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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 0:34:45 GMT -6
Morgan would give the sit command, and then hold a treat just above the houluh's head before moving the treat up higher. This forced Cozette to look up at the treat, and then Morgan would give her praise and the treat. This was a repeated process that went on and on. Morgan could remember doing this exact same thing with Nico, and he had been laser focused even without the treats. Cozette was certainly much more food motivated than petting motivated, unlike Nico. The houluh was a Morgan repeated this several more times before giving just the command finally began to work for Cozette without any of the treat-moving process. That was exactly what Morgan was wanting- but they needed more practice to make sure that the command would actually stick like it was supposed to with the houluh. It was important that this be repeatable in the future with her.
[15]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 0:41:02 GMT -6
Repetition was always key. Now that the houluh was finally sitting on the command without the movement, Morgan was just calling out the simple 'sit' command, and then tossing her a treat whenever she did the trick right. At this rate, Morgan was hoping that the rest of the training cycle for her would be quick and easy. Still, it was important to continue the process from earlier to normalize and crystallize the behavior with her. Morgan would call out "Sit!" And then of course Cozette, who had learned quite a bit by this point, would sit. Morgan would then give her a treat. These treats were thankfully quite small! As soon as Morgan was sure that she had learned the sit command, Morgan began mixing it in with other commands that she had been working on today, to further cement what she had been working on up to this point.
[16] - [End of 'Sit']
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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 0:47:11 GMT -6
Morgan continued to run Cozette through these commands, desperately trying to keep her attention. She was really everywhere. Nico had always been rapt when it came to his attention span; and Cozette just wasn't that. That was okay, though. Morgan could work with creatures of all temperaments, at least for the simpler commands. Morgan did have one difficult thing they wanted to work on today to keep her safe, but they were going to wait until the end to put her through that. Morgan figured that Cozette would love that anyway; she really liked to be more active and was quite responsive... In Morgan's opinion a little too responsive for her own good.
No, the last thing before that was going to be 'stay', and Morgan honestly figured that stay was going to be fine for the most part. Morgan had Cozette sit, which she could at least remember to do at this moment.
[17] - [Start 'Stay']
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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 21:38:38 GMT -6
Cozette sat down pretty quickly. That was why Morgan always did these things in one straight shot, so that they didn't have time to forget the stuff that they had taught before other things that needed that to build on could be addressed. "Good girl, Cozette. Now..." Morgan raised their hand very purposefully in a 'stop' hand signal. Cozette took a moment to even notice it, but Morgan could tell when she did, which was a good thing. It meant that they were getting used to one another quite a bit. She sat still, nervously. She wasn't a steadfast kind of hound, like Nico had been; she was more turbulent. She wasn't sure what to do. Morgan backed up a bit, a few paces, and each time that Cozette tried to scoot a little forward, Morgan shot her 'the look' and then watched as she stayed sat down in that spot.
[18]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 21:45:55 GMT -6
Cozette managed to stay sat down in that same spot despite her rather wiggly, energetic nervousness, and Morgan was pleased with it. "Good gal, C-Cozette." Morgan said, and then of course the treat was tossed to the houluh. Morgan knew that this was the start of trying to make sure that she would do this again every time they worked on it. The repetition needed to start now. "Cozette." Morgan said again, and then when Cozette looked back at them, they raised their hand in the stop signal again. Cozette stayed there this time, learning with that trademark Houluh speed, though she was antsy. Morgan walked a few more feet away, keeping an eye on her, and then tossed her a treat again when she stayed. "Good gal, Cozette." Morgan said, again. They continued doing this process another few times, repeatedly to make sure that she'd get it.
[19]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 22:01:32 GMT -6
The repetition was as usual, Morgan would give the command for sit, and then the signal for stay. Whenever the houluh stayed, Morgan would give her praise and a treat. Whenever she didn't (which was getting less and less common and then eventually stopped altogether) she received no treat or praise or anything. Cozette responded best like this; given praise when needed and given nothing at all when she didn't do what she needed to. Eventually she was staying no matter how far Morgan walked away, and Morgan was pleased with it. Morgan iterated the command in with all of the other commands that they had been working on so far, mixing in the name, sit, and stay of course, along with the command for her to come to them. Cozette was not nearly as level-headed as Nico, but she learned all the same, in her excitable kind of way.
