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Post by Silver on May 15, 2020 6:24:01 GMT -6
"You are so bad at this!" Silver teased, giving Victor a playful shove. Then, a few seconds later, they said, "Nah, that's not true." They felt bad saying it, even if it was just a joke and Victor had no idea what was being said anyway. The truth was that Victor was pretty clever and had picked up the previous couple of commands with ease. Victor didn't know what was going on, but he did like Silver so he went over and licked their face.
"That's great, glad you're not mad," Silver said. "Want to try again? Sit, Victor, sit!" They pressed on Victor's bum right above his tail once more. The small puppy instantly plopped down without resisting. There was no reason for him to resist! Thinking that he had the right idea, Victor flopped all the way down until he was laying in the grass. "Ah, wait, not that far," Silver laughed. They put their hands under Victor's tummy and tried to lift him back up.
Quintessence found Victor's antics amusing. The puppy was always doing weird, unexpected stuff. He liked his spirit. He was feisty and playful all in the right amounts. He was already starting to plan out what they could do together after Silver was done with the lessons, obviously.
[104.7, 2.6, 9] [Sit - 2]
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Post by Silver on May 16, 2020 6:40:30 GMT -6
Victor thought that hands going near his belly meant that he was going to get a good scratching, so he rolled over onto his back and stretched all of his legs out in different directions. Silver absolutely could not resist such a cute tummy, so they gave in and gave him some scratches. Even though he had done the 'wrong' thing, it was too cute to resist. They could be strict later, but he wouldn't be a puppy forever. They had to enjoy it while it lasted.
Quintessence wanted some belly rubs, too! He finally flipped himself over and crawled through the grass, then laid out next to Victor, imitating him by stretching his wings and legs out as far as they went. "Are you bored now?" Silver asked. They nonetheless gave him a little pat, even though he couldn't really be scratched the same way Victor could. Quintessence often wanted to cuddle like that, so he must get something out of it.
"Now Victor, you're going to have to get up so we can get back to business." They gently rolled him over and helped him to his feet. He instantly flopped back down onto the ground and Silver let out a frustrated sigh. Puppies were cute as hell, but they were often bad at paying attention.
[104.75, 2.8, 9.2] [Sit - 3]
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Post by Silver on May 16, 2020 6:46:52 GMT -6
"No, Victor, it's time to learn," they said. They set him upright again and this time he was happy to stand up. He couldn't stay still, however, and he started running toward a tree he saw in the distance. Silver sighed, knowing that they'd have to go chase him, but they weren't ready to get up yet.
Quintessence flipped upright and flew after him in a hurry. The two of them chased one another in circles for a few minutes while Silver debated getting up and going after them. Maybe they should just let them run it out. Eventually Quintessence led Victor back to where Silver was. "Hey thanks," they said. They waved at Quintessence in a comforting way like he liked.
"Now Victor, you're going to have to sit. You got that? Sit!" Silver once again pressed on Victor's back in such a way that he was forced to sit down, but not so hard that it would hurt or upset him. Victor didn't really mind this, and in fact he started to sit when he felt Silver's paw get near his back. He knew that was where it was going, even if he didn't totally have the command associated with the action yet.
[104.8, 3, 9.4] [Sit - 4]
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Post by Silver on May 16, 2020 6:57:11 GMT -6
"Perfect!" Silver cheered. "World's best sitter right here," they said with a laugh. They made sure to scrub his ears like he liked and even gave him a little treat. At this rate they would be ready for a show in no time!
They continued the loop of encouraging Victor to sit, saying the command firmly, then praising him when he managed to sit without flopping over or trying to run away. They tried to force him into the sitting position less and less, letting him take the lead. He started to associate Silver's paw moving toward him with sitting first, then eventually the command itself started to stick. The concept was fairly straightforward, so he didn't struggle with it much. Meanwhile, Quintessence was having a grand old time imitating all of the things Victor was doing. Silver tried to ignore him, and sometimes Victor tried to chase him, but they always managed to get him back on track.
