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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 3:47:02 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 3:47:02 GMT -6
Nico was a very good boy, and Morgan was baffled as they watched the log rock ever so slightly back and forth. The tiny creature was not strong enough to move the log, like bigger creatures easily could, but he could definitely try the best he could. Morgan was pleased enough with that; creatures only did as much damage with attacks as their bodies would allow, after all. Morgan was only expecting this much. "Good boyo, Nico!" Morgan said, grinning; and giving him a treat. Now it was time for repetition. They continued working back and forth with this; the command, and then Nico kicking, back and forth, with treats of course when the houluh did as he was supposed to. They repeated this again and again, until Morgan was absolutely sure that Nico had managed to learn the command and what to do with it; of course. Houluh were thin creatures, and would never be as powerful as an equillion; but he sure knew how to kick the best his body would let him.
[20] - [END of 'Kick']
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 4:03:34 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 4:03:34 GMT -6
Now that the houluh was warmed up and had already worked on something a bit rougher, Morgan wanted to start him on the most important thing for agility; Running! He was already very good at it, but just needed to be able to get it connected to a command. Nico was incredibly good at listening for commands thanks to being so close to Morgan, so it was only due time until he had this started. Morgan had wanted to wait until he was a little bigger to put him through the ringer on this one, since he was pretty small for a juvenile when Morgan had received him. Morgan gently petted him, carefully, and then said to him, a big grin cracked; "Let's start on the next thing. This one should be more fun for you, boyo." Morgan didn't know how the RoT worked, but they hoped that the houluh was getting a bit of this, at least.
[21] - [START 'Run']
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 4:30:41 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 4:30:41 GMT -6
Morgan had already figured out how they were going to train this one; with the ball starting out. Morgan pulled the holey ball out of their backpack; this time they brought the blue one instead of the cherry one. Already, Nico was staring at it and nearly wagging his entire butt off he was wagging his tail so much. This time, Morgan pulled out the whistle, however, since this should probably be taught using something that could be heard from far off. Nico immediately pulls himself together, and stares at the whistle instead, knowing that it meant that a command would be given soon. Morgan had chosen a windlike whistle for the run command, since the critter would need to hear it far off, and it needed to be different from the other commands. As soon as Morgan gave the command, Nico watched carefully as Morgan threw the ball really far out, and he took off running after it.
[22]
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 22:32:44 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 22:32:44 GMT -6
That was what Morgan was wanting him to do with this of course; run. However, they would have to wean him off of using the holey ball in order to do it, anyway. The houluh was incredibly good at figuring these sorts of things out, however, so Morgan wasn't too worried about it at least. Soon, the houluh grabbed the ball, and then came back. "Good boyo, Nico." Morgan said, and then they called out the command again without treating them using the whistle. The houluh's ears perked up; he knew that it was a command, but which one? Morgan pretended to throw the holey ball; and the houluh took off running, but Morgan did not actually throw it. Soon, the houluh returned, looking confused. "Good boyo, Nico!" Morgan said, and then quickly gave the creature a treat and lots of petting. Nico knew that this meant that he'd done what he was supposed to, but... He didn't bring back the ball?
[23]
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 22:36:45 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 22:36:45 GMT -6
After giving him lots of pets, Morgan figured that they were on the edge of a real breakthrough with this one. The houluh would get it soon, they just knew it! "Alright Nico, now let's do that again, okay boyo?" Morgan said. Then, Morgan gave the whistle command again. The spotted houluh moved over the ground looking concerned at first, and then turned back. Morgan raised their hand like they were going to throw the ball; and then it clicked. The houluh turned tail and ran, as far as he could, having triangulated the idea between them. Morgan called him back using the 'come' command, and then Nico returned to Morgan really quickly. "Good boyo, Nico!" Morgan said, petting the creature and giving him a piece of jerky for his trouble. "Such a good boyo, good job!" Now they were really cooking with gas. Morgan was ready to move on to the next part...
