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Post by Morgan on Jan 27, 2020 3:20:29 GMT -6
Selene was already running around, as well as a little puppy with big ole ears could do anyway; nearly falling all over them as she went. She was a lot like Nico in a lot of ways, walking like a dancer, sure of herself, not fazed by anything. However, she was different in a lot of ways too, far too rough and tumble to have come from Nico. That was all just herself. Morgan had no idea who Todd's parents were, or if he even had any parents (he was probably all mixed up by the Labs, now that Morgan thought about it) but it was nice to have lucked out on such a calm and quiet hound. Morgan wasn't sure if they could deal with trying to train another anxious one, like Cozette. Morgan wasn't sure why she was the way that she was, and they half expected her to forget half of her training due to it.
Morgan continued to watch the puppies as they sniffed around the grass. Selene was far more wide-sparing, moving around in a several feet long box around Todd, not wishing to move far away from him. Todd wasn't too keen on moving very far away.
[5]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 29, 2020 4:20:01 GMT -6
There was not a whole lot of things that one could do to play with a creature that wasn't really trained to play fetch or catch anything. However, Morgan had plans and experience up their sleeves, so they pulled out something that they planned to play with the puppies with; a rainbow rope. It had enough tassels on it that Morgan was sure that the puppies would both be able to play at the same time if they wanted; and what houluh didn't naturally want to chew on things? Morgan was counting on it, this time. However, they sat there for a moment more, holding the little rainbow tug-rope in one hand and watching the puppies play. It was enjoyable. Morgan hadn't been feeling very well recently, so it was nice to see the pups play.
Maybe they'd continue watching them play for a little bit? That sounded like it wouldn't hurt. Sure, they didn't have a lot of time today, but today wasn't meant to get Everything done in. Morgan knew that they still had a long while left to grow up to juvie, but they wouldn't be roly poly little puppers forever... Morgan wished they would have met Nico at this age.
[6]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 30, 2020 4:52:30 GMT -6
Morgan knew that they probably wouldn't be able to teach them much today, but it was nice to see the pair playing around in the grass. Admittedly, Morgan had been considering starting training up to this point, but they also knew that they weren't ready. The poor pups were barely able to pay attention to anything other than their games, and not even those for very long. They would grow up very focused, Morgan was sure at least with Selene since she was already showing basic signs of such, but they were just barely weaned even now, hardly on hard food. Morgan had made sure they were on puppy food before taking them out the first time. The bespectacled human held the little rainbow rope in their hands loosely now, one leg leaned over the top of the other, and then their elbows on their knees as they watched the pups.
Morgan was considering taking Selene to the mansion, even though it might be a bit dangerous, to train her up. She seemed to be maturing at a little faster rate than Todd was, at least. They were wanting to train them together... They had to have really malleable plans in order to take care of so many critters.
[7]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 30, 2020 4:58:05 GMT -6
Morgan had really at least just wanted to see what their general personalities were for future working. They had also wanted to take them out here to get used to going outside of the mansion grounds, and based on that Morgan had succeeded in the absolute minimum of what they were wanting to accomplish today with some luck. Maybe they could manage to at least play a game with them to get them used to working with Morgan specifically a little more. Of course, Morgan was the one providing them with puppy formula since Nico wasn't capable of producing any for them, but that didn't seem to make the puppies any more inclined to pay more attention to Morgan than the new and interesting surroundings that they were being confronted with. Morgan waited a few more moments to try and get their attention, enjoying watching the rolly polly puppies tumble and play (well, Selene was easily the more acrobatic and mobile between the two, Todd was much more content to laze about) while they could still do so.
The puppies would undoubtedly grow fast, young critters always did. Especially with more work put on them, Morgan knew that from experience. Nothing could defeat time.