"Welp gal, it looks l-li-like you've gotten it." Morgan said, tossing her the last treat for her excellent 'stay'.
[20] - [End of 'Stay']
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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 22:21:35 GMT -6
The last thing for today was about ready, and Morgan wasn't even sure if Cozette was really ready for it. She was a nervous hound, she was afraid of the tat-lungs and all of the bigger creatures at Morgan's estate for literally no real reason of their own. So it was probably a good idea to teach Cozette now that she was more used to Morgan to dodge the first attack. This had two possible outcomes; either this was going to make Cozette more anxious, or it was going to make her feel more comfortable around enemies.... Honestly it was probably the anxiety, but Morgan was hoping that she was loyal enough not to absolutely freak out over this. Morgan tore up a few more treats in preparation, and then pulled out the little biodegradable paper balls container that they used with every danger sensing training thing they did each time.
[21] - [Start of Danger Sense]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 22:34:52 GMT -6
Cozette was a watchful creature. Nico was a very observant creature, with a better eye for things than Morgan had, but Cozette was just anxious. Always looking for something to react to. Morgan was going to give her a lot of things to react to this go around. "Cozette!" Morgan called, and then used the whistle to whistle to her to come to them. The houluh came to Morgan, since they had been practicing it so much after all, and then Morgan unscrewed the cap. "Alright Cozette... Uh-" Morgan had to stop theirself from explaining this to the creature... Cozette was not sentient and would not understand like the tat-lungs did. Morgan instead just pulled out one of the little tightly packed wads of paper and loosely and slowly tossed it in her general direction. Cozette was a dancy, nervous creature at times, and she scooted out of the way even though it wasn't even close to hitting her with the harmless paper.
[22]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 22:57:51 GMT -6
In this instance and only in this instance was it a good thing that Cozette was a generally anxious hound. She hopped away faster than fast, and was a little too 'extreme' with it. She was doing this fast, faster than fast, faster than the tat-lungs that had worked it out fast. Morgan threw the first three beebees and the first three dodges were over-kill but better than most creatures that had worked on it well enough. Morgan was pleased; but they needed to work on her not extending too much energy in the process of this... It was a shame really that she was so nervous that she took well to this training naturally. "Good girl, Cozette." Morgan said, and then immediately they threw her a treat. Time to let her get a second's break, and then start on this further. Hopefully, she would get better at this soon.
[23]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 23:18:27 GMT -6
The practice after the quick break was immediate and thorough. Morgan throw beebees and threw beebees and threw them and noted Cozette's movements each time that they did it. She completely overdid the dodges using her whole body and stared at the beebees instead of just dodging them. It would be a while before she figured out how to feel it before she saw it coming. Morgan quietly waited for a moment, giving her a break and tossing her another treat. "Good gal, Cozette." Morgan said, nodding at them. The tiny houluh was doing very well though, due to her anxious personality.
After this break, they continued again. Each time they worked on it, Cozette made a tiny improvement or two in her ability to dodge them. She was doing quite well, and was even seemingly enjoying it now, reacting with play movements instead of nervousness. That was good at least.
[24]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 24, 2020 23:23:47 GMT -6
Morgan continued working with her for well over an hour, now that she was enjoying it more and less nervous. The tiny houluh was doing so much better every single time that Morgan was both pleased and perplexed. She may not have learned the other things as quickly as Nico did, with more time worth of work having to be put on it made Morgan sure that they were going to have issues. However, she was taking to the danger sensing thing much better than any other creature Morgan had ever worked with before. They took a good long break after that for water, and then they kept on working. The houluh had just about boundless energy; and it was useful. Soon, the houluh began dodging so many of the little beebees at a time that Morgan knew she couldn't be seeing all of them. She was finally sensing them before they came!
