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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 21:23:54 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 21:23:54 GMT -6
Morgan was really beginning to get into the training, it seemed. The more they worked with Nico, the more they realized that they had been missing a simple dog creature, something that wouldn't judge them or possibly attempt to eat them. They missed this; they almost felt like... Like they were back home with dad and Spice; sitting on the couch and listening to the radio. Yeah, Morgan missed that; wished that they had more of those days. Nico made Morgan feel like maybe they could have some semblance of that again? Not exactly, but a decent facsimile.
Repetition again and again, Morgan would call the command for sit and then hold up the hand signal for 'stay'. The houluh responded well now that he knew what Morgan wanted; he was perhaps either smart or eager to please, either one worked well enough for the purposes. After a long time of repeating and lots of praise, Morgan knew it was time to move on to the next thing.
[5] - [END of 'Stay']
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 21:41:47 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 21:41:47 GMT -6
The next part was going to be the command for laying down. This was another of those behaviors that Morgan had a secret trick for training; something that most canids would automatically react to due to the way that their bodies were, and how they tended to really stay focused on their perceived 'pack mates'. The bespectacled human was going to have to, once again, get the natural inclination to perform the movement as quickly as possible transferred to the heard command from the whistle. The whistled command this go around was going to be similar to the one for sit down on purpose, to try to get the creature to connect the two a little for ease of training this trick. It was required for another cute trick that Morgan was wanting to teach eventually; and it would make it easier to tell the creature to calm down after training this trick.
[1] - [Start 'Lay Down']
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 22:06:08 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 22:06:08 GMT -6
Just a bit more work, Morgan told theirself, and this little pupper could move on to the more interesting stuff! Morgan could not wait until they could move on to the more fun things than this basic obedience work, since this sort of stuff was ultra tedious and such to Morgan normally. Nico kind of made it fun, but only kind of. If Morgan had to do this too many more times, they were sure that it would drive them batty. Morgan made sure that they had enough jerky to work with this. Normally, they would be a bit concerned about using treats this much in one setting, but since they were tearing them into teeny tiny pieces, it wasn't causing too many issues. It was just a taste at a time for the critter; just enough for the puppy to be excited, but not enough for them to fill up just based off of this.
[2]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 22:12:02 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 22:12:02 GMT -6
Morgan was careful, almost scientific in their training methods for the most part, carefully trying to make sure that the creatures are as well taken care of as possible. It was one of the reasons why they hardly ever trained too much in one day, to make sure that the treats do not mess up their diets. They were still being careful, but the basics were absolutely required today, since he was going to have free-roam of the house. Morgan took a shred of galabex jerky treat and moved from their crouched position to call out the signal on the whistle; a slightly cracked version of the 'sit' command. The difference was noticed by the small creature immediately; and it perked it's ears as it typically did whenever it heard a new command. Morgan was beginning to catch on to Nico's more obvious mannerisms. At this, Morgan moved down into a laying position; and of course Nico's eyes were following the jerky. Nico laid down on his belly, his head on the ground.
[3]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 22:15:51 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 22:15:51 GMT -6
That was to be expected; when canids were focused on treats, they tended to follow with their eyes and body to try to get them without completely stealing them from someone with a strong confidence. Morgan's confident body posture and then moving the treat and body close to the carpet of grass made the houluh, as most canids would have, drop to his belly and 'lay down'. Morgan was pleased, and immediately gave the creature lots of praise and petting. "Good boyo, Nico!" Pets on the head, gently tousling of the ears. "Very good boy, Nico!" This was the signal that he had done something good; and he was beginning to catch on; quickly, that this meant to repeat that when the noise was made. He was good at picking out noises.
Morgan knew that they had to repeat this more times to make sure that it really stuck in his mind!
