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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:45:16 GMT -6
They stayed out there for a while practicing, Haix forced to wait for something to catch the houluh’s attention and lead Tin into the air before producing a treat and sounding the new command before luring Tin back to the earth. Soon the treat was removed from the luring stage, produced only after the houluh’s paws had come into contact with the ground. She used and empty hand at first for the houluh to follow, then gave the command alone, restraining herself from tugging on the rope when the houluh descended too slowly.
But Tin was descending on command, or at least she seemed to be, coming back down with just a word. That was the most important part, as she could not risk the slave hound deciding to fly around the stage when the time came.
At least, not if it was not on command. And with that thought, Haix knew exactly what to train next. ((Land-Done? Tin-39.0 Haix-200.0~Woo))
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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:45:31 GMT -6
Of all the things she had considered training the beast when she had first decided to purchase it, teaching Tin how to fly had not been among them. The slave hound had no wings with which to catch the air in her earlier stages, and even now her back was bare, only her paws needed to travel across the air. This trick, like the first, would also come in handy on hunts, though the first would be so the beast did not wander off to get eaten by some hunting flier and the second so that Tin could hunt the smaller fliers.
It might even manage to impress the soft-skins in the competition, at least so long as there were no other members of the air walking breed among the entries. And if there were, at least Tin would not embarrass her when it came time to show off her own abilities. ((Higher-Start))
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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:45:42 GMT -6
Like before, training started with a tug on the leash, a treat, and a command. Unlike the first, the tug was to draw the houluh upwards, the treat waved in the air as it had been before Tin had grown, and the command was for Tin to go up rather than down. It did not go as smoothly as the first trick though, the houluh instead rearing up on her hind legs to try to reach the treat as Haix kept up her encouraging tone, leaving Haix hard pressed to keep the treat away from the slave hound.
Aware that the training was not going so well as before, Haix began to walk backwards, denying the houluh the chance to use the ssashirk to steady herself as she went for the treat. The command was repeated as she would lower the treat near the houluh’s head and gradually raise it higher, but Tin seemed to show no sign of her earlier ability.
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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:45:52 GMT -6
Then the houluh was suddenly an inch in the air, her paws brushing against the tops of the grass as she followed Haix. A treat was given with praise, then she produced another treat for the houluh and repeated the new command for the slave hound to go higher. This time the houluh followed the treat more closely as it was raised higher into the air. Tin only got the treat once Haix had her arm outstretched as far as she could, the paws of the houluh walking on the air by her head. There was not anything she could do in terms of physical reinforcement with the creature floating nearly out of her reach and, knowing that to leave Tin in the air might make it harder to get her higher, Haix called the houluh back to land. Another treat was given as the houluh promptly obeyed, and this time it was accompanied by pats.
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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:46:04 GMT -6
Getting Tin into the air the second time took a matter of seconds, the houluh bounding into the air after the treat as Haix held it up, the command said a second before. This time there was no rewards for each step the houluh climbed into the air as Tin ran up it as if there was a solid ramp of stone that only she could see and touch. The houluh gently took the treat from Haix’s outstretched fingers, not so much as scratching a scale with her teeth. A few words of praise were given, then Haix ordered Tin to land once more, giving the houluh a pat for doing so on a steeper slope that was a quick as if she had hopped off of something.
Just like with the previous command, the houluh was called upon to repeat the trick several times, the treat awarded increasingly rarely with each successful show of obedience though the praise remained constant.
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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:46:18 GMT -6
Then Haix called out the command a second time as the houluh was already in the air above her head, and Tin remained at a constant height as she peered down at Haix, unsure of what to do now. Had she not already completed the command? But a treat was held up to the houluh, the command repeated as she stretched down her neck to reach for the treat, only to see it go speeding above her before her jaws even had opened.
With a bark, Tin climbed higher in the sky after the treat, catching it a moment later. Haix called her back down to the earth, then repeated the lesson several times, each time throwing a treat as high as she could to entice the houluh to a greater height than she had already obtained with the first call of the command.
The treat was removed after a little while, and then Haix started calling out the command a third time in a row, the height the houluh obtained from obeying such a command forcing Haix to shout to call her back. Once they had repeated enough times that Haix believed the houluh would run higher into the sky with each call, she decided to move onto the last bit of training on her list. ((Higher-End? Tin-40.0))
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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:46:28 GMT -6
The last item had been one she wanted to skip. There would be little reason to train it to the creature if she intended to hunt with the houluh still, namely due to the fact that Tin already seemed to know it. The problem was that it was not a knowing with a specific command, but with a tone, with a quiet gesture, a feeling the creature seemed to get as she demanded the slave hound follow her when she wanted the creature to. Soft-skins were not one to be impressed by such things, and she expected they would want a command spoken boldly aloud despite how useless such a thing would be while sneaking.
With one last call to the houluh to return to the ground, she steeled herself for the tediousness of the task. How would she ever know that the slave hound had learned the sounds when Tin already would follow her whenever she wanted her to? ((Follow-Start))
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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:46:54 GMT -6
With more than a slight feeling of dread at how boring this last piece of necessary training would be, Haix held out a treat and told Tin to follow her. The hound did so for several steps until Haix stopped and rewarded the houluh with a treat and pat, then pulled out another piece of food with which to reward the houluh with after she had followed Haix for a certain distance. Again and again it was repeated, with the distance growing ever longer in between treats, the houluh never once showing any issues with the command.
