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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 0:58:43 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 0:58:43 GMT -6
Each time that Morgan walked the creature on the leash around and he stayed at heel (which was every time after he noticed), Morgan gave him a treat and lots of praise. This continued until the bespectacled human was super sure that he had gotten it. Then, Morgan unclipped his leash, and then began to work him through it off of the leash too. The transfer to this idea was super easy, because Morgan put a piece of jerky in their hand at first to signal to him that it was what was supposed to happen, and then after that, no more jerky in the hand. Nico stayed at Morgan's side at heel whenever Morgan walked along with him there, both on and off the leash, whenever they got done working through the repetitions of it. Morgan was finally sure that he had really gotten it, and would do it naturally, unless ordered to do otherwise.
[5] - [END of 'Heel']
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 1:04:22 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 1:04:22 GMT -6
Now that Morgan had taught the things that they were worried about the most today; well, the most basic things that they were worried about, they wanted to work on something with a bit more work to it. The houluh would eventually be taken to the training gym again, and he would need to know how to weave between poles in order for this to work. The poles would definitely help with agility training, Morgan was sure, and they wanted him to be able to weave through them already by the time they got to the gym to do that. Morgan petted the houluh on the head for a moment, and then grabbed the poles from their backpack, gently touching the egg. Something inside of the egg was moving, lately. Was it going to hatch soon?
The bespectacled human set up the poles relatively easily nearby. "Okay Nico, you ready for the next thing?"
[6] - [START 'Weave']
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 1:25:06 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 1:25:06 GMT -6
Morgan was sure that the houluh would get the 'weave' idea really quickly. Now that they were this far along in training, it wasn't something super confusing or odd. Morgan was sure that a quick command of 'thru' would be easy enough to give him the cue he needed to go through the hoops instead of around them, like he sometimes might have to do in agility trials. Morgan patted the houluh on the head after making sure that everything was set up. Then, Morgan gave the command for 'follow' and then gave the command "Thru!" Immediately before walking through the poles in the 'weave' pattern. The houluh followed Morgan through in the exact movements that Morgan took, like he had at the gym the other day. Then, Morgan called out "Thru!" and went through them again, super fast. The houluh kept up easily. The third time; Morgan ran through it.
[7]
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 1:29:11 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 1:29:11 GMT -6
Each time, Morgan was sure to say 'thru.' Something told Morgan that the houluh knew what they meant, after the sixth try; and then Morgan sat down afterward, and gave the creature a treat. They had ran through full force the last few times, forcing the houluh to appear to bend his body around the poles. Morgan petted his head and then gently pet his ears as well. "Such a good boyo, great job Nico." They gave him a moment to rest, since all that movement must have been a lot more tiring to him than it had been to Morgan. After a moment, Morgan called out; "Thru!" Nico took a moment to realize what Morgan was saying, but then immediately went through the poles, weaving but not going fast enough. When he was done, Morgan shook their head, and then called out "Thru!" yet again.
[8]
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 1:41:24 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 1:41:24 GMT -6
The next time, the houluh seemed to have gathered that he was supposed to rip through them as speedily as possible; and he did. Nico raced through the poles, weaving through them as quickly as possible, trying not to touch his sides up against them too much, though he did when it came to some of them. That didn't bother Morgan at all; they would continue to work on his grace whenever they went back to the gym. For now, it was the movement that mattered, and not the execution otherwise. "Good boyo, Nico!" Morgan called out, and then immediately the houluh was given a treat and lots of praise. This was how the training went each time, and now was no different. After the houluh was given his praise, Morgan called out the command yet again; "Nico, Thru!" They said, watching as the houluh split through the poles again, weaving them well.
[9]
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 1:44:59 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 1:44:59 GMT -6
It was repetition time, and Morgan was sure that Nico would do well. The houluh finished his run of the poles, and Morgan gave him a treat and lots of praise and petting for doing such. Then, it was the command again. "Nico, Thru!" The command, though a verbal one that Morgan didn't particularly like doing, would be difficult to guess and well, what was a person going to get out of it for giving him such a command that he couldn't use if there were no poles, anyway? Nico ran through the poles again, and was treated again. His weaving was quite good, if Morgan did say so theirself! The command was given many, many more times, and each time Nico ran through the poles as fast as possible, with Morgan giving him lots of praise and treats for doing as he should. After a while, Morgan was convinced that he knew what to do!
[10] - [End of 'Weave']
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 1:51:51 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 1:51:51 GMT -6
Morgan left the poles up because they might just use them later? They hadn't really decided yet, but they could always put them up later, Morgan figured. The bespectacled human petted the creature for a moment, thinking of the next thing they should work on. Probably something cutesy that didn't require much athleticism, Morgan thought, but something just as easy for a warmup. That's what they were doing with the first few things today, because Morgan had more difficult things in mind for the next few things. After a moment or two of thought, Morgan thought that the 'boop' behavior, while useless, would be incredibly cute and would allow the creature to add to his set of adorable tricks that would win over people during an obedience trial at the very least. "Alrighty Nico, let's go onto the next thing, okay?" Morgan could tell he was just a little winded, but nothing this rest wouldn't fix.
[11] - [START 'Boop']
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 1:56:44 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 1:56:44 GMT -6
Nico tilted his head, his ears hanging cutely. They were so large! Morgan honestly hoped that houluh would never truly grow into them, not ever. "Alright boyo... Hmm, what should I use as a command for this one?" Morgan had to think about it. Aha; perhaps Morgan would 'boop' the critter's nose, and then have him boop their nose? That would be cute enough. Morgan wasn't the biggest on these cutesy commands, but they would work well enough, they figured, at least for most trials. After a moment, Morgan reached forward, and gently touched the houluh's nose with their finger. Then, they leaned forward, and touched their nose to his nose. "Good boyo, Nico!" At that, Morgan gave him a treat. This was how it always went when they were doing this; so as Nico took the jerky, he thought about what had just happened, realizing that there was some part of it that Morgan wanted him to do.
