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Post by Morgan on Feb 12, 2020 1:40:46 GMT -6
This particular bit of training was yet another one that Morgan had done with so many creatures by this point that it would probably drive them bananas to repeat it again. However, it was absolutely required to have these basics taught for the houluh, it made them much easier to keep when they were well behaved. Still, Morgan would have to come up with a more specialized choice of use for Selene. She seemed like the working kind of temperament that her father also had, so being generalized would probably be something that would be a waste of a hound with a perfect temperament.
Morgan caught Selene's attention by calling her name, trying to reiterate the earlier training, and then put their hand up in a 'come follow me' motion. The houluh noticed this, but wasn't sure what to do when Morgan started walking. Because she was so focused on the human, however, Selene followed them to try to figure it out.
[10]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 12, 2020 2:01:21 GMT -6
That was, of course, exactly what Morgan was wanting Selene to do and the poor hound didn't even know it yet. It would seem, and Morgan could tell this since they were so observant, that the psycho-social bond had not gotten to the point that the houluh could sense their emotions, but it had gotten to the point that the poor creature really wanted to do what Morgan wanted. That put them in a good spot, but not in the best position of course. Morgan let the houluh follow them around for some time and then they stopped, petting her and giving her lots of praise while playing with her long and cute ears. "Good gal, Selene! You're doing g-great!" Morgan finished petting her, and of course the houluh looked happy, if not a little confused. They would need to continue this in order to get it to really sink in.
[11]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 12, 2020 2:45:47 GMT -6
That was exactly what Morgan did as soon as they were done getting the houluh praised enough for her 'good job', even though she wasn't exactly sure what she had done quite yet. Morgan backed up a few feet, and then made the hand signal for the houluh to 'follow' them again. The houluh wagged her tail, looking a little confused at the same time, and then went to walk back up to Morgan to try to figure it out. Morgan walked for a while again, and then grinned when the houluh continued following. "Good gal, Selene!" Morgan called out to her, giving her another treat as well and more petting.
This continued on repeat for a good half hour, with Morgan walking backward and then eventually switching to walking forward as they continued doing the follow command. Each time the houluh got more and more skilled at following Morgan on command.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 12, 2020 3:05:59 GMT -6
Repetition was, as always, continued. The follow command was generally one of the easier ones, but Morgan knew that doing this now would get her used to training in the future. The bespectacled human continued using the hand signal to let the houluh know to follow them until they were very sure that she had gotten it decently enough, and then they began working on putting the command in with the other commands that they had worked on up to this point to practice all of them. Morgan wanted to make sure that she remembered all of her commands after this was said and done, and that took practice.
Morgan ran her through all of the commands that they had worked on until they ran out of prepared treats again. At this point they sat down, and began tearing up treats again for the next behavior on their list. So far, so good!
[13] - [End of 'Follow']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 12, 2020 3:18:23 GMT -6
Morgan usually didn't bother trying to teach two behaviors at once, but they figured that since Selene was in a really good working mood (the world was as loud as ever, with birds returning from their time gone in the winter and plenty of folks out in the relative warmth on this rare day of winter sun) since she wasn't really being as easily distracted as most of the creatures that Morgan trained up to this point. They figured that they would try it out and see if it worked. Sit and Stay were usually something that Morgan taught one right after the other if possible, so why not try them all at once?
Morgan did have a trick up their sleeve with sit, and stay was generally pretty easy, so they committed to at least trying. They finished up tearing up the treats and then stood up again, ready to get this show on the road.
[14] - [Start of 'Sit' and 'Stay']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 12, 2020 3:30:20 GMT -6
Selene hadn't stopped paying attention to Morgan the entire short break, so Morgan was pretty stoked that they were going to be able to finish this in record time with any amount of luck. This basics training could get super dry and repetitive pretty quick so Morgan decided that this was the perfect way to shake it up and get to the 'good stuff'. The human stood up, held up the treat at nose level, and then while saying "Selene, Sit." Morgan raised the treat up above her head. This forced her to sit her hind end down in order to continue keeping her gaze on the treat, since it was already at eye level. "Good girl, Selene!" Morgan said, giving her the treat immediately. Instead of letting her get up, Morgan immediately put their hand out in the usual 'stay' hand signal that they used. She whined, unsure of what to do, almost getting up but sitting back down while watching Morgan's facial expression.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 13, 2020 2:19:23 GMT -6
Ultimately, just as Morgan had done with Nico in the past, Selene wound up getting the 'hint' that was in Morgan's stance and she tried to sit in the same spot. Before she could get up, however, Morgan smiled and tossed her a piece of a treat. "Great job, S-Selene!" Morgan said, patting her on the head. After that, the houluh got up, sensing that Morgan backing off meant that the 'pressure' was off. Morgan knew that these were the secrets to teaching the houluh how to sit and stay. Now it was all repetition from here! Morgan called out her name- "Selene!" Before giving the commands for sit, doing the same trick as earlier, as well as immediately giving out the command to stay. The houluh whined, but this time stayed all the way down the entire time sitting. Morgan gave her a treat and more praise of course.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 13, 2020 2:23:19 GMT -6
Morgan was sure that Selene would get them both if they just kept working on it. Keeping that in mind, Morgan repeated the process a few more times, continuing to use the 'treat' method of forcing her to sit down to keep her eye on the treat in order to get her to sit down. This worked more and more flawlessly each time so Morgan finally decided to call out the command for 'sit' without doing the treat thing. At first Selene blinked, as if she didn't quite get it, and then after Morgan repeated it, something seemed to click, and she nervously sat down. Morgan was pleased. "Good job, Selene!" They said, giving her lots of pets and a quick treat. Morgan used the stay signal without asking her to sit, and then began to walk away. Selene was starting to understand by this point, so she didn't move an inch.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 13, 2020 2:26:58 GMT -6
Morgan was incredibly pleased at her quick process! This meant that they should be able to move on to something else, of course this would need reiterating over the continuance of the day. They were making a good quick job of this list, thankfully. Morgan gave the houluh more praise and more treats for staying like she was supposed to, and then came the really serious repetition part of the training. Morgan would give one command, or the other, and then of course give Selene (who was still very laser-focused on learning) lots of praise. Selene seemed to be more motivated by praise than by treats, but Morgan resolved to use both for now to make sure that she knew when she was doing well. Finally Morgan began mixing all of the commands that they had learned so far altogether, making sure that she knew every single one of them well enough.
