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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:21:21 GMT -6
The meat inside of was still the same red and white it had been back at the kennel, the smell of fresh meat enough to make her stomach rumble. But she did not do anything more with the pouch than pinch it’s neck shut, and stand back up. Tin noticed this, and the pouch she held in her hand, yipping once and charging to close the already small distance between them. She yipped again, spinning in place with excitement as she recognized that Haix held something small and roundish, that had always meant food of some kind.
Haix ignored the houluh’s antics, looking back at the water and hoping that this bit of training would not take as long as the first had, for she hoped to train the runt more than a single thing. It was a good thing the houluh seemed so full of energy then, bouncing around her feet. ((Tin-7.0))
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:21:31 GMT -6
Hoping to make use of the houluh’s energy, Haix carefully stepped around Tin, though the houluh seemed eager to be kicked as Tin failed to move out of her path. Then she was on the first of the stone stairs, toes beneath the clear water, and she stepped on to the deeper one, and then the next until she was once again waist-deep. She walked over to the sack, next to where the stairs terminated, and turned to lean against the wall, staring at the houluh. Tin had not followed her, still sitting at the lip just above the first stair as their gazes met, and Haix shook her head. It really would have been too much to expect the houluh to follow her straight into the pool, especially with how long it had taken for the pet to learn how to hunt in general. At least this one was less complicated than that, no book required.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:21:59 GMT -6
Haix called out to the houluh, patting the water with a free hand and marring the surface of the water with ripples and splashes. Tin looked down at the water, then back up at Haix, then bent her front end to the ground as she reached out with one paw to the surface of the water. It found no resistance, sinking below the surface with a small splash. The paw was pulled back quickly, Tin letting out a whine as Haix called out to her again. The houluh rand back and forth at the edge of the stairs, then ran to the side with the sack. Nearer now to Haix, she barked and sat at the edge, wagging as she waited.
As this was not quite what she had wanted, Haix ignored the houluh, making her way back up the stairs. Tin sprinted to meet her there, and Haix gave the houluh a pat on the head.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:22:24 GMT -6
Then, without warning, she picked up the houluh. Tin wiggled but did not snap at her as she carried the houluh over the water, and slowly lowered her onto the first of the steps. With a yip, she hopped back onto the dry ground, shaking herself furiously though the water only clung to her legs. Haix waited a moment, then picked up the houluh again, once more placing Tin onto the top step. This time she remained crouched on the stone lip of the pool. holding up her arms to block the smaller creature’s attempts at escape.
Tin tried to duck under her arms, which only saw them sliding down and the elbow bending so she could push the houluh back into the pool. Attempting to jump over them had a similar result, the arms moving up so that she headbutted them rather than easily clearing them. Then, with a wag, she hopped not towards Haix’s arms, but at her main body.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:22:47 GMT -6
Tin’s claws harmlessly scraped at Haix’s scales as her paws caught on Haix’s legs, the houluh pulling herself onto Haix’s lap. The audacity of the houluh allowed her enough time to spin herself in a slow circle. Then Haix showed the houluh off of her legs with a laugh, sending Tin back onto the first step with a splash. Tin squeaked as she hit, and quickly twisted her body back into a standing position, her fur now dripping from the sudden return to the pool. After a sneeze, water blowing out from her nose as she did so, she shook her body, showing the immediate area with water droplets.
Haix did not stand, letting the water splash against her as she watched the houluh, blinking away what water struck her in the eyes. She pulled one of the meaty bits from the pouch, and tossed it to Tin as she finished shaking, the houluh catching it and munching on the treat without a second thought.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:23:14 GMT -6
This continued for a little while, Tin attempting to escape the pool and being blocked by Haix, though the latter gave Tin a treat whenever she lingered in the water rather than attempting to rush out. Then Haix stood, passing the houluh as she walked down the stairs and Tin rushing out of them in a spray of water. She waited a few minutes, long enough for Tin to have rolled in enough dirt to make her coat brown, and called her back.
The houluh came to the edge once more, and this time Haix pulled out a treat, calling out the new command as she waved it around. She curled her body over the steps, one arm and both legs resting on different stairs as she held the treat just out of Tin’s reach on the dry land. Tin looked at Haix, the treat, and the water in a repeating sequence as Haix called to her.
Then, with a squeal that could only have been of frustration, Tin hopped down onto the first step. ((Tin-8.0 Haix-187))
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:23:31 GMT -6
The praise and petting , not to mention the treat she happily swallowed without a single chewing motion, seemed to overcome the houluh’s dislike of the water, and she wagged as Haix scratched her head. With the houluh showing no interest in leaving the water so quickly as before, Haix pushed herself back into the water, now leaving the space of the next stair separating them.
She called to the houluh, and while Tin came to the edge of the first stair quickly enough, she hesitated at the edge. The water so far had only gone up a distance close to her elbows, a discomfort easy enough for her to ignore with the bolstering effects of the patting and praise. But, much to Haix’s annoyance, the runt did not hop down onto the next step, despite that it was likely still shallow enough for the houluh to keep her head over the water.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:23:45 GMT -6
Calling to the houluh with as much as an excited tone as she could manage, the new command thrown in whenever it looked like Tin might jump in only to skitter backwards a breath later, she tried to think of a better plan. She did not want to throw the houluh into the water and risk Tin deciding to drown, the cost of revival being too much on top of the price she had paid for the thing. Haix was not sure what other options were available to make the houluh learn to swim though, and trying to take the houluh to any less stable water than this would undoubtedly end in the creature’s death if it fell in the water without knowing how to stay afloat.