[12]
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 2:02:02 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 2:02:02 GMT -6
Morgan gave him lots of praise, of course, and some petting. He really was shaping up to become Morgan's favorite 'pet'. Maybe not their favorite creature at the mansion, but certainly their favorite pet. Morgan didn't really keep sentient creatures as pets, but they did keep the houluh as one. He was not a pet, more like a cute little companion animal, but it worked. Morgan preferred his company over the other non-sentient creatures at least. The human booped the houluh on the nose again with their finger; the 'command' for this one, and then waited. The houluh leaned forward, and then Morgan leaned forward and connected their nose with his nose the rest of the way, in the way that was needed to really cement this for him. Morgan wasn't sure how they knew, perhaps the RoT? But they felt like the houluh really got it this time! "Good boyo, Nico!"[13] |
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 2:06:53 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 2:06:53 GMT -6
Morgan was sure to give him lots of praise as per usual and then a treat for his 'trouble'. Nico was catching on to things rather quickly due to the combination of the RoT and the link, not that Morgan would have known that, so of course he was already getting the idea for the 'boop' command pretty darn fast. Morgan booped the houluh's nose with their finger, and then the houluh immediately leaned forward, with purpose, and booped Morgan's nose with his nose. Aha; that was perfect, that was exactly what Morgan was wanting! At that, Morgan immediately gave him a treat, and then lots of pets. "Good boyo, Nico! Very good boyo." This was how the training always went for these two, and it let Nico know that he had done exactly what he was supposed to do, and to keep doing that whenever the command was given.
[14]
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 2:10:38 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 2:10:38 GMT -6
Now that Nico seemed to know what he was supposed to do; it was repetition time! Morgan sat there in the warm summertime grass of the morning and continued the training. Morgan would give the command, and then Nico would perform the boop, and then Morgan would immediately give him a treat and lots of petting, as long as praise. "Such a good boyo, Good job Nico!" Morgan was running out of jerky soon enough, so they had to rip up a few more pieces so that they could properly use them as treats later on. After Morgan was done with that, it was repetition time again. Morgan continued to run the houluh through the command in the same way, giving the command, and then treating the creature whenever he would perform the boop; which was now every time they gave the command. Finally, Morgan was pleased that he had done well, and would continue to remember it, they were sure.
[15] - [END of 'Boop']
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 2:56:04 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 2:56:04 GMT -6
The bespectacled human had already figured out what the first few things they were going to train after the basics and warmups today were going to be, and the first of those was kick. Morgan had seen that the creature had learned how to kick the can really well; and though the kick wouldn't do a whole lot of damage to really anyone, it might actually be decent enough as a split second defense option for when he needed to shock an opponent and then get away. Morgan was sure that it would be easy enough to teach, especially if they used the fact that they had already trained kick the can previously. Morgan had to figure out what kind of command they would use, however. Morgan was not really sure if it would be best to use something like 'wrought', or something quite similar... "You ready to work on the first hard thing today, boyo?"
[16] - [Start of 'Kick']
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 3:13:13 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 3:13:13 GMT -6
Of course, Nico was! Morgan knew that Nico would need targets, so Morgan had made sure that there would be logs here, like there were last time that they had worked on a kicking trick. This time, they were going to have to train him to put as much power into it as he could; into kicking with both legs like he had with the cans. Morgan called for the creature to come to them, and then began to walk toward the log. Whenever they got there, Morgan called out 'Wrought!' and of course, seeing no cans to kick, the houluh kicked the next nearest thing; the log. Morgan gave him a treat, hoping that this would get his attention to doing that, and then they switched up the command; hoping to differ this one from the can kicking thing. "Nico, Damascus!" Morgan said, and this caught his attention, certainly.
[17]
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 3:20:34 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 3:20:34 GMT -6
The houluh stood up, and then tilted his head at Morgan. So, he didn't really get it, did he? Morgan wasn't sure how to start this, since it wasn't normally something that houluh would probably do naturally, but then, Morgan had a plan. Morgan leaned down, and called out "Damascus!" and then took the houluh's hind legs and pushed them up against the log, like they did when they had been training the kick the can trick from earlier. Nico seemed to get it; then, through triangulation between the three sources of information, and twisted around, kicking hard with his hind legs, like he would to kick a can. "Good boyo, Nico!" Morgan said, and then gave him a treat and some praise for doing so well. Now, Morgan just had to find a way for him to kick... Harder. Huh, that was going to be interesting to figure out, wasn't it?
[18]
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 3:33:59 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 3:33:59 GMT -6
Morgan hoped that maybe they would have a breakthrough with it soon. "Damascus!" Morgan called out. It was a hard command word; three syllable words were never the best for a command, but it was specifically to keep other folks from being able to guess his commands, and maybe it would give Nico a chance to refuse the command of another if it was a long and difficult word. Nico bucked up and kicked using both of his legs; hitting the log. Morgan wasn't exactly happy with it though. "Harder." Morgan said, aloud. The houluh wasn't sure what to make of it. "Damascus!" Morgan called out again, and Nico kicked again. With no treats in sight, Morgan said- "Harder!" But this time; an idea filtered through the RoT - HARDER. Nico could understand that concept; and this time when the command came; "Damascus!" He put in as much power as his little body could. [19] |
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