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Post by Noa on Aug 8, 2020 2:02:01 GMT -6
He repeated that for a while, alternating between the two of them. Like he expected, the Ghaenelt made good progress, quickly reaching a point where it began to claw at the dummy without Aster having to hold its claw to do it. Aster kept with it only so it wouldn’t get jealous of the Pasha being fed, but her training took more time. Eventually, after a few repetitions, she seemed about resigned to the idea that Aster was going to head into her blind spot and wait for her to lash out, and stopped trying to evade it at last. The kicks came more readily after that, and their progress sped up because of it.
He didn’t want to tire them out too much from overdoing it, so that was the point where he called the session to a stop. Honestly, the Ghaenelt was pretty much done, but practice made perfect, so the next day he had them together once again.
He had different targets for them this time, in the form of Sarane dummies rather than human shaped ones. “Claw,” he said to the Ghaenelt, who readily clawed at the dummy and got a reward for its troubles.
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Post by Noa on Aug 8, 2020 2:02:11 GMT -6
The Pasha was a little trickier. Aster did more or less what he did with her last time. He said, “Kick,” and moved to her side. She sidled a bit, but not very much before lashing out with a foot. He rewarded her, let her have a little break, then started in on her again. He did this a couple more times, just to jog her memory, then decided to test something.
“Kick,” he said, without moving this time. The Pasha had heard the word enough times by now that she had formed some association with it, and lashed out with her foot automatically. It didn’t connect with anything, but she had done as he asked, so he gave her the treat.
He repeated the exercise with her a few more times, and after the first few times she picked up the idea that he rewarded her if she kicked out on his signal. It had taken her some time to get there, but now they both had another attack under their belts. He practiced all their new commands with them for a couple more sessions just to be sure, but everything proceeded smoothly from there.
All in all, not bad; a nice short job completed.
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Post by Noa on Aug 9, 2020 19:17:29 GMT -6
… This tournament was sure bringing in business for him. That was what Aster thought as he looked at the two creatures he was planning on working with today. They both belonged to different clients to boot… A lot of people were getting into battling, with the premise of the new tournament, though from the looks of it, it wasn’t a serious commitment for a lot of them.
But hey, he wasn’t one to turn up his nose at some quick and relatively easy work. Hopefully things would go more smoothly this time since he was teaching two similar creatures the same moves. Equillion and Murp weren’t so similar that he thought the two of them would herd-bond right away, but they had similar builds as adults and were herbivorous herd animals, the both of them. So at least they should tolerate each other, and maybe they would be able to model the desired behavior for one another as well.
Plus he could use the same treats. That was always nice. No spiders this time or anything.
He decided to start with something relatively easy. Aster had a board strapped to his arm for use as a shield.
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Post by Noa on Aug 9, 2020 19:18:13 GMT -6
He was hoping not to have to hold it for too long, but to start with, he needed to be able to move it easily. “Horn strike,” he said, and tapped it to the horn of the Murp. It seemed like the Murp would be the one more used to having his horns… horn…? come into contact with something on the regular, though theoretically both species could use theirs for attacking, probably. The Murp seemed a bit startled, but Aster had been moving slowly so as not to spook him, and the Murp merely stood there and let it happen.
That was what the treat was for. “Good boy,” Aster said, and fed him the treat. The Murp sniffed at it, then reached out with his tongue to pick up the treat. Aster wiped his hand off on his pant leg, then turned to the Equillion.
“Horn strike,” he said, and did the same thing to the Equillion, moving slowly toward it and tapping the wooden board to its horn when he got close enough. The Equillion snorted at Aster’s approach, but it was one of those big bulky breeds, and Aster was moving slowly enough that it could see him coming.
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Post by Noa on Aug 9, 2020 19:18:48 GMT -6
When nothing worse happened than a tap to its horn, with Aster easing off and backing away after, it calmed down some. “Good,” Aster said, and fed the Equillion a treat too.
Returning to the Murp, Aster said, “Horn strike,” and tapped the Murp’s horn again with his board. The Murp seemed a little better prepared this time, and didn’t move away. Aster fed him a treat for his trouble, then turned back to the Equillion to repeat the process there too. “Horn strike.” He tapped the board to the Equillion’s horn, then fed the Equillion a treat for putting up with this.
Aster repeated this a few times, until they got used to the whole thing: the sensation of their horns hitting something, the command word, and the fact that there was a treat waiting for them at the end of it. Once they got to that point, he started trying to get them to take a little more initiative, and doing what he wanted of them on their own.
To that end, it was the Murp who came through for Aster first. When Aster said, “Horn strike,” for what felt like the twentieth time that day, the Murp came forward to meet the board.
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Post by Noa on Aug 9, 2020 19:19:24 GMT -6
The Murp did this rather than letting Aster merely touch it to his horn, which had been their procedure thus far. “Good boy,” Aster said, and fed him a treat.