"Okay Victor, here's the big test. Victor!" Silver said. He had started to wander off while they were talking, but as he had learned earlier, he ran back when his name was called. "Sit, can you do that? Sit!" Victor promptly plunked his butt down and opened his mouth as though he was expecting a treat. "Okay good enough," Silver said, tossing him a treat which he failed to catch then ate off the floor.
[104.85, 3.2, 9.6] [Sit - 5]
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Post by Silver on May 22, 2020 5:52:43 GMT -6
Silver yawned widely and slowly stopped petting Victor. How long had they been awake? They were lucky that this was the least intense kind of training possible. If they were doing any kind of dangerous riding stuff, they probably would have been trampled by now. They sat on the ground next to Victor and tried to think of something easy they could teach him without getting up.
"Ah, I got it!" Silver said. "Victor, sit. Sit Victor." Since he had practiced a few times, Victor did eventually stop wagging his tail long enough to sit. He looked up expectantly like he was about to get a treat, or at least a head pat. "No not yet. Gimmie pawsies. Pawsies!" Silver held out their hand with their palm up, expecting Victor to take the hint and place his paw in it. He did not get the hint.
"C'mon Victor, pawsies!" they waved their hand around as though that would help. It did not. Quintessence had crawled up Silver's back and was now sitting on their head, watching the scene from above. He wondered what they were up to. 'Stay' and 'come here' and even 'sit down' were things he was familiar with, more or less, but this one was new. The suspense was unbearable!
[104.9, 3.4, 9.8] [Sit - 6; Shake - 1]
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Post by Silver on May 22, 2020 6:04:15 GMT -6
Well that might have been a bit too ambitious. It had been a while since they had raised a puppy, and doubly so for teaching one 'pawsies'. They would have to take it slow, which was fine with them since they got to sit down for the whole thing. Why were they so darn tired? They tried their best to ignore it and push on.
Silver wrapped their fingers around Victor's paw and pulled it upwards, sending him tumbling over on his side. "Oops," they started laughing. "That wasn't supposed to happen. C'mon buddy, I have to stand on two legs all the time, surely you can figure out how to do it with three!" Victor rolled over onto his back and stretched all four of his paws into the air at the same time. Silver smiled at how cute he was and let him roll around for a bit. They could try again soon.
Quintessence wondered if this was what they were supposed to be doing. Rolling around on their back? This seemed like a really roundabout way to get to that point. He could think of a much better way to roll around than that. He had half a mind to show the two of them how it was done!
[104.95, 3.6, 10] [Shake - 2]
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Post by Silver on May 22, 2020 6:17:52 GMT -6
"Okay Victor, time to pay attention," Silver said. They physically rolled him back onto his tummy, then encouraged him to sit up again so that he was ready for the trick.
"Time for pawsies," they said. "Pawsies, Victor, pawsies!" They gently grabbed his paw and pulled it up a little so that they were 'shaking hands' like people would do. Silver didn't come from a culture that shook hands, but the trick was super cute regardless. It really charmed people and was a good way to get a pup to stop and think about things if they were getting a little overly excited.
"Good job Victor!" Silver cheered. They rubbed his ears and kissed his forehead. Victor was very excited about all of this, so he licked their face all over and walked right into their lap. It wasn't the most perfect representation of the trick, but it was pretty good and definitely worth some praise.
Was that it? Quintessence felt like the rolling over thing was far more impressive. Anyone could do that! In fact, he could do that. He floated down and sat on his back legs, reaching his arms up into the air and waving them around. 'Look, I can wave too!' he was saying in his own weird little way.
[105, 3.8, 10.2] [Shake - 3]
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Post by Silver on May 22, 2020 6:30:46 GMT -6
"Don't be a show off," Silver laughed. They waved at Quintessence to acknowledge his effort but their attention was mostly on Victor was was trying in vain to crawl even closer to their face than he already was. They playfully blew some air on Victor's muzzle before finally pulling him off and setting him back on the grass. Puppies were great, but they could be really overwhelming, too. They'd have to get used to it again if they were going to get into raising and showing Houluh. They were already imagining what it would be like when Victor had his first puppies, and what his shows would be like...
