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Sparks
Jul 1, 2019 0:59:34 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 1, 2019 0:59:34 GMT -6
After practicing it for a while, Morgan decided that it would be important to perform this even under duress and such. Morgan practiced this by purposefully taking the houluh around to other areas, where more often than not, someone with a creature that would make a lot of noise that would pester Nico. Morgan would practice quietening him using the 'silence' command, and it worked each and every time. Sure, maybe Morgan should feel a bit bad that the other people's pets were being pestered by his presence, but Morgan figured that people should teach their critters the silence command, theirselves anyway. Each time the houluh performed the trick well, he was given a jerky piece and lots of praise. Eventually they made their way back to their training spot, where Morgan practiced using the silence command with other commands as well. It seemed to have stuck well enough, so Morgan decides that they can move on to other things now.
[5] - [END of 'Silence']
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Sparks
Jul 1, 2019 1:06:59 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 1, 2019 1:06:59 GMT -6
Morgan was actually super excited to get to this trick; since they hadn't really seen it done a whole lot. Of course, it would probably be better taught to a creature with hooves and with large barrels, but it could also be done with a small creature and tiny cans, as well as smallish pumpkins or other such things. Morgan had purposefully brought some small novelty 'barrels'; about a foot tall and very lightweight, for the creature to be trained this today. Morgan set the barrels up around, all three of them, and then smiled as the houluh was immediately interested in them; sniffing them. Morgan wasn't super worried about this; it was more of a fun trick and less of something that would keep him safe in the future. They weren't going to have to worry too much about it, and that made it the perfect 'last thing of the day'.
[1] - [START 'Kick the Can']
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Sparks
Jul 1, 2019 23:21:09 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 1, 2019 23:21:09 GMT -6
It was actually an incredibly nice to know that this was going to be a cuter, if not kind of complex, trick to teach. Morgan knew that they were no where close to being doing with the list, and this would make a good mid-list training bit. Morgan knew that they needed to come up with a command with this one though... Huh, it could easily be verbal, this time. Morgan probably should have thought about this ahead of time! Morgan hummed a bit while they considered, rubbing their chin with a palm before they figured it out. "Nico!" Morgan called out, to get his attention, "Wrought!" Well, that was perhaps the single worst idea ever, but ah well. Morgan gently grabbed the houluh's back leg, and locked over the tiny barrel with it. "Good boyo, Nico!" Morgan said, petting and giving him a piece of jerky for the trouble.
[2]
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Sparks
Jul 1, 2019 23:55:41 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 1, 2019 23:55:41 GMT -6
This would require a lot of work, Morgan knew, but they had some time to do it in, and if they had to come back to it eventually, it wouldn't be too much of an issue. The houluh had realized what this was, it would seem, because Morgan only had to repeat this ten more times, each time giving the command, and then helping the houluh 'kick a can' before petting him and giving him lots of praise, in order for him to finally seem to be helping Morgan do the kicking for him. The eleventh time they went back over it, Morgan called out the command, and the houluh raised up a bit and used both hind legs to kick a can a decent way. Of course, it was a small amount of distance, but that was exactly what Morgan had been hoping they would work up towards. "Good boyo, Nico!"
[3]
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Sparks
Jul 2, 2019 0:21:44 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 2, 2019 0:21:44 GMT -6
Practice makes perfect; Morgan kept working with the houluh over the next hour, perfecting his basic kicks of the cans. He was finally, with lots of hard work and lots of praise with tiny bits of jerky each time, getting to where his kicks had as much power in them as he could get. Morgan was incredibly pleased with Nico's current work, but he still had a long way to go. They kept working on it continuously over the next thirty minutes as well; but they hadn't even got to the most important part; target practice. That was the hardest bit, too. After taking enough of a break to pour the poor critter a drink of water, the two of them got to work again; this time with Morgan setting up a few 'targets' (in this case, boulders and logs that were easy enough to drag with effort). Nico was not at all good at hitting targets.