The Equillion was next. Aster held up the board and said, “Horn strike,” and waited to see if the Equillion would pick up the idea and do the same. The Equillion waited a moment, so Aster moved the board slowly forward. The motion prompted something, and the Equillion came forward to tap its horn to the board as well. Meeting him half way wasn’t bad at this stage, so Aster said, “Good,” and fed the Equillion a treat too.
From there, Aster waited until they came to tap their horns to the board themselves when he gave the signal. It took some patience at first, but once they had done it a couple of times each, they seemed to get the hang of it, and did it more quickly when he prompted them after that.
The Murp in particular was starting to use a little more force. Aster figured that instinct must have been starting to kick in for him, since his species would be charging at their opponents like this.
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Post by Noa on Aug 9, 2020 19:19:36 GMT -6
That told him it was time to retire himself as a target, and he strapped the board to one of the dummies he’d brought instead. Then he strapped a second board to a second dummy, so they could practice with one dummy each.
He separated them to either side of him, with each one facing a dummy, so they wouldn’t get confused and try for each other’s targets. Then he said, “Horn strike,” and waited.
By now, both creatures were used to hitting the board with their horns. The board being somewhere else disoriented them, but only a little, and once the Murp moved off, the Equillion did too. They hit the boards one right after the other with their horns, and Aster rewarded them for their work.
He had them repeat it a few times. The more they did it, the more instinct seemed to kick in for them both, and soon they were hitting the board with some real force.
As the last step, Aster took away the boards entirely, and asked them for ‘horn strike’ again. By that point, the word elicited a certain reaction, and the Murp charged forth without really looking, and rammed into the dummy with his horns. “Good,” Aster said, and gave him his reward.
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Post by Noa on Aug 9, 2020 19:20:17 GMT -6
The Equillion, looking on, picked up the idea from there, and the next time Aster said, “Horn strike,” they both struck the dummy.
Aster kept them at it for a few more rounds, but when he was confident that they had the idea down, he called the session to an end. That was one move down. They could start the next one tomorrow.
When the trio returned the next day, it was so Aster could teach them how to buck on command. Honestly, he didn’t want to do this. Getting a creature to claw or strike a target with their horn was one thing, but if there was a nice way to prompt an ungulate to buck, he sure didn’t know it. And it wouldn’t be a nice, relatively polite kick like it had been with the Pasha either, but just… a full force buck, straight to a target. He had little interest in getting kicked around by an Equillion or a Murp, but if that was what he was getting paid for, then he'd have to find a way to make it work.
He considered doing things the way he had done with the Pasha last time, but thought better of it, in the end.
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Post by Noa on Aug 9, 2020 19:20:46 GMT -6
Or at least, he wanted to try something else first, before he tried heckling them into it with a dummy. Maybe this way he would risk getting kicked a little less himself. That was always something to strive for.
To that end, he got… basically a cat toy, something with feathers but also just a little weight to it, dangling on a string. On a whim, he chose the Equillion to test this on first, and dangled the toy over its hind quarters, wiggling it liberally around the Equillion’s rump and hind legs. At first the Equillion did no more than swish its tail, trying to rid itself of the nuisance. But eventually it became more annoyed - there really wasn’t a way that Aster could think of to get an Equillion to buck without annoying it at least a little first - and Aster had just enough time to say, “Buck!” before the Equillion did just that.
“Good,” he said, and fed it a treat.
He then left it alone to digest the lesson, and to calm down, and went about hassling the Murp the same way.
The Murp turned around and around, trying to keep Aster in his sights.
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Post by Noa on Aug 9, 2020 19:20:57 GMT -6
Fortunately the toy was on a long enough stick that Aster only had to stand slightly to one side of the Murp. Mostly he didn’t want to stand right in front of the Murp, lest it get the bright idea of trying to headbutt him in the gut. If he stood off to one side, he had a little more warning.
He draped the toy the same way over the Murp’s hind quarters, and eventually he managed to elicit the same reaction. “Buck,” he said when he saw the Murp gathering his hind legs and tensing to kick. The Murp lashed out with both hind legs, kicking at the air.
“Good,” he said, and held out a treat. The Murp didn’t take it right away, but eventually, Aster was able to get it to accept the bribe. By that time, the Equillion had already calmed down some, and Aster could begin the process anew with it again.
It took some time to annoy the Equillion into bucking too. Aster had done this enough times now that he was starting to get a knack for when to say, “Buck,” at the first warning sign that the creature was going for it.
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Post by Noa on Aug 9, 2020 19:21:08 GMT -6
Once the Equillion had bucked, Aster fed it a treat and moved onto the Murp. It took less time to annoy the Murp into it this time around, possibly because his ire had already been provoked. Of the two, the Murp did seem to be the more short tempered. In this case it worked to Aster’s favor, but he had to be careful not to make the Murp too angry, or else he really would charge at Aster. “Buck,” he said, just before the Murp lashed out, then fed the Murp his treat, and moved to the Equillion once more.
