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Post by Lethalia on Jul 18, 2022 14:39:28 GMT -6
"Ha - fine, 'spose y'can sniff, too. Wanna' find feathers wit' me now?" Lethalia giggled, showing the palm of feathers that had been uninteresting moments ago. Now Foggy stuck her nose straight in it, sneezing on some of the down. While it seemed like she was goofing off, the houluh's nose did return to the feathers, a slight wag picking up with that familiar scent. "Let's track it." There was that word again, the one Foggy had been hearing an awful lot of today. Still, the satyr seemed to have some idea what she was doing, taking off with a purpose after scenting those feathers. Every once in a while, she'd stop and look like she was smelling the reeds or the ground. The display was enough to prompt Foggy's nose into the air, furiously inspecting a few spots after her owner inspected them. (Leth thought she was putting up a believable act. How fortunate she could roughly recall where she'd scented the area earlier.) track|6
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Post by Lethalia on Jul 18, 2022 14:39:41 GMT -6
"Foggy," the satyr prompted, followed by a short whistle to tear her away from smelling the last spot. "There -" Leth wanted it to be the houluh's victory. No matter that the woman was closer to finding it than she was and literally pointed it out to her, Foggy was just as happy to retrieve the bird from the brush for her person. She was still doing her job, yay! She was starting to wonder where all of these bodies were coming from without her owner making them still, though. Willingly giving up the bird for a treat, the mere finding the thing was reward enough. "Okay Foggy, birds?" As expected, the dog perked and did a quick spin before yipping at her owner. "I mean - quietly, else y'woulda' normally scared'em." Foggy gave a more subdued growl and whine - now that she thought about it, maybe she did know where the birds were. track|7
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Post by Lethalia on Jul 18, 2022 14:39:52 GMT -6
It smelled so strongly of birds, they had to be close...and a lot of them, too! Foggy strained where she thought the smell was the strongest, pointing the way with her nose and foreleg. At the urgent look on her hound's face, Leth prompted with the feathers, as if to remind her, "Track som'birds, Foggy?"Something right there clicked with Foggy and she took off without a second thought. Of course she knew where the birds were hiding! Lethalia grinned to herself and trudged off after the houluh; this was more like it! She allowed Foggy to take her own straight path through the weeds, taking the easier way around she'd gone this morning. Dogs were the ones in charge of contending with thicket trailforging, after all. Lethalia couldn't find herself in as much of a hurry as she would be were Foggy's encounter not staged. No birds were going to be coming out of the brush in a flurry, and the houluh could only be in one place. track|8
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Post by Lethalia on Jul 18, 2022 14:40:14 GMT -6
An excited yip indicated Foggy had indeed found her mark; she bound back towards her owner with such gusto she popped up from the tall grass with every stride. "What'cha got, girlie?" Leth asked at the sight of the panting houluh, who only woof-growled at her and dove back into the underbrush. Foggy had handily 'cornered' a small flock of pheasants, who were... rather handily already contained inside of a wire carrying cage. Foggy wuffed proudly and wiggled as her owner came upon them, making the birds give a scared cries in unison. "Good trackin', Foggy!" She had to plant the canine a 'gimme' find just to learn from, and Foggy was simply beside herself with the satisfaction of her find. Leth patted the houluh's side while the pup panted and half rolled over with her energy; it seemed this one was the right choice when it came to picking a hunting dog. track|9 end
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Post by Lethalia on Jul 18, 2022 14:40:38 GMT -6
After all of the other monstrosities the lab could churn out, a 'plain' dog was somewhat refreshing. Having found herself so many of those more animals, Lethalia never would've imagined she'd actually end up with one of man's best friends. There was nothing wrong with dogs, but the title of 'man's best' put up some reasonable doubt on if a canine would still befriend someone neither man nor human. She'd given up on the concept of having a bird dog of her own almost as soon as she'd found out about them, years ago. The well-trained, specifically bred dogs at the caravan had been too far out of reach to even dream of. But here they were and Foggy was as good of a bird dog as any, as long as her skills were kept honed. There was just one more, incredibly important scrap of knowledge the houluh had to have before she was a proper hunting dog. Maybe at this point, as much as Leth had tried to develop her, Foggy would innately catch onto this one. It was essential that she did. Foggy lv|52 ly|64 fake it|1
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 4, 2022 13:41:40 GMT -6
