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Post by Morgan on Feb 15, 2020 22:37:02 GMT -6
Selene was definitely still in the working mood. Morgan was beginning to think that maybe, with any amount of luck they would be able to finish all of the training in one day. That would be something; usually they broke this off into several days. However, Selene would most likely be growing fast, and Morgan needed to make sure to get all of this done as soon as possible.
Morgan started by calling out the command they chose, and then moving Selene into the position and giving the signal for stay.
One day would be ideal; they didn't have a lot of time off anymore. Especially since they had a lot more important things going on than raising more houluh up. The truth was, Morgan had not been doing well mentally lately, so they needed to start figuring out a way to tackle this issue. They had avoided it for about a year now, but it was beginning to build up.
[25]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 15, 2020 23:14:46 GMT -6
Selene stayed just like that, not moving at all. It had been precisely this way with Nico as well; once stay has been taught, and then tolerance, stacking was pretty dang easy. However, they still had to associate the stack with the command. Hopefully it would be simple enough with Selene. Morgan praised the houluh and patted her on the head, giving her another treat. She wagged her tail, she had done what she was supposed to! Morgan smiled, couldn't help it actually, and then gave the command for 'stack' again. Selene noticed that this was definitely a new command, judging by Morgan's body posture, but she wasn't entirely getting it quite yet. Morgan put the houluh in the correct position and then told her to stay. She stayed, and Morgan gave her a lot of praise and a treat. Wash, rinse, repeat. They did this again and again for some time.
[26]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 15, 2020 23:27:15 GMT -6
After a little while, Morgan was finally getting the houluh to do what she was supposed to; she was beginning to associate the command for stack with the specific position that Morgan was sure to put her in with each time. After a lot more work, the houluh was finally snapping into the desired position each time the command was given. Lots of praise was showered when she did it properly, and it was finally getting to where she was getting it very well each time. Finally Selene was snapping where she was standing straight, with nicely angled head, and even her tail and ears held out ever so perfectly. Morgan was finally pleased that she would probably be used to it now that she was doing it without Morgan's help even remotely. The human practiced with the houluh a few more times before finally they were sure that it would stick.
[27] - [End of 'Stack']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 15, 2020 23:43:20 GMT -6
There were only three more things that they needed to work on, and Morgan was trying to figure out whether or not they should continue to work today. There was so much that was going on today, and she was probably going to get pretty tired pretty soon. However, Morgan did want to get as much done today as possible. "Selene, y-you up for another one?" Morgan asked her, bending down to squat on their toes. Selene seemed excited, and leaned forward, managing to land a lick on Morgan's chin before Morgan gently patted her to hold her down and keep her from licking them in the face. "Now don't be lickin' me in the face." Morgan said, and then they gave her a pat anyway. Well, they were pretty happy about her progress so far, anyway.
Morgan had taught her to follow, anyway. Morgan put the whistle in their mouth, and got ready.
[28] - [Start of 'Dash']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 16, 2020 0:03:40 GMT -6
Morgan always used the same whistled call for the dash command. This was going to hopefully be used for the creature to be able to get her to do the action even at long distance, it was Morgan's general habit to use the same commands across the board for the same things, so that every beastie could be commanded at distance for the ones that needed that using a loud command, and using a silent command close up with hand signals when that was desirable. The bespectacled human whistled, and then gave the command to follow. Morgan started running, letting the whistle fall to their neck where it was chained. The houluh chased after Morgan naturally. At this point, Morgan immediately weaved a bit back and forth, and then slowed up. Selene had followed as fast as possible the entire time, so Morgan was pleased. "Good gal, Selene!" Morgan said, giving her some pats for doing it properly.
[29]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 16, 2020 0:43:03 GMT -6
Selene may not have completely understood yet what she was 'good' for having done, but she was really getting the hang of this training thing in general. She was beginning to understand that this was 'a thing' that they did. A new noise or sign would be made, and then she would be shown what to do and she had to sort of guess to make sure she was doing it right. Then, when she did, she could do that every time and get lots of praise and toys and treats. That was generally a pretty simple transaction and that was fine by her.
Morgan proceeded to repeat this process a few more times, giving the same 'command sound' on the whistle and then doing the 'follow' and then running so that the houluh would chase them around. Sooner rather than later, Morgan was able to drop the 'follow' command altogether from the routine.
[30]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 17, 2020 9:24:42 GMT -6
They still were not quite finished, though. No, the pair needed to continue the repetition aspect of training that Morgan sorely disliked. Absolutely required, especially with non-sentient animals such as Selene, but that didn't mean that they could not be relatively quick! Morgan continued running with the houluh whenever they used the whistled command for the first few times, and then suddenly did NOT run the last time. The houluh was not at all phased, however, by this. Selene took off running like a rocket, and Morgan was quite pleased with it! Lots of praise and a treat later, and they continued working on it. Morgan would give the command, and the houluh would take off running so fast. At that, She was given the command to come back, and then given a treat and praise. This happened again and again until Morgan was sure that she had gotten the behavior and would remember it.
[31] - [End of 'Dash']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 17, 2020 9:39:17 GMT -6
Morgan planned on trying to teach the next two things relatively quickly; the first of which was going to be Selene's first attack. It was not something that the bespectacled human planned to train to all of the houluh; only the ones that showed bravery and strength. Cozette was far too nervous, and Nico had used it effectively. Selene seemed like a good choice and fit for it, with her laser-focus. She was even a little less whiny than Nico had been when Morgan was working with him. They were sure that she would take it well. Morgan pulled out a rolled up newspaper that they had bought on the way here. The idea was to train her on this thing, since it wouldn't get anyone hurt and was pretty easy to deal with. "Alright Selene, ready for the next thing?" Morgan asked out of habit. Selene was already practically bouncing out of excitement.
