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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 14:31:12 GMT -6
Renathan was never really sure exactly how smart creatures were. He felt like he was so used to the orbaru at first, perhaps, that he tended to underestimate the intelligence of some of his other creatures. Sure, the equillion was no where near as smart as a humanoid, but he definitely had something going on in that head there. The stallion was particularly observant among the other equillion that he had, at least. Renathan waits until the equillion finishes up the pink apple piece before he walks up to the dummy and then moves quickly, putting force into his antlers to do a slight scrape on the side of the dummy himself. He wasn't as strong as the equillion, of course, but it seemed to get the idea through to the stallion. Whenever Renathan backs up, he calls out the command yet again. "Catch Wide!" The stallion rushes forward, and does the same thing, this time with some aggression put into it.
[5]
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 14:38:05 GMT -6
Renathan is well pleased; the stallion was catching on, but this still wouldn't be strong enough for the creature to use in battle. They would have to continue working on the technique itself. Renathan gives the stallion it's treat of a small crisp pink apple slice for the hard work, and then he gives him a pat on the shoulder. How was he going to get the stallion to move in a more strong way while doing this, so that he could use his horn to rip the muscles in a foe's legs? That was the idea, anyway. Renathan pets the stallion's side absentmindedly for a moment, and then he comes up with the idea. He is pleased to see that the stallion has finished his treat! Now for the real work. Renathan holds both of his hands lower on the stallion's neck now, where the muscles were strong. Reathan then gives the command, but still holds on to the stallion's neck.
[6]
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 14:44:32 GMT -6
The stallion goes to move his head, and just his head, to scrape the legs of the drake dummy, but Renathan uses his own strength to guide the stallion's entire neck and suggest the rest of the body to go into the movement. The stallion instinctively keeps his neck from moving by moving his front half into the scrape, which caused the resulting cut in the material of the drake dummy to be much deeper. Yes, that was exactly what Renathan needed from the critter. Now, Renathan gives the bay equillion yet another smaller pink apple piece, which the creature happily chews up. Renathan then guides the stallion back a little ways, now that he figures that they have the absolute gist down. He figured that the creature being away from the dummy would force the stallion to use more of his body to perform this attacking behavior. The stallion finishes his apple piece quickly.
[7]
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 15:05:30 GMT -6
Renathan calls out the command again, throwing his arm out and pointing with force at the same time, the same as he tended to do when first training attacking behaviors. "Catch Wide!" The stallion paws at the ground, that sharp, calculated look entering his eyes, and then he rushes the drake dummy, twisting around it's side and striking it quickly with his horn, using his entire body's momentum in a motion that would probably allow his horn to become a nice sharp slicing weapon to shear open some muscles. Renathan could see it in his head, but he didn't want to test it out on some random animal; that would be quite cruel. That's what the dummy was for, after all! Renathan is pleased to see the stallion looking back over his work with a wild eye, seeming pleased with himself and very confident. Renathan fetches the treat from his baggie of apples for the stallion's success.
[8]
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 15:25:07 GMT -6
Renathan had at first been a bit intimidated by the aggression that this equillion naturally had; but now he was happy that the stallion had this kind of drive. He needed this kind of drive from the creature if he was going to really make him a great protection animal. If someone had told Renathan years ago that a vaguely equine-looking creature would make a good protection animal, he probably would have laughed. However, Shy Guy had really turned that idea on it's head. Renathan gives the equillion the coveted treat, and pet his face gently. Yes, this was quite good so far! The stallion really got the training rather quickly, most of the time. He hoped to continue the training and finish it up soon enough, though he had other ideas for training now as well. He wanted to complete the battle training either first or semi-concurrently, though. For now, he wanted to make sure the creature would at least be a great battler.