Morgan figured that they would stop for the day.
[25] - [End of Danger Sense] - [The pair go home.]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 27, 2020 2:31:56 GMT -6
It was time for Morgan to take a break with Cozette for a moment or two and really let her training sink in. Instead, Morgan had two puppers, just old enough to begin working on training officially- just weaned. There was little Todd, the pup Morgan was given from the Houluh Association in return for the Token of Fidelity they had received, and little Selene; Nico's daughter. The pair came to the Estate on the exact same day; Morgan had just went out to trade in their token when they'd gotten the message that the Matronne had produced the litter. Morgan had come home with puppy formula and apparatus for such, and a basket with two little pups fast asleep.
Now Morgan was taking them out to the park for the first time. Nico had absolutely thrown a fit when Morgan took Selene without him, but he stayed at home with no muss after Morgan spent a little extra time talking him down. Nico had paced and paced just about a hole in the floor over the situation, whining and looking nervously at Morgan. Morgan almost felt bad, but knew it was for the pup's own good to be socialized and unafraid of going out by themselves.
[1] - [Start of working with Todd and Selene]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 27, 2020 2:35:48 GMT -6
Nico had become quite protective of both Selene and Todd. Morgan was not quite sure, perhaps it was because he could smell that Selene was his and maybe that scent had rubbed off a bit on Todd, or maybe it was because he already had the 'parental instinct' going on (did this mean that both parents had this?) and he imprinted on both pups? Morgan wasn't sure. However, it was fascinating, and Morgan had already written about it in their journal. Nico finally let Morgan take them; but Morgan knew for a fact that if Morgan was literally anyone or anything else in the world, that he would not have allowed those pups to be removed from his presence.
Morgan gently put the carrying crates down and then opened them up to allow both puppies out onto the grass of the remote area of the park. Selene was the first out of the crates, but Todd wasn't far behind at all, falling over too-big feet as he did so. Selene was as delicate but strong as a dancer as she put her well-placed pawsteps in front of her. Todd tumbled head-over heels and landed in the grass on his belly, wagging his little tail.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 27, 2020 3:00:14 GMT -6
Todd was certainly a cutey. He was charming in that little 'country hound-dog' kind of way. He wasn't nearly as princely as Nico; and had no need to be. Morgan didn't even know if they wanted too many that acted just like Nico, at all. Morgan decided to let them play a bit, and explore the grass. They weren't used to being away from the Estate and it would be good to let them play around and get used to this before Morgan actually started doing their first training session. Nico was a great parental unit so these two pups were a lot more confident than Morgan had seen other pups at juvie stage. It was a nice thing to see.
Morgan watched as the much more proficient Selene walked forward, only tripping a little bit on the way, and then sniffed at her 'brother'. He laid there, pretty content as to where he had wound up in the grass. He rolled over onto his copper-hued back and rolled in the grass a bit, scratching his itchy shoulder blades. He wriggled around, and Selene watched for a moment, wagging her tail and stepping on one of her ear tips as she seemed to consider her next course of action.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 27, 2020 3:12:25 GMT -6
Selene was not as dainty as she would like to have looked; the houluh bowed in the typically doggy-fashion with her tail end up in the air and her legs stretched out in the front. After a moment or two, she sloppily jumped on top of the other houluh puppy, causing him to produce a tiny noise, but it didn't seem to bother him for long. Selene put her little bitey puppy teeth on his ear, but he seemed pretty unfazed as he rolls back over, trying to push her off with his tiny white paws. Morgan watched the two cavorting about quietly. They sat on a nearby park bench, and watched the puppers like a hawk. It was not uncommon for others with their animals to stroll through the park, and these two were especially small and weak. Morgan was concerned for them at this stage, so they had chosen an even more distant spot than they normally did.
The two tussled for a while. It was pretty obvious that Selene was far more into this than Todd, though Todd didn't back down. Eventually the puppies rolled away from one another, Todd sitting lazily on his belly and Selene immediately popping up on all four paws.
[4]
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