Sevyrn switched the ball to her other hand and shook the wet one free of the saliva as she leaned in to give the pup a rewarding cuddle and kiss the top of her soft little head.
32 Drop it - 3
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 0:47:26 GMT -6
Sevyrn decided that it was an alright time to take a break at this point. She was starting to get hungry after spending s few hours at the park, and she imagined that Sweetie was ready for a good drink. With that in mind she climbed to her feet and walked towards her bag with an eager pup in tow.
"Yeah, I got something for you," she said to the pup as she pulled out a travel-sized water bowl and poured half of a water bottle in to it before downing the other half herself and getting a quick snack in.
After everyone had finished up she went back to the task at hand. It took a few more tries before the pup started dropping the ball on the first call, and a few more after that before she was doing it reliably, but it seemed that they had got there! Now it was time for the fun part.
33 Sweetie - 8 Drop it - 4
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 0:54:17 GMT -6
She knew how to catch, how to come on command, and how to drop the ball - all of the things that they needed to teach her to play on command with as much ease as possible. Sevyrn already knew that Sweetie was going to have an amazing time with this, though she was already wondering what to do next. Lay down? Shake? She'd heard that houlou were great fishers so perhaps she could bring Sweetie down to ths river and teach her how to fish? No... Sevyrn had no idea at all how she would teach that one, it was best saved for a later date.
Time for a cuddle first, though - Sev loved a really good puppy loving. Sweetie seemed to want to lick her face more than anything and that was a firm no in the woman's books, so it was time to get up. She hyped the houlou with her ball.
34
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 1:03:51 GMT -6
"Go fetch!" Sevyrn said as she threw the ball far past the houlou, who watched it fly with an odd curiosity. "Go get it! Go get your ball!" Nothing... it seemed that catch had only got her as far as a couple feet away so far. That was okay. Sevyrn started to jog towards where the ball fell and that was enough to get Sweetie moving. The houlou got to the ball first and then Sevyrn stopped in front of her, holding her hand out to ask for the pup to give it back.
"Let's try this again, maybe a little closer." They could work on distance in due time. She tossed the ball a few meters and told the pup to fetch, Sweetie watched it as it flew and only started moving when it thunked to the ground. Very happy to have her ball back, she zipped around the pen with it in her jaws
35 Fetch - 1
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 1:13:47 GMT -6
"Come here!" Sevyrn called, unable to sound serious as the houlou ran around happier than a pig in mud. She tapped her thighs with both hands which brought the pup straight to her feet, and she gave Sweetie a good rub on the top of her head before she asked for that ball back. Once it was back in her hands she worked the pup up.
"You want it? Yeah - you want your ball?" The pup barked at her in excitement. "Go fetch," the woman said as she tossed the ball, and the houlou zipped off after it as soon as it had left her hand, overshooting its landing spot by a few feet and then running back until she was able to stop and snatch it up. Being in play mode, she was reluctant to hand it over when Sevyrn first asked for it back, but within a minute or so relented.
Then it was right back to the top.
36 Fetch - 2
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 1:36:28 GMT -6
Fetch wasn't coming as easily to Sweetie as Sevyrn hoped that it would, but she was a pup with a pup's energy - of course she was so excited by what was going on that she just wanted to run around! After a while she was at least coming back to Sevyrn after going for her rips, tail wagging a mile a minute as she reached her girl's feet. Sevyrn absolutely adored how happy of a houlou Sweetie seemed to be. Once she was ready to come back she was generally ready to drop the ball without even needing a word from the woman, and this time she did so waited with her tail wagging so hard that her whole hind end was going with it.
"Fetch!" Sevyrn said with excitement, amazing the pup up. The ball was barely out of her hand before Sweetie was zipping off to get it.
37 Fetch - 3
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 4:30:07 GMT -6
Sevyrn was head over heels for her houlou - with how much fun she was having working with Sweetie, she could only hope that Spot would be just as good of a pup. Would she want to do something different with him? Sweetie was her first, after all - she was just learning the ins and the outs of the species. Surely as she became more experienced she would start to venture in to more interesting tricks and skills that she wouldn't dare try with her first of the species, at least not early on. Maybe she would find a way to get really good at a signature trick that she could use in her shows, or would she want each and every one of her houlou to be unique? There were so many different possibilities and she was only starting to learn them.
Sweetie ran at the ball and managed to catch it mid-air before running back towards her girl with her tail wagging a mile a minute. She dropped the ball at Sevyrn's feet, fully expecting another throw. What was Sev supposed to do beside oblige the little lady's request? After another well-done throw, Sevyrn figured that the bulk of the task was behind them.
38 Sweetie - 9 Fetch - 4
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 5:16:13 GMT -6
For a while after that Sevyrn continued to play around with Sweetie - knowing just how much the little pup enjoyed playing around like this, how was she supposed to ever stop? She got better and better with every toss of the ball, and she was doing amazing with bringing it back to Sevyrn for another throw - Sevyrn didn't even have to ask her to drop it for her any more. All in all, it was a job well done - and a very fun job at that?