Foggy had no single clue how to react when the satyr stopped, pointed a finger gun at her, and announced "Bang!" while she pinched her thumb 'trigger.' The houluh just stood there stalk-still momentarily before her tail started to wag a little. What kind of game was this? Lethalia snorted and chortled and dropped her arm, too entertained by the poor dog's wide eyes and drooped confused ears. After reassuring the hound nothing was amiss, the satyr backed up a few steps and pointed the gun-finger back at Foggy. "Bang - down!" It was horribly confusing, but Foggy did know what 'down' was. After a beat, she shuffled her front paws forward, collapsing into a tidy 'down' with the most flabbergasted look on her face. Though the treat tossed over was snapped right up, Foggy maintained a steadily suspicious eye on her owner. You never really knew with these humans. Once her person started acting erratic, she never knew when things would go back to normal, so she kept an especially close watch on the woman in these situations - just in case. fake it|2
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 4, 2022 13:42:32 GMT -6
"'Kay - down," Lethalia directed, getting the houluh laying on the ground once more. From there, Leth pushed into Foggy's shoulder to (gingerly) knock the pup down on her side with a flail, announcing "Bang!" as she did so. Such a strange turn of events made Foggy just... stay there, laying with one front paw curled and a back foot in the air with the expectation of getting a belly rub. Not without fixing her person with an almost woeful look about her suffering the satyr's neuroticisms. Well, while Lethalia didn't love the fact that most of her creatures thought her an idiot, it did offer a different sort of cooperation with them. Like some kind of role reversal - they were taking care of their own pet moron, and did things to keep their creature content. The way Foggy was looking at her in the moment, definitely made the woman feel as though she was being appeased. She'd given her pets the same look many times. fake it|3
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 4, 2022 13:42:43 GMT -6
"Good! Good bang!" Leth sung her praise regardless of being judged. She patted Foggy's narrow chest alongside her compliments, the pitch in her voice and all of the attention driving the hound to her feet. Those were 'learning yay' noises - but what had she supposedly just done correctly?? Foggy wheeled an excited circle where she stood, tail propelling her entire body as she woofed bossily at her owner, amped up with all of the attention. "Okay," Lethalia began, lifting her finger 'gun' up to her shoulder and pointing it straight up. Foggy lunged to a bow on her front end, slapping the ground with her paws and barking more when her owner didn't make a move soon enough. Instead the satyr lunged and sent the dog skittering away before she rounded back at a jaunty trot, giving her owner a few more choice words about it. This was good - games were a great tool with a quick little shit like Foggy. fake it|4
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 4, 2022 13:42:59 GMT -6
"Bang!" Lethalia extended her arm and pointed viciously at the houluh alongside her command, suddenly enough to stop Foggy in her tracks. So this was - not starting on the ground, so what now? "Bang?" the satyr insisted, even if her 'gun' didn't have quite the kick it did the first time. Foggy searched her owner's face for a hint, wagged her tail, and slowly fell to the ground. Hind end down, one front and then the other, tilting onto her side in slow motion. Right, right? "Two shots - y'pretty hard t'take down, Foggy-girl," Lethalia laughed, clapping to bring Foggy to her feet again. "Good bang!" It wasn't entirely a convincing faked death, but hell. She got pretty close to what they were going for. Lethalia put the houluh through her paces a few more times before she was fairly certain the command was cemented in the hound's mind, if not the 'snappy' quickness to it that she'd been hoping for. fake it|5
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 4, 2022 13:43:11 GMT -6
Getting the canine's reaction time down to snappy and quick was the part of training Foggy hated the most. She was really quite good at the learning itself and certainly thrived off of learning new things. Honing and retaining what she already knew - that was a drag. Leth knew she'd never retain Foggy's attention if they sat down and tried to make her faked death snappier, so instead, they worked on it every day for just a handful of time. At first, the houluh's frustration was palpable at not being rewarded for slinking slowly onto the ground. She had preformed after all! Soon as her frustration grew for the day and Foggy threw herself onto the ground in frustration, Lethalia showered on the praise and stopped bothering the dog for the day. It took a few more for it to really sink in, but soon enough the satyr could walk up to the kennel and yell "Bang!" as greeting to Foggy, and watch the dog 'keel over' in her kennel. It was convincing aside from her propller tail still going, but that wasn't something Leth was about to put a damper on. Foggy lv|52 ly|64 fake it|6 end
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