[8]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 30, 2020 5:18:29 GMT -6
It was going to require a lot of work to train these two, regardless of whether or not the pair were trained together or not. Cozette had been a bit of a nightmare to train; she was a scaredy-cat, afraid of everything and overly wary due to it. Morgan was sort of afraid to breed her due to it, but knew that they probably should at least once; there were not a whole lot of these rare hounds out there. Morgan remembered how difficult it was to even find Nico originally! However, looking at these two pups, it was hard to imagine wanting more pups right away. Pups were a lot of work when hand-raised. Morgan knew it wouldn't be so difficult with a Matronne around as long as the pups took to her and the Matronne took to them. However, it was difficult to even think of having more than two puppies around at a time.
They were so rough, and tried to chew on everything. Morgan hadn't had a houluh so far that wasn't a mouthy creature, trying to get a-hold of everything. Nico hadn't been so bad, when they put him to work. These two houluh pups seemed to be a little more mouthy than most.
[9]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 30, 2020 20:12:17 GMT -6
Morgan watched the two puppies cavort about for another hour. It was difficult to really convince theirself to get up and do anything right about now, but they figured it would be a good idea to let them get all of this energy out and get tuckered out before Morgan took them back home. Morgan would wait until they were a little older to get any kind of training out of the way, even Selene wasn't quite ready right now. Cute little Todd would have a good long way to go, too. Morgan wasn't upset though, honestly it was a pretty good day. The sun was shining, the air was pretty dang warm for winter, and the grass was actually tricked into greening up a tad. Why was Morgan so sad?
The winter was always a little tougher on the human than they would like to admit, but they were pushing through it. They tried to push theirself into going out with Nico more often, or taking the Tat-lungs on adventures, or doing more teaching and training. They went to their job, which wasn't so bad, even though they hadn't found anything else out yet...
Morgan eventually takes the two pups home.
[10] - [Everyone goes home.]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 7, 2020 3:33:28 GMT -6
It was time, Morgan knew, to begin working seriously with Selene. She was already getting pretty loyal, and very interested in watching Morgan, so the bespectacled human knew that they could not put it off any further. Todd was still a little behind, but if Morgan left Selene alone for much longer she might be very difficult to handle. Thankfully, she walked on a leash pretty decent now. They made it to Morgan's chosen spot, with the grass relatively soft here for crunchy winter grass, and the comfortable little park chair that Morgan could sit down on which doing some of the training. "Selene!" Morgan called, deciding to get started quickly. They didn't have a lot of time to waste. Selene knew what that tone meant, so she turned to look at Morgan. Morgan knew that she didn't quite know her name, but she did do the correct action. "Good gal, Selene!" Morgan praised her, and tossed her a treat.
[1] - [Start 'Name']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 8, 2020 4:19:29 GMT -6
Name training was generally pretty easy with critters that already had the psycho-social bond beginning to form with them. Morgan was sure that Selene would pick up the first things pretty quickly considering that. However, the process was still going to be a veritable ton of repetition, and Morgan saw no need to actually stand up during the name training progress. After Selene finished her treat, Morgan sat down, and waited until the ever curious Selene stopped paying attention to them again. "Selene!" Morgan called out her name again, and immediately Selene (recognizing the tone) turned around and looked at the bespectacled human, blinking. "G-good gal, Selene." Morgan praised, and then tossed her a treat. Selene wasn't nearly as motivated by treats as Cozette had been, but that was to be expected. Morgan was going to have to find something that works a little better later on, but treats were fine for now.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 8, 2020 4:28:02 GMT -6
As soon as the treat was eaten, the training continued. Selene would go to start sniffing around and checking her surroundings, but before she could really get into it Morgan called out her name- "Selene!" The houluh turned back around towards Morgan, ears pricked and tail wiggly. Morgan tossed her a treat and gave her another bit of praise- "Good gal, Selene!" This continued for some time, back and forth and back and forth. Selene was slowly making her way around to check her area as hounds did in new areas, but she always looked at Morgan when he name was called. There was something rather interesting about Selene that Morgan was noticing especially now since they had worked with both Nico and Cozette. Nico had always been a little more focused than Cozette, but now Morgan was seeing that same focus in Selene's eyes. This could be useful.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 8, 2020 4:36:56 GMT -6
Morgan continued to call the name every so often, and Selene continued to be on her best behavior. She was starting to get it, Morgan noticed, so now it was time to start working on seeing if using different words would trip her up. Next time that Selene stopped paying attention after she received her treat, Morgan called out a random word, using the same tone. Selene jerked a bit, as if she was going to turn towards Morgan, but ultimately seems to decide not to. Morgan was pleased, and called her name- so that she would turn around and be given a treat for it. Morgan continued on like this, using random words sometimes and no longer nearly tricking her whenever this was done, and then calling her name and giving her a treat each time she turned around to look (which was every time at this point). Morgan considered this one a success, and decided to move on to the next thing on the list.