[32] - [Start of 'Bite']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 18, 2020 9:00:01 GMT -6
Well, at least Selene still had some energy to try to push through this. Morgan was already getting to the end of the metaphorical rope for today. However, they were convinced that they could push this even further, even if they had to go home absolutely exhausted later. It was difficult to do training all in one bout, especially when it was so varied! Morgan had chosen a whistled command for this particular attack. They put the whistle in their own mouth, held the rolled up newspaper out at the houluh's mouth. Then the whistled command was given. Morgan could tell that the houluh was quite confused, but when Morgan poked at her jaw with the newspaper the 'mouthiness' that puppies tended to have won over, and the houluh clamped her jaw around the newspaper playfully. Well, that was a success! "Good gal, Selene!" Morgan said, replacing the newspaper with a treat.
[33]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 18, 2020 9:08:14 GMT -6
Of course this first bit of 'success' was not at all the absolute end, it was very possible that Selene may have some rather negative reactions to this that would need to be fixed, but for some reason Morgan was sure that she would get it without too much trouble. Selene was as clever as any houluh, capable of following the so called 'laws of man' with ease, and she didn't seem too inclined to being aggressive other than her rough and tumble play. She was just fearless, which was useful in this line of work for a hound. "Alright, let's go again..." Morgan mumbled, putting the whistle in their mouth again afterward and then gave the command they had chosen for the bite behavior yet again. The newspaper was scarcely put in front of the hound's face before she bit at it, watching Morgan more than actually doing the biting, as if to try to see if she were doing 'correctly'.
[34]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 18, 2020 9:15:33 GMT -6
Morgan of course praised the houluh immediately and gave her a treat and lots of petting. Selene was beginning to figure out Morgan's body language a little better, the human could tell of course. Morgan had gotten a little better at understanding what sort of actions creatures took when beginning to figure out how to do different behaviors on what cues. At this point, Morgan was pretty pleased that they were nearly done. They continued to repeat this with the same process for another thirty minutes. The whistled command would be given, the houluh would be presented with the rolled up newspaper, and then of course the houluh would bite it, and even got more and more aggressive with the bites each time they did this. That was a good thing, since this was going to be the base for future attacks as far as Morgan was concerned. She'd make an excellent protection hound for within city limits.
[35]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 18, 2020 9:35:01 GMT -6
Morgan continued with this training, repeating it again and again. The repetition part of the training drove Morgan absolutely bonkers, but they knew it was absolutely required to get the animals to actually remember what they were supposed to be doing. Morgan stopped pushing the newspaper to the houluh's mouth, forcing Selene to come and actually bite the newspaper herself. Morgan was pretty pleased to note that she made the switch quite easily. Still, they continued until the houluh was completely reacting with the bite in an extremely fast way each time that Morgan gave the command. Morgan began to mix this with other different commands to make sure that all of them were memorized well enough.
Now, it was time to start on something else. Morgan was sure that the houluh would get this one fairly quickly with any luck! Morgan asked the houluh to come with them, and then lead her to a brook nearby.
[36] - [End of 'Bite'] - [Start of 'Swim']
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Post by Morgan on Feb 18, 2020 9:47:44 GMT -6
The brook was just deep enough to force a young houluh to swim in the middle of it, but otherwise both edges were rimmed decently enough to where a houluh could stand chest-deep in water. Morgan, on the other hand, had no difficulty using their boots to move to the other side of the brook. Selene looked at the water, and then at Morgan, her head tilted slightly and her floppy ears on edge. Selene was a brave houluh, moreso than her father, and Morgan was sure that she wouldn't have any difficulty with this particular behavior. However, it was always the 'start' that made it difficult. Morgan gave the command for swim on the whistle, and then tried to get the houluh to 'come' using the way that they had been going along before Morgan had trained the houluh that to a command. The houluh nervously steps one foot into the side of the brook.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 18, 2020 9:50:44 GMT -6
Morgan continued to attempt to coax the houluh to this side of the brook, and eventually the houluh sort of half-hopped across the brook. "Good gal, Houluh!" Morgan said, quickly giving the soaked houluh a pat on the head and a treat. Morgan then moved to the other side of the brook again, and used the command for swim once more. The houluh hesitated, seemingly incredibly nervous, but she stepped down into the brook without Morgan having to bother with trying to encourage her to come. That didn't mean that she didn't seem too happy to be getting wet and having to sort of hop over that relatively deep spot. Morgan continued giving her praise, and then moving to the other side and using the command again and again, until finally they had to move to an even deeper spot. They needed to try to get Selene to actually swim.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 18, 2020 9:55:25 GMT -6
Morgan was glad that they were finally nearly done for the day, provided the houluh actually learn this and not just keep finding a way to avoid swimming. It was obvious that she had picked up the command itself fairly easily, but they were not quite done getting her to actually swim, which was the point anyway. Commands were technically secondary, even if they were important to Morgan. Morgan continued doing the 'going across the brook thing' before giving the command, and the houluh was growing more and more confident each time they did this with getting into the water, but she still was hardly able to swim before getting to the other side. It was quite obviously difficult for her, but Morgan was sure that they would get through it.
With lots and lots of work, Morgan was able to get the houluh to actually swim finally, doing her little doggy paddle.
[39]
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