It went on like this for a while. What Aster was looking for was for one of them - or both, really - to start bucking at the word, without him having to annoy them with the cat toy to do it. He eased them into it slowly; once they had each bucked a few times, he started saying the command word before he started applying the toy, rather than right before they bucked. They were doing it more quickly at that point, so he no longer had to spend as much time bothering them. That felt like the right time to change the timing on the command word.
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Post by Noa on Aug 9, 2020 19:21:26 GMT -6
Now that they were doing so more quickly, he didn’t have to worry about them not associating the word with the action because there was too much of a lag between when he spoke it and when they bucked.
It didn’t happen that first session, but Aster wasn’t surprised. He kept the session short specifically because he knew bucking took a lot of energy, and he had to pester them into it to begin with. The next day they resumed with more of the same, and after a few tries, he finally got what he wanted out of the Equillion.
“Buck,” Aster said. He moved to apply the toy, but before he could, the Equillion lashed out with its hind legs of its own accord. “Good, good,” Aster said, and fed it its reward.
From there, the Equillion started bucking on Aster’s signal rather than at the touch of the toy for the most part. Aster still had to prompt it occasionally, but less and less so as time went on.
The Murp was slower about it, and it took a few more tries before Aster saw him buck on his own. But after that, his progression was fairly similar to the Equillion’s.
Aster kept them at it for another two sessions before he was satisfied. But eventually, he was able to say, “Buck!” and have both of them kick out with their hind legs. That wrapped things up for that attack, and without him ever having to dodge a flying hoof to the face.
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Post by Noa on Mar 23, 2021 0:32:58 GMT -6
Aster had taught batches of Sarane before, but he had never quite taught a trick to a batch of three adults. Looking at the gathering of creatures before him, he frowned slightly. Arnica and Dustdevil already looked as though they didn’t want to tolerate each other, but they hadn’t broken out into all-out warfare as of yet. Axchel was the only one who seemed calm, apparently unable or unwilling to get worked up over either a drake whom she saw as immediately inferior to herself, nor a younger hen who was a little too full of her own hot air.
Ironically, all of them were bloodied beasts who had already had at least one victory under their belt. Arnica knew more wins than losses though, which the other two couldn’t have said for themselves.
Aster hoped that would make them easier to train, but he had a feeling it was just going to make them harder to control instead. In a lot of ways, it was easier to work with a young creature, shape them up while they were still relatively malleable rather than being set in their ways. He had no illusions either about any of them wanting to please him. Dustdevil, certainly, had no reason to owe him any allegiance; and if Arnica or Axchel remembered him, he imagined it was only very vaguely, from when they were still fresh out of the egg.
So he had his work cut out for him, to be sure.
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Post by Noa on Mar 23, 2021 0:34:13 GMT -6
Usually he would have worked on desensitizing them first, but frankly he didn’t know if they trusted him enough as of yet. And while teaching them to watch out for attacks was maybe not the best way to build rapport, at least he would be using treats for that, so they could begin to recognize that he would provide food, and therefore they would have a reason to pay attention to him. He was probably going to need all the help he could get once he brought Azalea out to play, and everyone started losing their minds in fear.
First things first though, he had to set them up for what he wanted to teach them.
He started them off in three separate pens, just to discourage them from getting too fussy about one another. Axchel was in the middle, since she was the calmest, with Dustdevil and Arnica to either side of her. Aster was outside the pens, with a bag of softballs on hand. As he passed Dustdevil’s pen, he lobbed one at the drake.
It smacked him square on the shoulder. It didn’t hurt, but it still elicited a hiss from the old drake. Curious to see if he would wise up, Aster threw another ball. This one hit the drake once again, but he really did seem irritated this time, hissing more insistently at Aster, and starting to flare his wings.
If pushed too far, even though he was broken, Dustdevil really might snap at Aster.
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Post by Noa on Mar 23, 2021 0:35:14 GMT -6
And he knew how to use his jaws and claws, having had his time as a feral thing in the Pit, so he probably wouldn’t hesitate to lash out if that line was crossed. But there was also a chance that they were about to have a breakthrough, so Aster took that chance, and tossed another ball at Dustdevil.
And ah, there it was - the old drake moved out of the way of this one and hissed again, mantling his wings. “Alright, alright,” Aster said, “here you go. Good boy.” He tossed Dustdevil a small piece of meat as a treat. It fell onto the ground, but it didn’t stay there long. Dustdevil snapped it up in an instant, and his eyes were trained on Aster now, watching warily but clearly hoping for more.
That was good, but Aster wasn’t only training Dustdevil at the moment. He checked that Arnica wasn't making trouble before moving on to Axchel, he tossed a ball at her. This one hit her on the rump, and she turned to him with more of a grumble. He definitely had her attention now though, so Aster threw another ball to see what she would do. This one she snapped at, though not with much enthusiasm. Aster tossed a couple more before he finally managed to annoy her into moving out of the way. It wasn’t exactly the dodge he was hoping for, since she did it a little after the fact, rather than before.
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