[4] - [End of Name]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 8, 2020 4:40:05 GMT -6
The next thing that was on Morgan's pre-decided list was the 'come' command. Morgan always used their whistle to train the come command, since it was important that this command be able to be successful at long distances. As such, the human had been sure to bring their whistle, which hung heavily around their neck. It was a lovely piece of work, and brand new at this point- they had been using a regular shrill whistle. This one was made up of red metal, and shaped like a dragon, with stained glass in the wings. The human ran their fingers over it, and then tested out the 'come' command that they would be using. Morgan could hear it; and it was obvious that Selene could hear it, but there were no resounding calls across the park. Good.
Morgan held out a treat as they sat on the bench, and made the command whistle again, looking specifically at Selene to signal interest in her specifically.
[5] - [Start of 'Come']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 10, 2020 21:37:29 GMT -6
Selene didn't know the command yet of course (though she would learn) but she did know what Morgan's body stance meant when it came to this at this point due to the formation of the psycho-social bond. She wanted to please Morgan, and thus came forward in an attempt to see what Morgan wanted by getting close enough to start ascertaining this. As soon as she got close enough, Morgan gave her the treat and a ton of praise; "Good gal, Selene!" Morgan was pretty glad that she was already so used to them, it would make this easier a little bit. She was quite focused on her work, though she didn't seem to know how to 'chill' much. That would have to be worked on at a later date.
Morgan walked a few steps away again, and gave the whistle this time while not looking directly at her. Selene's ears raised up slightly.
[6]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 12, 2020 1:16:02 GMT -6
Morgan was still holding out a treat, and it took Selene a moment to realize that for one, that noise meant something, and for two, Morgan wanted her to come to them because they were holding a treat out for her. However, when she put two and two together (pretty quickly for an animal, all things considered) she rushed over to get the treat that she wasn't super into. Morgan patted her on the head for doing what she was told. "Good gal, Selene!" This was going well so far, Morgan decided, as they continued to repeat this process again and again. The repetition part was the most important part. It took a long few repeats of repeating this before Selene started to notice that the noise and 'needing to come to Morgan' were connected. When she did, however, Morgan could pretty much immediately tell the difference, there was no more hesitation.
[7]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 12, 2020 1:20:25 GMT -6
They still weren't done however, they still had to keep on trucking. They weren't even part of the way through the second thing on the list and this was going to drag on quite a bit. Morgan continued to repeat this process more, waiting for the houluh to stop paying attention, and then Morgan used their whistle to give the command they use for all of their creatures to tell them to 'come to them'. At this point the houluh had already began associating just that whistle with the command, and she would come running. As soon as she got there, Morgan threw her a treat, and then gave her a pat and some praise. Soon, they were able to completely stop using the treat, and then they were able to mix in other signals to the houluh and they were not heeded. Only the command was heeded to at that point.
[8]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 12, 2020 1:27:32 GMT -6
Morgan continued to repeat this process until finally they were certain that Selene had learned the command easily enough. The human let the houluh calm down again for a moment, as they mostly sat there tearing treats in half again. They'd just about run out of the ones that they had already prepared for lessons, since they hadn't expected Selene to take so long figuring out that the sound actually meant something. Then again, not every creature was going to pick that part up immediately. Hopefully it would go smoother from here on out, the bespectacled human had their fingers crossed for it metaphorically.
As soon as they were ready again, Morgan decided that they would work on the follow command next. In order to do that though, Morgan was going to have to stand up. They pushed up off of the park bench, and then decided they would use the usual hand signal for this one.
[9] - [Start of 'Follow']
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