[4]
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Sparks
Jul 2, 2019 0:32:21 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 2, 2019 0:32:21 GMT -6
Continuous practice was spent; and time got away from Morgan. They blew past noon quite far; continuously working on the kicking and targets. Nico was starting to get to where he would look back over his shoulder at the 'cans' before kicking, and he was beginning to angle his body and curve his back as he did so to properly kick the cans in a certain desired direction. Morgan had originally gotten him to kick toward certain targets by pointing at a target and then guiding his feet in that direction. It had taken them forever to get to that point, and strangely enough, Morgan hadn't even noticed that time passed as they got to work. Eventually, Morgan could point at any target, and then give the command once they got to a specific command, and Nico would at least attempt to kick the can at the target. Another break later, and the two continued practicing. Noon turned to midday, midday turned to mid evening, and then late evening before Morgan even realized that it was time to go home. The game had been so fun; and through all of those hours of repetition and hard work, Nico was eventually able to kick the miniature 'barrel' cans into the targets at small distances more often than not.
[5] - [END of 'Kick the Can'] - [Both of them go home for the day.]
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Sparks
Jul 2, 2019 20:59:29 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 2, 2019 20:59:29 GMT -6
The quest this month had been stressful enough to keep Morgan away from the questing board for a bit. After going home, they had spent a full day getting life back together. It must have been a bit more difficult than the bespectacled human had thought, because the decompression that it took whenever they got home for the both of them was pretty extensive. The next morning, however, Morgan forced theirself out of bed, and got the houluh together for their walk. In fact, Morgan decided, it would be healthy for them to have another training session anyway. Nico could probably stand to learn a few more tricks, and if they got through all of the tricks, Morgan could start working on his self-defense. That was the most important thing, now that Morgan had seen what sorts of things they could go up against just in every day life. The walk always went past the park, anyway.
[1]
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Sparks
Jul 2, 2019 22:53:56 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 2, 2019 22:53:56 GMT -6
The next few things that they were going to work on were going to be boring and annoying, at the very best. Morgan was a bit miffed about that, but knew that they were necessary in the long run, and heck, they might even be useful in a pinch! Morgan wanted to get these done before the next leg of their training; which was going to be something else entirely. The bespectacled human had heard about a training gym around here specifically for critters. Of course, Morgan had never been there, but it shouldn't be too difficult to get a membership there, at least if only for Nico. Nico was going to be the more dexterous houluh alive if Morgan had any say so in it! He walked so well on a leash thusfar, Morgan noticed, he was beginning to get quite well behaved. He was already more well-behaved than the average just starting out, but now he was almost worthy of going with Morgan everywhere.
[2]
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Sparks
Jul 2, 2019 22:57:00 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 2, 2019 22:57:00 GMT -6
Several people, while on their walk through the park of course, commented about how well behaved he was. Of course, he was mostly just following Morgan's command to stay silent. He refused to bark at anyone else's creatures, no matter what. Morgan was proud that he took to training so well, and hoped that he would continue to have these sorts of things in the mind. Morgan was afraid that he would forget something that they had already went over, but so far he was doing great. It was a valid concern of course, most creatures needed a quick refresher course on a lot of their commands, if not having to be completely retrained. Up to this point, they had not had this problem with Nico, past needing a little extra training with the hoop thing. That was mostly Morgan's fault however, and not really the fault of Nico. Morgan had been a bit too hasty.
[3]
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Sparks
Jul 2, 2019 22:59:53 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 2, 2019 22:59:53 GMT -6
Once they were done with their walk (and of course Nico had done his business, as he had been trained to do on walks if he needed to; all of which Morgan cleaned up meticulously using the provided cleanliness materials and baskets of waste specifically for this purpose that the Labs provided the city) Morgan began to head to their place in the park. Well, technically no one owned any space in the park, but Morgan was seemingly the only one there most of the time, even in that corner of the place. So hopefully they would be lucky enough to be the only ones there again today. Morgan wasn't exactly keen on other folks most of the time, especially when they had a limited amount of time for training, like today. Morgan was on a tight schedule incredibly often, if only because they had such a thickly packed schedule in general.