[9]
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 15:33:37 GMT -6
Renathan backs up again, and waits for the stallion to finish his treat. The pink apples made great small treats, since they wouldn't really fill up the huge creature, but they seemed to be appetizing enough for the stallion to perform the tricks quite well enough. Renathan then calls out the command yet again, "Catch Wide!" which he hoped would be vague enough for an opponent not to exactly understand what he was ordering it to do. He always thought it was counter intuitive for the first person to call out a command in battle; because whoever waited would be able to tell what the opponent was choosing to do and plan accordingly. The stallion quickly flung itself at the drake dummy, causing a deep rift in it's legs. Renathan was pleased; and gave the creature another pink apple treat. They would continue on repeating this for the next half an hour; until the stallion appeared quite tired. Renathan was pleased at the progress, feeling like it would indeed cause issues for an opponent by semi-crippling them.
[10] - [END of 'Shred']
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 16:06:41 GMT -6
Renathan decided that they would take a break from working on the battle training to do something more leisurely, since the stallion seemed quite tired. Renathan leads the bay equillion out to the brook for him to be able to drink some water. They had been working quite a long time on the training for the shredding with the horn behavior. He hoped that it would stick well in the future; he knew the creature would continue to perform the behavior, but he was not sure how viable it would be in battle. The stallion takes a long and deep drink of the water as Renathan reflected on how much time he'd been spending without his beloved familiar with him. The magic ability that allowed him to sever the bond for short periods of time were really the only reason why he could still train. Having to worry about her safety at the same time as training would be far too difficult.
[1] - START
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 16:14:57 GMT -6
Renathan was ready to get the show started again, after the stallion was finished drinking heartily from the brook. Renathan brings the stallion back to where he has placed some of their equipment, but instead of tacking the creature up completely, he places the saddlebags on the stallion's back completely by themselves. The stallion seemed a little confused at first, slipping an ear back in slight confusion, but Renathan simply looks the stallion in the eyes with confidence, to get the creature's attention. Then, he calls out "Left Saddlebag." Then, he points to the saddlebag on the equillion's left side specifically. The creature slips both ears back and sniffs the bag and his hand, but only because Renathan had drawn attention to it. After a moment, Renathan pulls his hand back. Then, he reiterates... "Left Saddlebag." This time without gesturing to the saddlebag. The stallion slips one ear back, with the other forward. Yes, confusion. It made sense for him to be confused right now.
[2] - [START of 'Location: Left Saddlebag']
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 16:21:48 GMT -6
Renathan pets the stallion's muzzle to reassure him, and then points over to the left saddlebag again, drawing the stallion's face over to it. "Left Saddlebag. Left. Left Saddlebag." He repeats. This would be something simple to teach the creature, he was sure, but it was still going to take a little bit of time and some repetition to learn. Renathan waits until the bay equillion turned his head toward the saddlebag before he gently takes the creature's head and moves it to where the nose was beneath the flap. At that, he guides the stallion's head up, so that he could get into the saddlebag. Then, he lets the stallion's head go. He is sure to treat the stallion with a pink apple piece and a quick pet or two, to show him that he is doing a great job! That was the behavior Renathan wanted; so that he could train the creature to remove things from his saddlebags on the go at command.
[3]
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 16:26:23 GMT -6
Renathan specifically wanted to make sure that the stallion would be able to differentiate between the left and right saddlebags. He was sure to choose the creature's left instead of the creature's right, so that it would always understand that it was the same one each time. He knew that the creature would never be able to completely differentiate between left and right, but the fact was that the location should be easily enough to memorize, especially via a specific name. Renathan waits until the creature finishes up his crisp pink apple slice treat to begin the repetition all over again. He calls out yet again; "LEFT saddlebag. Left. Left Saddlebag." He was quite pleased whenever the stallion turned over to the correct side and nosed the saddlebag, though he didn't open it. Renathan gave him a few pets to let him know that he did a good job, and then guided his face over to the saddlebag again to open it up. "LEFT Saddlebag."