They shook their head and grounded themselves back in the moment. There wouldn't even be any shows if they couldn't get this all finished in time. The guy who he adopted Victor from wanted to see his progress, and they had a feeling he wouldn't be impressed with their lackluster version of 'sit' alone.
"Okay Victor, sit. You need to sit first. Very good! Now pawsies. Pawsies!" They opened and closed their palm-up hand so that Victor would pay attention to it. Sadly he still didn't know what to do, so he just stuck his nose into Silver's palm and snorted.
[105.05, 4, 10.4] [Shake - 4]
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Post by Silver on May 22, 2020 6:38:47 GMT -6
"Hey! That tickles," Silver yanked their hand back and shook off the slobber. "Try again, buddy," they said. They persistently held their hand out and repeated the command. "Pawsies, pawsies!" They said it so much that it started to sound like nonsense. Maybe it was always nonsense. They kept encouraging Victor to put his paw up when he sat, and soon enough he was trying to offer his paw before he even finished sitting down. He waved it all around, most of the time not even making contact with Silver's hand.
"It's not a shake if you keep missing," Silver said. They were holding a treat in their off hand, which meant that Victor was looking at the treat and waving his paw around randomly, hoping that it would make contact. Silver refused to give up the treat until he looked at what he was doing and actually got his paw onto their palm. "There you go, buddy," Silver said. They decided to keep going until they ran out of the handful of treats they pulled out for this purpose. Quintessence waved his claws around in a way that looked like he was mocking Victor's lazy attempt at the trick. Silver wasn't sure that he was smart enough to be doing it on purpose, but they had to admit that it was pretty funny.
[105.1, 4.2, 10.6] [Shake - 5]
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Post by Silver on May 23, 2020 5:58:14 GMT -6
"Let's take a break," Silver said. They leaned over and flopped into the grass in just the way they had seen Victor do a dozen times by now. Their ears twitched as they hit the cold dew and the smiled at the fresh and natural scent of the grass. All of this training stuff was utterly exhausting. It was something they had done a squillion times, and usually with creatures many, many times bigger and more dangerous than Victor.
Victor did not want to lay down in the grass! He wanted to play. He bounced over to Silver and licked their forehead, then started chewing gently on their nose. "Ah, okay, guess we're not taking a break then," they said. They gave Victor a gentle but firm shove to get him off. He had to learn that biting noses was not okay, but Silver didn't want to hurt or scare him either.
"Let's learn... oh! I got it. Lay down, Victor. I'll show you a new trick." Was that just an excuse to be lazy again? Probably, but it was the best they could come up with in the moment. Quintessence yawned widely and stretched out in the grass like Silver was doing before. It did smell nice!
[105.15, 4.4, 10.8] [Roll Over - 1]
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Post by Silver on May 23, 2020 6:19:53 GMT -6
"Right you don't know that one yet," Silver mused. They grabbed Victor like they were going to play wrestle with him, but then flipped him over quickly onto his back. It was sort of a crash course in teaching him how to lay down. That part wasn't actually important. They were more interested in what happened next. This one was sure to be a show stopper.
They gently rolled Victor from side to side. "Roll, roll, roll," they sang out loud. "Roll, roll, roll," the tune of the little 'song' they were singing was familiar, but they couldn't remember the real words. Victor loved this game! He happily wiggled his whole butt and tail while he tried to grab Silver's hand with his little teeth. He snapped from one side of his body, then the other, back and forth as he changed direction. His swishing tail kicked up some grass which made Quintessence sneeze reflexively.
"I don't think you're playing it right," they stopped singing and started laughing. It was definitely lifting their spirits, inexplicable tiredness or not, to see how cute and funny Victor was. They wished that he could stay little and cute like this forever, but he was certainly going to get more rambunctious and less adorable before he finally leveled out as an adult.
