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Sparks
Jun 25, 2019 22:44:13 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 25, 2019 22:44:13 GMT -6
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition. This seemed to be the main thing that Morgan did recently, with the houluh. Perhaps in the future they wouldn't have to do near as much of it? Morgan wasn't sure, but for now they would rather be safe than sorry. Morgan leaned forward without the peanut butter on their cheeks this time, and to their surprise but happiness, the houluh performed the single 'lick' of a kiss on each cheek whenever the face was turned towards it and the 'mwah' noise was made. Morgan was glad; mostly because they were going to be able to stop this soon enough. "Good boyo, Nico!" Morgan called out, happily. Morgan easily gave the creature lots of praise, pettings, and then a treat. Then, they continued with the repetition to make sure that the houluh got the concept until Morgan could not stand having their face licked any more.
[5] - [END of 'kiss']
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Sparks
Jun 27, 2019 21:43:49 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2019 21:43:49 GMT -6
Morgan knew that sooner or later, they would have to start working on the slightly more difficult behaviors, especially since the easier ones were starting to get boring quite fast. There were still a few things for the bespectacled human to teach the houluh, and they were going to get as far today as they could to get these things out of the way. The next behaviors that Morgan thought about training were the jump commands. The first one was pretty simple, Morgan would be using a simple hand signal for the creature to 'jump up on' something, like a couch or whatever. The second jump command would be simple as well, but a bit more work. This would be a command using the whistle, since the jump over command would certainly be useful in more situations that way. The human made sure that the bottle of peanut butter was closed up before beginning.
[1] - [START 'Jump Up']
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Sparks
Jun 27, 2019 21:49:53 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2019 21:49:53 GMT -6
The kiss command was something that Morgan had been dreading teaching. However, the next few behaviors were more easy and not quite as undignified; they would be easy to get into the clockwork-like grind that training sometimes fell into. Morgan was not quite as excitable as they had been the other day; they didn't feel nearly like they had the energy today. In fact, they were never really sure why that sort of energy sometimes reared it's ugly head. Morgan didn't like having difficulty sleeping due to being so wired up for no reason. "Alright boyo, you ready for a new thing?" It was... Annoying how attached Morgan was to this creature already. Dangerous. Morgan found theirself worried the other day when he acted a bit funky the other day... Flashes of Waar sometimes hit their mind. Morgan got up, and sat down on the park bench. Morgan looked directly at the puppy, and patted the park bench.
[2]
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Sparks
Jun 27, 2019 21:57:37 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2019 21:57:37 GMT -6
The houluh was growing very adept at guessing what Morgan wanted out of him, and as such, Nico moved closer, a bit tentatively, wagging his tail low and slow as he did so. He perks his ears a bit, and then slowly drags himself up onto the park bench, immediately looking up to Morgan for support. Morgan immediately began with praise. "Good job Nico, good boyo!" Morgan said, gently leaned forward and began petting the top of his head. "Such a good boyo." Then Morgan gently petted his ears, pulling on them carefully. Then Morgan gave him a tiny piece of jerky. This was no problem at all, so far, Nico was learning things at a rate that Morgan hadn't really expected but was rapidly beginning to expect as opposed to feel a bit odd about. Morgan picked him up gently, and placed him on the grass, ready to repeat the training.
[3]
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Sparks
Jun 27, 2019 22:03:12 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2019 22:03:12 GMT -6
Morgan once again started the training over to make sure that he would really get it. They weren't quite to the 'awful repetitious' phase that Morgan knew would irk the both of them as they would continuously go over the jump up command and behavior. The bespectacled human patted the park bench yet again, and this time, Nico immediately leapt up onto the park bench, wagging his tail quite a bit this go around. That was quite good, for sure. Morgan was struggling to be as excited sounding as they were, the other day when training the houluh the first time. Where had all that energy come from, and where had it gone in the meantime? "Good boyo! Good boyo Nico!" There was obviously a bit of a change in Morgan today, and Nico was picking up on it quite easily. However, he soaked up the praise anyway, and of course took the resulting treat.