[4]
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 16:32:23 GMT -6
The stallion finishes the motion to open up the saddlebag with the top of his nose as Renathan guides him, as if he is just beginning to get it. Renathan could not have been more pleased at this, that meant that they were getting somewhere! The jackalope mammalian then moves away from the bovid's face again, and offers him up a little piece of pink apple as a treat for the work. He then waits for the stallion to finish up his treat before continuing. "LEFT saddlebag." He calls out softly, emphasizing 'left' since he knew that they would run into some hangups when he started training the right saddlebag location. The stallion does flip over to the correct side, since nothing has been introduced to cause any hangups, and then he hesitantly opens up the saddlebag. Renathan then gives him another piece of apple for his trouble. How was he going to get the creature to start taking things out of the bag when asked in the future? He'd have to figure that out when he got there, he thinks.
[5]
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 16:52:34 GMT -6
Renathan allows the stallion to eat his crisp small pink apple piece treat while petting his shoulder, showing him that he has done well. Renathan figured that in the future, they would train other little things like this one, but he didn't want to do all of them at once and confuse the poor guy. He knew he would train Shy Guy the other saddlebag soon enough, but he didn't want to do it on the same day and confuse the stallion. He knew that left and right sometimes confused young children, so he could only imagine what kind of troubles an animal would have with it if he wasn't careful. When the stallion was finished with his treat, Renathan called out the command yet again. "LEFT Saddlebag." He said, careful to enunciate yet again. The stallion didn't seem to realize that there were indeed two saddlebags on his back yet, and that was good. The creature turns back around, and noses open the correct saddlebag once again. Renathan could not be more pleased! Renathan pets the stallion, and gives him another treat.
[6]
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Post by Renathan on Sept 13, 2018 17:02:53 GMT -6
Renathan is happy to see the stallion enjoying his treats, and taking to the location behavior quite well. He really did enjoy these less battle-oriented tasks, he especially knew that they were useful in both times of peace and war. He had seen less and less people out training lately, and that was super... Strange. He wasn't sure what was causing it. However, that wouldn't stop HIM from training, he didn't train with other people really commonly anyway. Still, he wanted to get a-hold of Jack and see if she wanted to go out on a date. He was kind of getting lonely, even though he was sure they were both busy with training. While Renathan had been thinking, the stallion had finished his apple piece and was nosing Renathan's hand for more. Renathan was brought out of his thoughts, and turns back to the stallion. He continues practicing with him on the LEFT Saddlebag location, giving him an apple piece each time he does it well. He is finally happy about the creature's progress, and decides to move on to something else for the day.
[7] - [END of 'Location: Left Saddlebag']
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Post by Renathan on Sept 14, 2018 10:31:03 GMT -6
Renathan decided that the next good idea to teach that morning would be the stopping command. To do that, however, he would need to go ahead and tack the equillion completely up. He removes the saddlebags from the stallion and then brings the stallion over to the other pieces of tack so that he could put them on the stallion. Shy Guy takes to his tack well; he'd been trained to take tack for a long time, after all. Afterwards, Renathan hops up onto the stallion's back, with a bit of help from the equillion himself of course, as per usual. After being seated upon the stallion, he decides to run him through a few of the behaviors they knew; with the jumping over obstacles, backing up and general bridle knowledge. He knew he wanted to get the creature to turn one way or another as well, but the stopping command needed to come first.
[8]
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Post by Renathan on Sept 14, 2018 10:36:55 GMT -6
Now that Renathan felt confident that the stallion knew what they were about to begin doing, Renathan made a careful but firm pull back on the reins, without doing the squeezing on the creature's sides that would make it naturally back up. The stallion did notice it; he was quite sensitive after all, but he didn't seem to know what to do with it much. He stops for just a moment, and then goes to keep going. Renathan tugs again the same was as previously, and the Stallion stops again, this time for a moment or two longer. At that, Renathan leans forward, with a small sliver of pink apple in his hand so that the creature would know he'd done something right. The stallion turns over and stops to pick the apple piece out of his hand. Renathan petted his side as he ate the piece, thinking on how he could get this to work better.
[9] - [START 'Stop']
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