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Post by Morgan on Oct 19, 2020 13:52:34 GMT -6
Valentine was still poking around in the nearby bushes, so it was up to Morgan to get over there and catch her attention more specifically. The bespectacled human walks over to where the chocolate-colored pup was sniffing in the bushes, and then held the treat very close to the houluh. "Valentine!" Morgan called to her, hoping that this together with the holding out of the treat would catch her attention better. Valentine does turn around, a little startled at the noise but ready to stand up to the challenge bravely, and then she catches sight of the treat. She snatches the treat from Morgan's fingers (thankfully missing the fingers with the snap of jaws) and Morgan patted her on the head. "Good job, Valentine." The human was sure to emphasize her name the best that they could. They hoped she would wind up getting it quickly.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 19, 2020 14:14:14 GMT -6
Valentine went back to sniffing around and wagging her tail about as fast as a tail could wag as soon as she finished her treat. Morgan wasn't surprised that she was easily distracted. Not all houluh tended to be the kind of hound that was both bomb-proof and as laser-focused as little Nico was. "Valentine!" Morgan calls out again, this time holding a treat a little further away from her. Valentine was not at all paying any sort of attention. Morgan called out to her again, after clearing their throat. "Valentine!" They called. Valentine does turn around, sniffing at the air, and saw the treat that Morgan was holding out. She turned around and romped towards Morgan, nearly falling over her own paws. "Good girl!" Morgan said to her, giving her the treat and then petting her on the back. "G-good girl, Valentine." They praised.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 19, 2020 14:26:31 GMT -6
Morgan continued doing the exact same thing during the training, trying to get her to come to her name. It took many tries of Morgan calling out and holding out treats for her to get, but eventually Valentine seemed to begin to get savvy to the fact that this word meant that she should pay attention. However, they were still even at that point continuing to have trouble with Valentine being easily distracted. "W-what is wrong with her?" Morgan asked theirself. This was a little more than what they had dealt with previously. Maybe the treats weren't her motivation style? Morgan digs around in their backpack, and pulls out a toy. They always brought at least one toy when working with a houluh, so maybe this would work out better.
Morgan called for the houluh again- "Valentine!" This time, when Valentine turned around, she caught sight of the toy.
[4]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 19, 2020 14:56:45 GMT -6
This worked like an absolute charm. Valentine ran over, tail wagging ninety-to-nothing, and jumped at the toy. "Oh-ho, this is better, h-huh?" Morgan said, grinning. Now the training went really smooth. Morgan continued to call Valentine's name, and when she would look at Morgan, the human would let her play with the toy for a moment or two, before patting her and taking the toy again. They continued to do this over the course of thirty minutes, and finally Valentine seemed to be getting that she should pay attention whenever 'Valentine' was said. Morgan was sure that they could move on to the next piece of training that they were going to work on- and they hoped that they could continue integrating her name into other training so that she would be even more used to it over time.
"Valentine!" Morgan called to her. The cute puppy turned around and wagged her tail, looking at Morgan expectantly.
[5] - [End of 'Name']
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Post by Morgan on Oct 19, 2020 15:10:49 GMT -6
Now, Morgan wanted to teach Valentine to come on command. It was part of their houluh basics training list, after all, and it would be useful if they decided to go out to anywhere a little more dangerous than their own garden was in the future. Valentine seemed really easily distracted, and perhaps a little too brave, so they were sure that she would be a mess if they found some kind of dangerous animal at this point. It would be important to make sure that she was properly taught due to her unique personality. The human takes the whistle that they wore around their neck and put it to their lips, making sure to give the command they always used for 'come here'. At the same time they held the toy out in their other hand so that when Valentine paid attention, that she would see the toy and come running.
[6] - [Start 'Come']
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Post by Morgan on Oct 19, 2020 16:02:32 GMT -6
Well, that part was easy, at the very least. Of course, just because she accidentally did the behavior that Morgan was trying to get her to do with the command did not necessarily mean that she had learned it. Still, Morgan rewarded the good behavior. It was the best way overall to get the puppy well on the road to understanding what Morgan wanted. The human played with the puppy with the toy for a bit, praised her verbally, and then petted her. Afterwards, the bespectacled human backed up again, and then used the whistled command for her to 'come here'. The puppy heard the noise, and perked her long ears up ever so slightly. It was obvious that she knew that the noise was coming from Morgan. Morgan coaxed her to come over using the toy, as well, and then repeated the process of the giving her lots of praise for doing a 'good' thing.
[7]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 19, 2020 16:16:20 GMT -6
Valentine was doing great with the toy-based learning, Morgan realized. It was not uncommon for their houluh to prefer different training methods, and as long as they did what was asked of them and learned new behaviors, Morgan didn't mind doing different types of work to match each creature. They felt like it was teaching them quite a bit about theirself, and of course about training as well. The human backed up again after the praise and reward step was completed, and then picked up their whistle to give the come-here command yet again. Valentine turns at the noise, wags her tail, and notices the toy again before coming running. They repeated this process again and again after they got done with the praising step, each time Morgan was consistent with giving the correct command signal using the whistle, and then giving her lots of time to play as a reward between.