[24]
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 22:44:45 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 22:44:45 GMT -6
Repetition! That was always the last step, and Morgan was slowly getting to where it was the most exciting part of the training. Of course, there were a few other things that they wanted to work on today, and they needed to get through this step as quickly as possible to get to those things. "Alrighty Nico, let's keep doing that." The houluh learned as quickly as ever, Morgan gave the command using the whistle, and then the houluh would run until Morgan called him back. Then he would be treated and lots of praise would be showered upon him. At this point, they would wash rinse and repeat this process. Whistled command, running, and then treats. This was the life that the houluh seemed to enjoy; as soon as he got the command he really ran with it (no pun intended). Morgan repeated this process with the houluh until they were absolutely certain that he could indeed run, and would indeed do so when told until he was told to come back, or passed out, whichever came first.
[25] - [END of 'Run']
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Sparks
Jul 11, 2019 22:53:04 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 11, 2019 22:53:04 GMT -6
Morgan wanted to teach the houluh the whole danger-dodging thing next; but figured that he looked pretty tired again, and would need some more rest before they tried that. So the next idea that Morgan had was not something that required a lot of physical exertion. Morgan had recently received a set of creature pockets specifically for the houluh; made so that it could be adjusted to his body using straps if he got bigger. Morgan wanted to teach him how to wear this, so that he could actually carry his own treats and such. Of course, he wouldn't know how to really pull them out himself, which was the point, Morgan figured. It would allow for Morgan to carry more stuff around than their own labcoat could carry in it's huge pockets. "Alright boyo, you're not going to like this, but we have got to do it." Morgan pulled the collapsed pockets from out of their backpack carefully.
[26] - [START on Carry Load]
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Sparks
Jul 12, 2019 3:02:31 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 12, 2019 3:02:31 GMT -6
Morgan had gotten the creature to be able to take to a harness, so it wasn't going to be difficult in that respect, it was just that Morgan figured that he would not like to actually carry any weight, even though it was going to be the simplest, lightest weights possible due to his small frame. The bespectacled human just figured that if he was going to want to be around every time they had to do some kind of a dangerous situation, that the houluh needed to be able to take care of himself and also carry his own weight, so to speak. Morgan did not want to have to deal with him being any kind of a weak spot, so he needed to be well trained to deal with that. It would at least be helpful if he became a bit of an extra carrying capacity at least. Morgan held it up for the creature to inspect it; it was furred on the inside for comfort, and most leather on the outside.
[27]
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Sparks
Jul 12, 2019 3:06:02 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 12, 2019 3:06:02 GMT -6
Morgan was quite happy with it; it even had pins that matched Morgan's cufflinks, which was pretty awesome if they did have to say so theirself. "Alrighty, boyo, we've got to put this on you." The voice was kept low and gentle so that he wouldn't be alarmed. Morgan got it on the houluh pretty easily, seeing as he was already trained to accept a harness. Now he just needed to accept weight. Morgan opened one of the side pockets on each side, and placed an identical smooth stone in each to provide weight for the creature. The houluh whined as the pockets were zipped up. Morgan had made sure that it was on the creature properly, and that it would not pinch or pull; so it was just Nico being whiny. "It's okay boyo." Morgan said, gently petting him. He'd get used to it sooner or later.
[28]
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Sparks
Jul 12, 2019 3:15:40 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 12, 2019 3:15:40 GMT -6
The next step would be simply to run the creature through some of the other commands and behaviors in order to get him used to carrying the weight while doing so. As for right now, he was simply standing there looking glum. Morgan pulled out the frisbee and smiled at him. "Want to chase the frisbee?" Morgan said, cracking a grin at him and trying to get him to cheer up. It worked like a charm of course, he loved playing with the frisbee! Morgan wound up and threw the frisbee; sending it sailing through the air pretty far. Immediately the houluh seemed to forget that he was carrying extra weight; and he ran out to chase it. Morgan was pleased at this; of course Morgan would not over-encumber the houluh ever, he would just have to get used to carrying the weight in general. When he brought back the frisbee, Morgan put two more rocks in his pouches on either side.