[4]
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Sparks
Jun 27, 2019 22:11:21 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2019 22:11:21 GMT -6
Once again, repetition would be key. It seemed that Nico had already gotten this, but Morgan wanted to make absolute sure, even if that meant simply going on and on until it drove them both quite out of it or up the wall or out the metaphorical window who even knows at this point? The bespectacled human would put the creature on the grass, and then pat the park bench again. The houluh would quickly leap up on the park bench, and be given all of the customary praises at this point, lots of head pets, and then a tiny piece of jerky. Then the cycle would repeat again when Morgan would put the creature on the grass, and the pat the park bench yet again. The houluh would quickly leap up on the park bench again, lots of praise, and then wash rinse repeat. This continued until Morgan was sure that the houluh knew the command well enough.
[5] - [END 'Jump Up']
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Sparks
Jun 27, 2019 22:46:14 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2019 22:46:14 GMT -6
The jump over command was certainly going to be a little more difficult, at least that was what Morgan thought at first glance. Morgan pulled out the whistle again, quietly. The houluh immediately knew what that meant. He flipped his head sideways, and raised up an ear a bit more; though they were far too heavy to truly raise up like most canid's ears. "Welp boyo, you ready again? We need to work on something else now." Perhaps they were both visibly relieved that the houluh didn't have to continuously have to leap up on the park bench again for the billionth time (metaphorically, of course, they hadn't been keeping count really). Morgan had brought a collapsible ring this time, and pulled it out of their backpack's side pocket, paying a bit of attention to the egg in the meantime. Then, they turned around and collapsed the ring; it was bright green and glowed a bit. The houluh looked up in wonder.
[1] - [Start of 'Through Hoop']
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Sparks
Jun 27, 2019 23:14:48 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2019 23:14:48 GMT -6
Well, maybe not the 'jump over' command after all; since they had brought a hoop today instead of something to jump on. Oh well, it was more interesting anyway, really. "Alrighty boyo, let me just think about how to do this un' okay?" Morgan had thought about it, but hadn't 'really' thought about it too much. Maybe starting out with it on the ground would be absolutely best? It would be easy to teach him to go through it closer to the ground, and hopefully when it was subsequently raised, the creature would be able to leap through it too? He had some of the best agility Morgan had seen in a creature his age, let alone a canid. Vulticus really weren't like this. Morgan thought about it for a moment, and put the ring to where it was touching the ground while standing up. Then, Morgan made the whistle for it; a sort of quick and quiet melody of five notes.
[2]
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Sparks
Jun 27, 2019 23:17:51 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2019 23:17:51 GMT -6
They were, perhaps, starting to get into the more involved commands now, so keeping the creature involved might be a bit more difficult than they had previously thought. Morgan held a treat on the other side of the hoop (keeping the hoop standing using their hip and foot while standing). Nico had heard the command and perhaps wondered what this new one meant, but as soon as he saw the jerky, he knew what he was supposed to do, at least a bit. The houluh moved through the hoop, not touching it on the way through, and retrieved the jerky. Morgan gave some praise, and then repeated the command. The houluh moved through the other side, and was this time given a jerky piece along with the praise. Morgan had the creature do this a few more times with the hoop on the ground to make sure that he had the general idea.
[3]
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Sparks
Jun 27, 2019 23:35:09 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 27, 2019 23:35:09 GMT -6
Morgan raised the hoop up just a little ways, about halfway up their calf, and then used the whistle command yet again, and waited a moment. Immediately, the houluh danced a moment on all of his legs, and then after a moment, Nico does a little half-leap through the hoop. Morgan was pleased with that, and gave the creature a pet and some praise of course. There was only so much that Morgan could have expected there, and even though the attempt was hesitant, it was indeed the good thing there. Morgan put the hoop right in the same spot again, and ran through the command yet again. The houluh jumped through the hoop with much more grace this go around. Morgan gave some more praise, and then a piece of jerky. After a couple more attempts with this, Morgan figured that they could escalate the height of the hoop up to Morgan's waist now.