Of course there was the question of whether she was obeying the new command, learning that a word she might hear uttered from anyone else would be recognized as an order even if the slave hound was no slave to them and would not obey. Haix was not sure how to test such a thing.
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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:47:06 GMT -6
So she did not test it at first.
There was the fear that making the beast obey one word only might prevent Tin from catching certain tones and demands from Haix if she tried to make sure the houluh only followed her with a specific command for the action when Tin already learned to do so without a moment of training dedicated to it.
But she did only reward Tin for following when the command was given, trying to make it clear as possible to the slave hound that she was to follow her when the specific command was given without eliminating the nonverbal trigger to follow that the houluh had picked up through time spent with Haix instead of direct training as they did now.
And the houluh did follow when the command was given, and did not follow when Haix spoke aloud random gibberish, words that had nothing to do with the current cycle of command.
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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:47:22 GMT -6
Instead they merely repeated the cycle when the command was said, the houluh following her by walking on the ground alongside her, then receiving a treat after a long enough time had passed. Boring and ridiculously simple when compared to the first bit of training she had made sure the slave hound had learned, the task of following her much easier than the many steps hunting had taken.
With a baring of teeth and a snarl in her throat, carefully kept from rising to prevent the following houluh from thinking she was doing something wrong, Haix hoped the soft-skins would appreciate that she was willing to amuse them and reward her that quiver. And if they did not, at least award her enough that she could earn something of worth and trade that for it instead.
Just to be certain the houluh would follow the instant the command was given, she started calling out other commands that had been previously taught.
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Post by Alma on Mar 12, 2020 0:47:46 GMT -6
Some, like guard had interesting results, leaving the houluh obviously a little torn between the two of them at first. Others, like the command to hunt or run, led the houluh to interrupt her current action to resume following her. Her personal favorite came to be ordering once the houluh to rise higher by walking on air then telling Tin to follow, the houluh trotting along just behind her head. That surely would be worth a few points on its own when the time for the show came.
Which would be soon, and she would be too late if she did not finish off the last command and made sure the houluh knew it well. Again and again Haix repeated the command and had the houluh follow her around the borders of the plot, and more than once near other creatures being trained that Tin soon learned to ignore as she followed Haix instead of trying to run and bark at them. As they passed close enough to see a wiurn and the houluh did nothing more than glance at it, Haix felt safe in calling an end to the training. ((Follow-End? Tin-41.0 Haix-201.0))
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Post by Alma on Mar 30, 2020 1:33:48 GMT -6
Blankets of both fine fabrics and coarse furs littered the floor, glints of color catching the eye as the gems resting on and just under the edges of the blankets caught the light. Some blankets now hung from the walls alongside random knick knacks that had cost a ridiculous amount, some little more than a wooden carving that faintly resembled the long body that lay loosely curled onto itself, another gem of some unknown color held tightly in its grasp. In its other front paw it held some small lantern made of glass, one that could hold a flame nearly indefinitely so long as one was careful to keep an eye on the wick and the oil levels, a beautiful and useful piece that certainly was an excellent purchase. Or so the soft-skin had said as she chased it and the excessive amount of credits it had demanded from her out of her kennel. ((Sid start.))
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Post by Alma on Mar 30, 2020 1:34:07 GMT -6
Sid, the tat-lung and the new owner of the currently unlit lantern, watched the exchange through one slit eye, peering out through his immaculate, if a bit long, mane. His pair of fingers had contracted slightly during the exchange, half-expecting that the lizard might dare to try to take his treasure from him again, something she never seemed to learn would end in failure. He was almost disappointed that she had simply paid the soft-skin and left him to enjoy his prizes without a series of squawks and barks that usually followed him obtaining a new treasure. His grip loosened, and he let the shiny lantern, truly beautiful the way the light hit the frilled glass and refracted into many colors even if it was no gem, fall onto the soft floor of his home.
There was no other place in the strange building that was quite like his. Even the lizard, who locked the beasts into their cages to wait until he grew bored enough to entertain himself with the other inhabitants, slept on a pile of sand. And oh, how she had screeched at him when she had caught him that one night, something alerting her to his intrusion.
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Post by Alma on Mar 30, 2020 1:34:17 GMT -6
His most recent look around the rooms had revealed to him a most curious thing, a moving gemstone that bore a faint resemblance to himself. But he was not so narcissistic a to believe every horned and four legged thing was meant to be him. Still, he had been glad that the lizard had such a surprise for him despite how little it looked like him. He had decided that he might stay in the cage for a lone night, or at least until he was sure she was sleeping, as a reward for the green lizard as he held the struggling gem version in his paws, bringing it closer to his waiting jaws. He felt so pleased by the treat’s existence that he would not have minded if it tasted slightly less than perfect.
The lizard reappeared, no doubt summoned by some unknown sense, the thing dangling from his fingers making no more noise than gems clicking together, and screeched at him.
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Post by Alma on Mar 30, 2020 1:34:30 GMT -6
Confused for a moment, he realized the little dear had obviously been planning to present the treat as a surprise, and that she likely had a few more things to add onto it. When she struck out at him, her blows like the gentlest of pats through his thick scales, he dropped the wriggling gem-thing. This inspired another shriek, and he might have smiled as she dove for the gem-thing, catching it before it hit the ground. It was always good to see that one’s servants were ready to respond so quickly. He felt a little put out at not being allowed the treat just yet though, and so he had left, ending up finding the lantern and leaving with it as a bipedal squeaking thing had chased after him.
Oh, but it would tide him over for a day or two, until the lizard had his gift ready. He only hoped she got the mane right.
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