[4]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 22:20:08 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 22:20:08 GMT -6
More repetition. They say that repeating things over and over again and expecting different results was insanity; but what if someone expected the same results? Morgan wanted the creature to pick up the behaviors as they worked on them, and thus far it was quite a decent job! Morgan was excited to continue working with the creature, perhaps working up into a bit of a frenzy. It seemed that the strangest things set the individual off; forcing these strange... Mood changes. That was not even remotely on Morgan's mind at the time, however. They were feeling good for once, and that was abnormal.
Wash, rinse, repeat. Morgan would call out the command on the whistle, and Nico would lay down onto his belly immediately wherever he was, dropping whatever he was doing. Morgan could not be more pleased, but they kept on with the repetition until Morgan was convinced that he got the laying down behavior down pat.
[5] - [END of Lay Down]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 22:24:22 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 22:24:22 GMT -6
Ah, the next behavior. Morgan was not a big fan of teaching no. It felt unfair, it felt like torture, even just explaining it to the tat-lungs had been difficult at best. If Morgan truly had their way, they would never even bother with no, since it was typically not something that Morgan had to worry about. However; it was important, no matter how much the bespectacled human hated training it. Morgan had come prepared; having known that they were going to train the creature before bringing it home, to make sure that it wouldn't chew on the furniture and would remember no well enough. Morgan had brought some more of that bitter cherry spray; the stuff could be sprayed on anything to make the creature disinclined to chew on it, since it tasted absolutely terrible and smelled bad too. Humans could not detect it, but animals often could. Morgan would use the simple 'No' for this one, verbally, this time.
[1] - [Start 'No']
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 22:31:08 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 22:31:08 GMT -6
Morgan pulled an old piece of a couch arm from their backpack. They'd made sure that it smelled mostly like their house to the best of their ability, and then had put the bitter cherry spray on it in order for the critter to, of course, have something to deter him that wasn't necessarily Morgan's fault. Morgan sits this on the ground carefully, and then sat crouched there, thinking for a moment. The houluh was of course VERY interested in the couch arm; and came over to it to sniff it. Morgan sighed; here they went, right? "Nico, noo." Morgan said, straining the no to sound more like no-oh. Nico had not heard this sort of a noise before, not that tone, and glanced up perhaps curious and cautiously. Morgan's body language was even saying 'no'. Nico perhaps did not understand it yet, and continued to sniff at the couch arm.
[2]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 22:34:22 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 22:34:22 GMT -6
Morgan warned him, moving to take the couch arm away. "Nico, No!" Nico looked absolutely stricken despite the fact that he had not been touched, and he backed up a bit. "Good boy, Nico!" Morgan said, giving him a piece of galabex jerky to try to let him know that he wasn't terrible, and that he did good for not messing with the thing he'd been told not to mess with. After a while, Morgan put the couch arm back down again. The houluh was of course quite interested in it; and moved forward to look at it and sniff it again. Morgan warned, once again, "Nico, No!" This time, Nico backed off just a little bit, but he still was focused on the strange new thing. Morgan waited for a moment, and then watched as Nico tried to inch forward toward it again. "Nico, no!"
[3]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 22:39:23 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 22:39:23 GMT -6
Nico backed off quite well this time, and Morgan immediately gave the creature a piece of galabex jerky and lots of pets on his head and ears. "Good boy, Nico, good boyo!" Morgan felt like they were on a roll here, maybe he would never try to eat the couch until the time came to really drive the point home. The way Morgan usually taught 'no' was usually a bit traumatic without associating the trauma with Morgan, so it almost always kept the creature from actually chewing anything because it was seen as a horrible idea. Morgan continued repeating with the creature, making sure to say no, and when the creature backed away and stopped doing what he was doing, Morgan gave him a treat and lots of praise. They continued to do this, even when the creature finally stopped pestering the chair arm, and was instead checking out other things.