[4]
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Sparks
Jun 28, 2019 0:02:37 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 28, 2019 0:02:37 GMT -6
Repetition was tantamount of course, and the houluh seemed to realize what he needed to do quite well enough to begin working on his technique. Perhaps it was because Morgan was spending so much time around him, or perhaps it was the psycho-social bond, but Nico was beginning to care as much about his proficiency and fanciness of actions as much as possible. It was not uncommon for people to 'rub off on' their pets personality-wise, and it would seem that Morgan's high-born-ed-ness (wow why) was what was getting absorbed like a sponge.
Morgan would go through the command, and the houluh would leap through the hoop, and then receive praise. Each time, the hoop got a little higher and the houluh was actually getting quite good at leaping through the hoop by the time that Morgan was convinced that he at least understood the command. Morgan knew he'd get even better as it as he got older and was able to get out of the clumsy puppy stage.
[5] - [END of 'Through Hoop']
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Sparks
Jun 28, 2019 1:25:28 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 28, 2019 1:25:28 GMT -6
Morgan was ready to move onto something else; something a little more fun this time, they figured. The hoop was meticulously folded and then placed in the backpack's side pocket. Morgan wasn't sure when the hoop thing would come in handy, but hey, maybe it would. It would at least be a cool trick to do in an obedience trial, anyway. The bespectacled human had already decided what they would do next; the catch behavior. The last time that they had a training session, Morgan had figured that it would be a good thing to work up to since the houluh already knew how to fetch now. How to get the creature to catching things, however? That was going to be the more difficult part. The human took some time to think as they were tearing up the jerky chunks for the next little while of training, since they were out of the tinier pieces now.
[1] - [START 'Catch']
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Sparks
Jun 28, 2019 14:41:13 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 28, 2019 14:41:13 GMT -6
Morgan knew that catch was generally considered far more difficult to teach than the simple fetch. Morgan thought that it sounded backwards; fetch required lots of moving parts; the creature to go get the ball, and then bring it back, and then even give it up! On the other hand, catch, provided you bring it to the creature in a way that was reflexive at first, required much fewer 'moving parts'. Morgan immediately thought about this as they stared down at the new small bits of jerky. If Morgan immediately managed to throw it directly at the creature's mouth, Morgan was very sure that the creature would try to catch it, since it was food. At that, the idea that would be used to train catch was cemented; anything thrown to the creature like this would likely be caught. Morgan started by tossing a piece of jerky at the watchful houluh's mouth.
[2]
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Sparks
Jun 28, 2019 15:07:32 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 28, 2019 15:07:32 GMT -6
Nico certainly saw the thing before it hit him, but he wasn't quite fast enough. Sure, he opened his mouth, but he hadn't really been expecting it so the jerky bit hit the side of his maw and then fell onto the grass, lost. The houluh snuffled around in the grass for a moment, trying to find the morsel, but of course he could not. Morgan called out out the houluh's name to get his attention, this time. Nico looks up at them, and then Morgan tosses another one, this one in a slow arc for him to catch. Nico does catch this jerky piece, with a snap of his jaw. "Good boyo, Nico!" That was the start, and it was a good start, even if it was purposefully done in such a way that would make it easy to do. Now Nico was paying a lot of attention to the human, even moreso than usual.
[3]
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Sparks
Jun 28, 2019 15:29:39 GMT -6
Post by Morgan on Jun 28, 2019 15:29:39 GMT -6
The goal from here on out was going to be to work on distance, and of course, make sure that Nico could continue to catch was what thrown. This part of the entire day was probably going to be the most fun, and still Morgan was feeling a bit down. Ah well, some days were just like that, they figured. Morgan had quite a few more jerky pieces to use. They continued to work on the catch behavior up close for a while, until Nico could manage to catch the jerky pieces without dropping them ten times in a row. Then, the bespectacled human backed up a bit and kept on tossing the jerky pieces. Nico kept trying to catch them, of course, and was beginning to get incredibly good at it. Soon, Nico was catching the jerky bits like a champ, even with Morgan having backed up a very good distance away, and not quite throwing it exactly at Nico.
[4]
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