[4]
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Sparks
Jul 2, 2019 23:04:19 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 2, 2019 23:04:19 GMT -6
The houluh at least seemed to enjoy their walks. He liked being doted upon, it would seem, and he also liked how somewhat jealous Morgan was of him. Morgan obviously didn't like it much when others put attention on him, and Nico could feel it through the link that had opened up. He wouldn't really understand it completely, and Morgan was as of yet unaware of it. They hadn't really thought about the psycho-social bond in a long time, so they didn't really consider the fact that this could be why Nico was acting so proper and beginning to pick up Morgan's personality traits. Morgan generally could eyeball how close a creature was to the master, but had only just now realized, looking down at an arrogant-looking Nico, that he was... Reflecting them. As in, Reflecting some of Morgan's personality traits and moods back at them, tempered only by the creature's own personality.
[5]
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Sparks
Jul 3, 2019 0:04:55 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 3, 2019 0:04:55 GMT -6
Morgan was going to start with one of the two most basic things that they would be working on today; the 'search' behavior. This should not be too difficult, Morgan figures, since it really wasn't something too complicated. They wouldn't be learning to find anything in particular, more just something random. Morgan had brought a lot of toys today, because Morgan figured it would be easier to teach him if it was something that he wanted at first. Then, Morgan figured, they could just pick up all of the toys and start searching for 'other' things, anything that was around. The idea would be to build up on this eventually to help train other, more complicated behaviors, in the future. "Nico, are you ready to get started today?" Morgan asked, as they unclipped the houluh's leash from his collar. Morgan sure was ready, and the houluh wagged his tail and barked excitedly.
[1] - [START 'Search']
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Sparks
Jul 3, 2019 0:15:35 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 3, 2019 0:15:35 GMT -6
Morgan started by taking the tools out from their backpack's side pockets, making sure to gently touch the egg as they did so. The egg had began making slight shifts recently; which confirmed for once that yes, this had to be an egg and not a rock, despite how sturdy it was. Morgan murmured something soft to it, feeling a bit protective, before scattering the toys around for the most part, and even purposefully hiding some. The houluh was already playing with one toy, the holey ball, but oh well, there were a ton more where that came from. Morgan then walks over to the creature and gently pets him. What would be a good command for search? Morgan decided that a command that was for being up close would be fine, since this was more of an up-close command than would that would be needed to hear from far away like some of the others.
[2]
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Sparks
Jul 3, 2019 0:20:45 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 3, 2019 0:20:45 GMT -6
Morgan chose a double-snapping command, and then immediately used it, catching Nico's attention immediately. At this, Morgan picked up a random toy, and gave it to Nico. "Good boyo, Nico!" Lots of praise and then a treat. Afterwards, they then took the toy and put it in a basket where Nico couldn't get to it. Morgan did the double-snap command yet again, and then when Nico didn't do a whole lot except wandering around and looking curious, Morgan went to pick up a toy. Nico beat Morgan to it, seeing what they were doing, and then held it up for Morgan to take. "Good boyo, Nico!" Once again, lots of praise and then a treat. At this, Morgan did the double-snap command, and waited a moment. Nico looked quite confused, it would seem, but he went and picked up a random toy, holding it up for Morgan afterwards.
[3]
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Sparks
Jul 3, 2019 0:23:54 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 3, 2019 0:23:54 GMT -6
"Good boyo, Nico!" This time, the praise was accompanied with both pets and treats, to make sure that the houluh knew for sure he'd done really, really well! Morgan figured that it would be smooth sailing for the most part from here on out, and was correct for the most part. After a bit of trial and error, a lot of the toys were picked up. Morgan went and sat down, and then gave the snapping command again. This time, Nico seemed to have it down pat with the toys, and rushed out to pick up a random one. He brought it back to Morgan, and was given pets, praise, and treats. Once again, Morgan gave the command. Another random toy was brought back, and then he was praised, petted, and treated again. This continued for some time, until there were only a few toys left scattered. Morgan knew that the good part was coming up soon.
[4]
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