[4]
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Sparks
Jun 21, 2019 22:46:55 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 21, 2019 22:46:55 GMT -6
Now it was time for Morgan to enact the last bit of their plan. Morgan waited for a while, and then immediately walked away after telling Nico to 'stay'. Surprisingly enough, Morgan was able to get 'out of sight' and hide behind a tree and some bushes in order for this to work. Nico surprisingly enough began searching around after about ten minutes; as if they were looking for Morgan, but the couch arm was too much for them now that the human was not there to tell him now. He took a good bite of the couch arm; and of course immediately began retching. That was what always happened; there was no way he was going to try to chew on the furniture now! Morgan returned after he finished retching, and ran him through the no command a few more times until Morgan was convinced that Nico had the 'no' idea down fine enough.
[5] - [End of 'No']
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Sparks
Jun 22, 2019 11:39:28 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 22, 2019 11:39:28 GMT -6
It would seem that Nico was beginning to catch on to the concepts and changes that training brings; and quickly beginning to bond to Morgan. It was just so easy to work with the puppy; since he took to things so quickly. Now that they were over the basic behaviors that would be required, Morgan wanted to work on at least three more behaviors before they went home today, if things worked out well enough. Morgan wasn't really sure which ones that they wanted to work on though; Morgan could think of a ton of things that they could work on, and it was getting a little hard to focus all of their buzzing thoughts.
Perhaps 'bow' would be cute? It would be a good test of the creature's understanding of processes that weren't quite coming naturally to them, and it would be a challenge to figure out how to get him to do it.
[1] - [START 'Bow']
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Sparks
Jun 22, 2019 11:46:55 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 22, 2019 11:46:55 GMT -6
Morgan decided that a hand signal would be good for bow, a hand-lowering motion would be nice. There would be no reason to train this behavior to a command that would be heard from far off, since it was more of a 'cute' behavior instead of a self protection or required one. There would be no need to train the creature to bow from far off anyway; those types of commands were for communicating over distances (come and even follow could be quite important in the long run to be heard from far off, in example). Now that the command was chosen, Morgan decided it was time to work. The home tore up a few jerky bits to make sure that they had enough for this command, and then sat down on the grass carefully. Morgan gently put their off hand on the puppy's head, and then used their on-hand to make the hand signal that they would be using.
[2]
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Sparks
Jun 22, 2019 11:54:56 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 22, 2019 11:54:56 GMT -6
The houluh, by this point, was watching Morgan intently. Nico was beginning to take to Morgan in that way that a decently strong psycho-social bond did, and Morgan was quite a bit shocked at the speed in which this was instituted. Pleasantly surprised, for certain, but quite shocking. Nico could tell that the hand wave meant something; but what? Morgan gently used their off-hand to guide the front half of the puppy down, to where he was kneeling in the front (one leg accidentally curled up- something Morgan hadn't noticed) and his butt was up in the air at the back. Then, Morgan gave the puppy a lot of praise and offered him a piece of jerky. "Good boyo, Nico!" As per usual, it was a start. Nico would undoubtedly take a few times before he got it right.
Morgan gave the command again, waving their on hand, and then gently guided the puppy into the 'bow' position again. This time, Nico tucked that same paw under them again, with the other front paw outstretched, by himself.
[3]
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Sparks
Jun 22, 2019 12:08:21 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 22, 2019 12:08:21 GMT -6
Nico caught on to things very quickly, and this was no exception. Morgan knew that in a few moments, they needed to work on the command from a standing position as well, but for now, this would be good for repetition and making sure that the basics were well known. Morgan gave the creature his treat and lots of praise after this last time, and then began working with him again. This time, Morgan began to wean him off being 'helped'; they simply made the hand signal, and then puppy kind of half-bowed. Morgan gently guided him the rest of the way down, and then gently gave the creature lots of praise and a small jerky treat. After this, another repetition was made, with Morgan just making the hand signal. Slowly, the houluh puppy bowed down, one front limb outstretched, and the other front limb curled under him. Morgan had just noticed this variation, and decided it was cute and perfectly fine to allow!
[4]
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