Finally Morgan was sure that she got the sit and stay, if not rather quickly.
[18] - [End of 'Sit' and 'Stay']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 13, 2020 2:31:13 GMT -6
The next thing that they were going to work on, Morgan decided, was actually one of the more difficult ones for some pets. Cozette didn't take well to it and still hadn't learned from it, but Nico had taken to it lickety-split. The bespectacled human had no idea at all how Selene was going to take 'tolerance' training. It was coming up on her juvenile vet trip (she already had her puppy shots) and she was starting to get big enough to fight the vet a bit when she was getting shots and such. So it was time to get her used to being touched! Morgan ran her through her commands a little more to get her energy out, and then sat down on the park bench again, calling her to 'come' over.
"Alright Selene, let's get ya-you used to being touched." Morgan said, soothingly. Selene wagged her tail, and her tongue lolled though her eyes were focused on Morgan.
[19] - [Start of 'Tolerance']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 13, 2020 2:48:23 GMT -6
Selene wasn't nervous when Morgan touched her for petting of course, but she didn't really like others picking up and moving her legs and Morgan didn't really make a habit up to this point of touching her legs and such. So that was going to change today! Selene was close enough for Morgan to start now, so they leaned forward, and put a palm on her head. Of course she was used to being petted on the head, so she didn't budge. Her tongue was still lolling, nothing changed about her attitude. Morgan patted her on the head for a bit, and then began scratching behind her ears. It was a good start, she wagged her tail the entire time excitedly. Morgan continued this, and then slowly lifted up one ear, and 'looked inside of it', and then put it down and did the same with the other ear. It wasn't really weird enough to give the houluh much pause.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 15, 2020 21:24:31 GMT -6
The idea was mostly to get Selene used to the kind of stuff the vets and the houluh association would do to her in order to make sure that she wasn't sick or was sound. She was of course pretty tolerant with Morgan already due to the psycho-social bond, it made a ton of sense for Morgan to be the one to do the training. They always did it this way, after all. Morgan patted her on the head, moved away from her ears, and then patted down her neck, then her chest, and then on her back. Selene stood there, looking pretty happy with her tongue all lolled out. She was such a good hound! Morgan was pretty pleased that she was accepting this training easily enough. Morgan prodded a little harder in a few places, grabbing in the manner that someone trying to find a good place to put an injection would.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 15, 2020 21:29:05 GMT -6
The houluh gave slight pause at that, but didn't move, allowing Morgan to pinch some of her lose skin on the back of her body slightly, and then let it go. "Good gal, you're doing good." Morgan said, smoothly and soothingly, and then they patted down her sides quietly. She seemed pretty okay with that at least. Then Morgan diverted down to her legs, running their fingers over the bones of her front legs, and then lifting each paw up and rubbing the 'sole' of it before dropping it back down. She seemed a little concerned about this, but didn't move at all. Morgan moved back up her shoulders and then back to her hind legs, doing the quick pass over that the inspectors would do at the debutante shows, and then gently patted her on her rump before looking at her tail, lifting it, and then moving it around.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 15, 2020 21:32:08 GMT -6
Selene wasn't quite as easily manipulated as Nico, but she allowed it in her own kind of rough and tumble way. She was stiff, and did notice every single movement over her, but she allowed it out of her own grace. That in it's own was a form of tolerance, Morgan decided, as they went over the whole process again, starting at the head, ears, and neck, and then moved over the back of the neck to the front legs and underneath her chest. The hound took it just as easily, and more calm this time than she had been last time. Morgan smiled at her, and then did the process again, each time it was completed Morgan gave her lots of praise and more petting. Finally, Morgan was convinced that she had learned to accept the weird sorts of touches that other people would probably have to do with her, like the vet or the judges.
[23] - [End of 'Tolerance']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 15, 2020 21:37:12 GMT -6
The next thing on Morgan's list was not what Morgan went to next. It would be much more prudent to work on the 'stack' command right now, since she was used to being touched, but Morgan still wanted to solidify her knowledge and understanding about why she needs to be moved around sometimes. Stack wasn't something that Morgan planned on teaching all of their houluh, but they did plan on doing this with all of the houluh that Morgan wanted to eventually have try to go for the other contest hall challenges, and Selene was just too stunning not to eventually go to the Salonnes, or at least that was what Morgan was wanting to do. So Morgan stood up, catching Selene's attention immediately, and then patted her on the head. "Alright Selene, time to teach you something new." Morgan said, pleased at how well this was going so far. Their stutter wasn't even that bad today.
[24] - [Start of 'Stack']
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