[29]
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Sparks
Jul 12, 2019 3:22:18 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 12, 2019 3:22:18 GMT -6
The houluh didn't really seem to mind it at all; but he was more interested in the frisbee than anything else. Morgan threw the frisbee for him a few times, and when he brought it back Morgan would throw it again. They continued working on it quite a bit until Morgan got bored of the frisbee, and then Morgan began running him through all of his commands while he was wearing the creature pockets with the weight in them. He didn't even seem to notice the weight anymore, after being ran through all of the commands to distract him. Morgan gave him quite a few treats, and whenever they took a break from the commands, the houluh just walked around with the packs on, weight and all, not even seeming to notice. "See boyo, I told you it wasn't that bad." Morgan said, jokingly. Of course he took to it very quickly when he was shown that it wasn't really all that bad.
[30] - [END of 'Carry Load']
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Sparks
Jul 12, 2019 3:41:17 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 12, 2019 3:41:17 GMT -6
Morgan wanted to do just two more things today. The first one was to work on the easiest thing by far; Morgan wanted to teach the houluh to sit on a chair or on a stool. It was going to be relatively easy to teach, they figured, and would give them some extra rest before Morgan put him through the danger-dodging thing that they were planning on ending the training day with. What would they do after this? Morgan hadn't thought about that. They'd have to put together another list and come back another day. Maybe they would head back out to the mansion grounds? Morgan was sure that the houluh would really love the sand, he'd never seen any before. Honestly, Morgan hadn't seen much of it before either, but it was certainly a novel thing. "Nico, do you want to do something else?" Morgan planned to leave the weight on him to continue working on normalizing that.
[31] - [Start 'Sit on Chair']
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Sparks
Jul 12, 2019 4:22:21 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 12, 2019 4:22:21 GMT -6
It shouldn't be too hard to train this; it was a simple thing that would work quite well. He already knew to sit and stay, and hold that until released, so Morgan was incredibly sure that the creature would pick this up quickly. Morgan had brought a fold out stool for this, and pulled it from a side pocket of their own backpack. They had made sure to put it somewhere where it wouldn't hurt the egg that they had in the backpack. Morgan unfolded the stool and set it up near the houluh. He looked at it curiously; he knew by this point that what Morgan had said earlier meant that he was going to learn a new thing, but he wasn't sure what the new thing had to do with it. Morgan gently picked up the pup, and put it on the stool. At this, Morgan gave the commands for 'sit' and 'stay'. Then, Morgan made a closing-fist hand signal, it was the new command for this. The houluh wagged it's tail quietly.
[32]
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Sparks
Jul 12, 2019 4:38:45 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 12, 2019 4:38:45 GMT -6
Finally, Morgan gave him a treat. "Good boyo, good job boyo!" Morgan said, and then they pet his head and his ears. "Such a good one." Morgan said, giving his spine a bit of a pet. Then, Morgan sat him down on the ground, and gave him the command again; the closing-fist command. The houluh knew that this meant something, these sorts of things always did, but what did it mean? The creature finally sat down, and tilted his head. Morgan shook their head, and then picked him up and placed him on the stool. Then, they gave the command again, and this time the houluh sat down on the chair and waited. "Good boyo, Nico!" Morgan called out, and then petted him while giving him a treat. Then, Morgan put him down on the ground again, and did the command with the closing fist sign again.
[33]
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Sparks
Jul 12, 2019 4:45:44 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jul 12, 2019 4:45:44 GMT -6
This time the houluh was beginning to get the idea that yes, this stool appeared to have something to do with these. He'd only been treated while ON the stool, so that meant that being on the stool meant something. Nico looks up at the stool and then back at the command, and then hops up on top of it, sitting and waiting for his treat. "Good boyo, Nico!" The houluh had shown itself as being incredibly well adaptive when it came to tricks due to wanting to please Morgan, and having the links of both the RoT and the emotional link to triangulate whatever the human wanted. Sure, it took some trial and error, but it was doable. Morgan gave the creature a treat, not knowing any of this of course, and gave him lots of head scritchings. "Very good boy." The houluh could tell based off of the emotional reaction that this was indeed the right thing to do.
[34]
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