[8]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 19, 2020 16:21:08 GMT -6
Valentine was beginning to do a lot better about coming to Morgan as soon as she heard the command. She was still easily distracted, but finished coming to Morgan and playing before getting distracted, so Morgan considered that a bonus. Morgan was incredibly pleased with how the training was going, so they took a quick break to give the houluh pup access to some water, and to give her a quick break. The garden was as beautiful as ever- their Assistant Droid had been doing a great job with certain aspects of this. As for the parts that Morgan worked on (in their very minute spare time), they looked decent.
Certain aspects of the garden were dying back now, as was how the turn of the seasons tended to work. They took a chance to enjoy this, before Morgan gave the command for the houluh to come to them again.
[9]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 19, 2020 16:42:44 GMT -6
Valentine came running when the command was given, even though she had found something very interesting in the nearby brush to sniff at. Morgan was pleased with this development. They let her play with the toy and gave her lots of praise verbally and pettings. From there on out, Morgan knew that it would just be repetition. "Good gal, V-valentine!" Morgan says to the liver-colored pup. They made sure to continue using the command, and whenever she would come on command (which she always did), Morgan was very sure to give her a lot of praise and time to play with the favored toy each time. Morgan graduated her to eventually mixing her name, and the come command on the whistle in together in the training session, and Valentine was slowly taking more to Morgan, and to the training itself. Soon enough, Morgan felt like she had 'come' down pat and that they could move on.
[10] - [End of 'Come']
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Post by Nadia on Oct 19, 2020 17:51:04 GMT -6
Two bright pommes, visible nearby.
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Post by Morgan on Oct 21, 2020 13:15:58 GMT -6
Valentine was a bit more of a struggle to train than any of Morgan's other houluh so far, but that was fine. It wasn't that she wasn't smart- in fact, she was quite smart if she was able to figure out how to do the behaviors asked of her when she was so easily distracted. Morgan smiled at her, gave her another pat on the head, and then stood back for a moment, trying to decide exactly what to work on next. The houluh sniffs around again, and goes to chase something through the brush. Yeah, that was going to be trouble if Morgan continued to allow this. They called for Valentine to come back, and then decided about the same time to start working with her on 'stay'. That would be incredibly useful with this particular houluh pup especially.
Morgan grabbed a treat from their pouch, and bent down when the houluh got close.
[11] - [Start 'Stay']
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Post by Morgan on Oct 21, 2020 15:04:35 GMT -6
It was probably going to be a struggle to get her to learn this particular trick, but it was an important behavior for her to learn. "O-okay Valentine, w-we're gonna start working on something new now." A breeze went through the area, crinkling all of the last-leg leaves of the first part of autumn. The noise sounded nice, and distracted Valentine a little bit. "Valentine!" Morgan said, catching her attention again. Valentine turns towards Morgan again. Morgan put their hand up in the 'stop' hand signal, making sure that the tiny chocolate colored puppy had seen it for sure, and then they carefully backed up a step. The puppy doesn't move (probably a coincidence) and Morgan is sure to give her access to the toy, and verbal praise. "G-great job, Valentine! Good girl!" They said, grinning at her. It was important to be consistent with the positive reinforcement.
[12]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 21, 2020 15:15:24 GMT -6
Valentine was not exactly sure what she had done. She had noticed the hand signal, but it was a little hard to pay attention to signals when there was so many interesting things around for her to explore! Why wasn't she allowed to explore? Still, she played with the toy, knowing that it was a treat for her at this point, and then tried to focus. She tried really hard to focus. The human put the hand signal up again, the one that was... Kind of flat, and held upright? She could see the paw-pad of the human (or was that even what it was?) with this one. Nothing about it really made sense to her.
Then, the human got up and walked a few feet away! Should she follow? Valentine takes a few steps ahead, and Morgan shakes their head, and gives the hand signal again. What did that mean?
[13]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 21, 2020 15:38:22 GMT -6
Morgan was sure to give the hand signal again, and walk another couple of steps. When Valentine tried to move forward again, giving a quiet whine as she did, Morgan frowned and shook their head. Time to double down! They repeated this another few times, until finally Valentine stayed in one position. They quickly gave her a treat, to keep her from messing up before they got around to it (they didn't want to take any chances at all!) and then gave her lots of praise. As the houluh played with her toy for a moment, Morgan figured that they'd double down again on the training.
They continued to work hard, and the first few times- Valentine messed up again. However, she began 'staying' more and more commonly in place, until finally, she stopped trying to follow Morgan when the hand signal was given at all. She'd stay stark still, as she was signaled to do.
[14]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 21, 2020 15:47:57 GMT -6
Now that Morgan had finally gotten Valentine to do what they had asked her to do, they knew that they needed to continue to repeat the training to make sure that it was going to stick. Valentine was slowly beginning to gain a control on her apparently easily distracted nature, though Morgan wasn't entirely sure if she was going to be able to defeat that personality trait. It would be manageable, though she'd probably always be a little over-eager.
They worked for another hour, giving the hand signal and then walking further and further away each time that they repeated the process. Valentine would stay, even though she obviously did not want to, and Morgan would give her access to her toy, and give her lots of verbal praise and petting. "G-great job, Valentine!" Morgan said to her each time she got it right. Finally, Morgan was sure that she had it down pat.
[15] - [End of 'Stay']
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