The ssashirk was so engrossed in her thoughts that she was surprised as something warm and fluffy bumped against her outstretched hand. Turning to look back at the stairs revealed the houluh’s head sticking out just above the waterline, ears drifting on the water’s surface.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:23:55 GMT -6
She appreciated for a moment how much the houluh looked like a strange fish with massive flippers, then proceeded to praise and pat the creature. The moment she stopped, pulling back her hand to grab a treat, Tin turned and hopped back onto the higher stair, then the ground above it. She shook her body hard, leaving Haix alone in the pool with the first cloud that had fallen from her pelt into it.
Now the command and the houluh’s name were repeated with a small tap on the water, the slave hound turning reluctantly to face her. This time the houluh came more readily onto the first step, and only waited a few more seconds before sliding on to the second without a splash, her the movement of her small body causing a small wave the pushed against Haix. More pats and praise awaited Tin, though delayed just a few seconds to make the runt wait rather than hop out of the pool.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:24:06 GMT -6
This part was repeated for a while. Tin would hop down to Haix when the new command was said, going so far as to the second step where only her head was exposed, then hop out shortly after the praise had finished. Said praise and pats were withheld for longer periods, awarded now only when the houluh had stayed in the pool longer than she had on the previous attempt. It was going rather well.
Except for that the intent was to teach the houluh how to swim on command, not walk on stiff legs to keep her head above the water, nor to stand still in the water.
Haix pulled back another step before her next command for the houluh to swim and, just as she had done every other time before, the houluh stopped at the edge of the second step. Haix could see one foreleg waving in the water, trying to find a surface to take another step on.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:24:17 GMT -6
As the stalemate dragged on, Tin outdid her last time on the step, slowly walking around the lip of the stair as she tried to find the path leading to Haix. Haix waited somewhat patiently out of reach, waiting for the houluh to misstep and fall into the pool, or become so frustrated that she leapt towards Haix and was forced to quickly learn to swim. Neither thing happened, and Haix felt her patience begin to fray as the sun rose a little higher into the sky. This was a day of simple training, a command that only called for the order-bound beast to swim. How could it be so difficult for Tin?
Producing treats did not cause Tin to leap into the water, no matter how her head swayed as she watched the treat waved just out of her reach. Haix grew bored first and popped the treat into her own mouth, then flipping back smoothly and kicking away from the houluh, splashing Tin. ((Tin-9.0))
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:24:30 GMT -6
She had planned to swim a little bit on her own, the water just deep enough for her to do so easily. What she had not planned for was the bark-squeak of the houluh as Tin’s head ducked beneath the water, then surged above it as the creature tried to leap towards Haix.
Tin’s swimming was not the smooth motion one expected with the word, more like a crazed splashing that sent out water in every direction. Haix twisted in the water to get her legs under her and turn to face the houluh, standing to watch the runt try to reach her. The houluh’s head did not quite dip below the water, but her eyes were open so wide that Haix could see the whites, gaze locked firmly on Haix. The houluh reached her a few seconds later, desperately pawing at her as Tin’s flailing attempt at swimming ended.
Haix picked up the houluh, noting the tremors she felt in the runt’s body with annoyance, but allowing nothing but happy tones into her voice as she petted and praised the houluh.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:25:03 GMT -6
The tremors gradually ceased, and left Haix wondering what to do with the houluh. Throw the runt into the water with a shouted command and see what happened? Give up on teaching Tin to swim and dump it on the lip of the pool? She walked around the pool, shifting how she held the houluh as she did so that Tin’s paws skimmed the water. The houluh’s paws rose and lowered in a circular motion as she did so, as if Tin thought she was swimming.
And that gave Haix a new idea that seemed a little more likely to be useful.
She carried the houluh around the pool, calling out the command whenever she lowered the houluh close to the water, the creature instinctively beginning to paddle at the feeling of nothing but water beneath her paws. Praise was given for this, but she was unable to provide treats or pats while she held the houluh.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:25:16 GMT -6
Eventually, Tin started paddling when the command was said, and after two times of that occurring, she let the houluh go after the command. Tin still splashed, sending up massive sprays of water that hit even the top of Haix’s head quills, but it gradually lessened into a much smoother swim until Tin splashed no more. Haix picked up the houluh, feeling her shiver and wag and tried to lick Haix’s neck as she was praised, unaware that Haix carried her back into the center of the pool. Then the command was said, the houluh falling to the water with a splash, and Haix watched Tin swim.
Again and again they did this, Tin’s panicked splashing swim only returning once when she neared a wall of the pool. Satisfied with the progress made so far, Haix released Tin in the center of the pool one last time, then swam ahead of the houluh to the stairs. Tin followed her, jumping up the steps behind the ssashirk and shaking the water free of her coat once they were both on land.
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Post by Alma on Mar 4, 2020 23:25:37 GMT -6
When the command to swim was given a few minutes later, the houluh did not leap into the water as one might have hoped. Tin did however look towards the water as Haix repeated the command a second time with a jab of her finger in the direction of the pool. Then a treat was taken out of the pouch and waved in front of the houluh and, with the command repeated yet again, thrown into the water.
Tin sprang after it without a moment of hesitation, landing with a splash in the pool. The piece of meat floated on the water, rising as the waves from Tin’s entrance struck it, and the houluh caught it with her jaws as it fell down the other side. The houluh then quickly located the stairs and ran back to Haix, earning a few head pats.
Then it was repeated, a few of them seeing the meat sinking under the surface of the pool before Tin could reach it, but the houluh always hopping into the water.
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