After she started to get tired - mainly from watching Sweetie zip around over and over again like it was nothing - Sevyrn decided that it was a good time for another quick break. As she downed another few gulps of water back at 'home base', she tossed Sweetie one of her treats. The ball and play time alone had been enough motivation for Sweetie to get the jist of things, but she still deserved a snack.
39 Fetch - 5
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 5:25:11 GMT -6
What next? She could go for something practical, like laying down on command, or something cuter, like teaching Sweetie how to shake a paw. Sevyrn's head was in the clouds thinking of more intricate skills to teach the pup, like fishing or hunting or acting as a guard dog, but with it being her first time training a houlou... Well she was probably undermining her own capabilities, she'd always done a good job and had been working with various creatures for the majority of her life, but it seemed like it was just a lot to push for so early on.
Laying down seemed pretty practical - and given that she'd already taught Sweetie to sit, it should be pretty easy. After asking Sweetie to sit down she brought one hand to the ground, guiding it from beneath her chin. "Lay down, Sweetie. Lay down." She didn't expect the pup to know what was going - she'd need treats to start with.
40 Lay Down - 1
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 5:34:31 GMT -6
Knowing that, Sevyrn dug in to her pockets to pull out a treat - by the time that she had Sweetie had already lost interest in what was going on and climbed back to her feet, starting to sniff around and look like she was about to zip off for another round of fun. No, no - it wasn't time for that. Sevyrn called the houlou's attention back to her and asked her to sit again. This time she held the treat at about Sweetie's eye level, and dragged it down towards the ground in front of her, asking her to lay down as she did so. When her hand hit the grass and Sweetie still hadn't moved she repeated the command . Only once Sweetie had finally laid down did Sevyrn offer her the treat, and then it was time to start from the top again with another attempt. Understandably it was not going to happen in the span of a heartbeat.
41 Lay Down - 2
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 5:39:17 GMT -6
"What a good job!" Sevyrn praised as Sweetie did what she was supposed to, giving her a real good double ear rub while she munched up the last of the treat she was given. The pup was in heaven with all of the treats and loving! She barked up at the girl when she was all done, tail still wagging - did it ever stop wagging? "Yes I mean you," she cooed and leaned in to press a kiss to the top of the houlou's little cream and white head.
"Alright! Let's get back to it!" Sevyrn urged the pup back in to a sitting position and gave her another good scratch on the head, just for listening the first time. Once she was done with that, she urged Sweetie to lay back down - no treat this time, not until after. It took a few tries but eventually Sweetie realized what Sevyrn was asking of her, and brought her chest to the ground - that was treat-worthy.
42 Lay Down - 3
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 5:43:42 GMT -6
Sevyrn did a few more rounds like that - no treat until after the houlou had laid down like she was supposed to. By the end of it, she could tell that Sweetie was getting really antsy and wanted to go back to playing. Just a little while longer, she said to herself - once this is going good, I'll let you run a bit more. Sweetie had done great so far - and Sevyrn was surprised that her attention span had even lasted this long, wasn't it more likely that she would have lost the attention span to be able to focus on any more learning by now?
A couple more rounds past by and Sevyrn was feeling rather confident about it - during the last one she had even skipped on the treat reward at the end. Whether or not Sweetie would respond after finding out her snack was being snubbed would show Sev whether or not she actually knew what was going on.
43 Sweetie - 10 Lay Down - 4
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 5:47:30 GMT -6
"Lay down," Sevyrn instructed, hopeful that the pup was going to respond as expected - Sweetie was pretty great about these kinds of things, especially after that early hump of trying to figure out what was even wanted of her. It seemed that really she just wanted to be able to please her girl, which wasn't the worst trait for the pup to have. As expected Sevyrn was impressed by the houlou's capabilities, because without any treat and just the vague finger-flick down that was a remnant of the way she'd first brought her fingers straight to the ground, Sweetie laid down with ease. She looked up to her girl with a goofy look on her face, tongue hanging out one side of her mouth, and her tail going non-stop just like it seemed to always be doing.
"Oh yes, Sweetie! You're such a good little girl!" Sweetie got yet another really good head scratch for a job well done.
44 Lay Down - 5
|
|
|
Post by Sevyrn on Sept 11, 2020 7:17:28 GMT -6
Sit, lay down - what came next logically? Roll over! It would probably be one of the least natural things that Sevyrn tried to teach the houlou yet, but it would definitely count at 'something cute'... Or maybe she could push that off until after teaching her to shake a paw? Decisions, decisions....
It was in her nature to lack confidence in her own abilities - Sevyrn settled for the easier of the two tricks. Sitting down in front of the houlou Sevyrn asked her to do the same, and once she was sitting Sevyrn grabbed one of her front paws and lifted it off the ground. "Shake," she said as she held it up, though the houlou was obviously uncomfortable with the strange gesture. Keeping a hold on the paw, and repeating the word 'shake' every few seconds, Sevyrn dug in to her pocket with her free hand to grab a treat for the pup.
45 Shake - 1
|
|