[105.2, 4.6, 11] [Roll Over - 2]
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Post by Silver on May 23, 2020 6:28:33 GMT -6
"Okay, okay," they said. "Let's take a breath and relax before we both explode." If it were possible for a puppy to be so excited that it spontaneously exploded, Silver would absolutely believe it. As irresistible as it was, he probably wouldn't learn as well while he was all wound up like that. They would have to take a different approach if they actually wanted their teaching to stick.
As soon as Silver's paws were off his tummy, Victor rolled back over and hopped to his feet. He started snuffling around in the grass that he had smushed. It smelled different now, which he didn't seem totally realize was his own fault. That was his butt smell! Silver shook their head and smiled. A puppy's gotta do what a puppy does.
"Okay Victor, pay attention," Silver said. Much to their surprise, he actually did. "Uh, great, now sit, Victor." That he did as well. This was going great so far!
Silver gently pulled Victor to the ground and used the palms of both of their hands to push him around. They made sure that he made at least one complete roll before releasing the pressure and letting him bounce back up again.
[105.25, 4.8, 11.2] [Roll Over - 3]
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Post by Silver on May 23, 2020 6:40:29 GMT -6
"This is call roll, got it? Roll." The impromptu song was probably not enough to get the point across, so they repeated it a few more times in order to really get the word stuck in Victor's head. Every time they taught a new word like this, they couldn't help but to think of how funny the word sounded after a few repetitions. Words were strange, and the more they said them, the more strange they got. Did all people feel this way, or was this another one of their weird quirks?
"Now you have to go all the way around, or it doesn't count. Trust me, I checked," they said with a confident nod. They helped Victor to roll over the other way, all the way until he was on his back with his paws in the air again. Victor did not really appreciate getting rolled around, so he hopped up onto his feet and let out a little yip. This was weird and he wanted to stop now. Silver smiled and gave him a pat on the head and a treat. Quintessence rolled over onto his back, too, then wrapped his wings around himself so that they completely covered everything but his tail.
[105.3, 5, 11.4] [Roll Over - 4]
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Post by Silver on May 23, 2020 7:00:00 GMT -6
"Roll, Victor. Can you roll for me?" Victor flopped over onto his side and looked up at Silver expectantly. That's what this meant, right? "No, not quite, you have to keep going remember? Roll!" Silver moved the treat in their hand from one side to the other to encourage Victor to roll around. Since he had done a bunch of it already and now there was a treat involved, he decided to stop being incredibly lazy and finally rolled over completely once without Silver touching him.
"That's great! You're so good at this, Victor," Silver cheered. They patted his side like a drum and gave him the treat. Then they went to repeating the process a few more times since it worked so well the first time. When they were confident that he had the right idea, they gave him another treat, just because, and decided that it would be a good time to take a break from the training. Victor had learned a lot of words today, and they all deserved a nice long break. Quintessence had fallen asleep again and he let out a tiny snore. That was just the perfect addition to the list of reasons Silver thought that it was a great time to pack up and go home. Not to mention how weirdly tired they were today. They could come at it again with a fresh start in the morning.
[105.35, 5.2, 11.6] [Roll Over - 5]
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Post by Silver on May 24, 2020 5:30:24 GMT -6
Puppies grew, like, really fast. Silver was astounded by how quickly Victor was growing, though he didn't seem to be big enough for his ears just yet. They secretly hoped that he'd never grow out of them and his ears would be slightly too big for his head forever. That'd be really cute, especially with his long and silky fur. "What do you think, little champion?" Silver asked. "Think you're ready for this?" While he was still quite young, they had been teaching him a lot of obedience and general tricks that puppies tended to know. Now that he was a little older and more steady on his feet, they decided to get to work on some more detailed and impressive tricks for the shows. Sitting and staying were staples, sure, but they weren't crowd pleasers. Silver was really hoping that Victor would be talented enough to catch a ball in the air. He certainly wasn't when he was a fresh little baby, but maybe with more confidence behind his stride, he'd finally be ready. [105.4, 5.4] [Silver casts Sever Bond.]
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