|
Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 15:57:44 GMT -6
Noa had been working with two Houluh pups on his fishing trips, mostly desensitizing them to handling.
After that point, the training of the two pups diverged. Up until this point, they had had the same training regimen and had learned everything they knew together. They had also learned most of it with the company of a third pup. But now they were being groomed for two different functions, and so Noa split them up for the sake of teaching those functions.
Nana’s potential was for guard work, so while she needed to have some measure of control, his time was best spent teaching her some intimidation tactics. On the other hand, Doc had much more social inclinations, and Briar had some hopes for him as a therapy creature. What the notoriously antisocial Briar would do with a therapy dog, Noa could only guess, but he knew how to help the process along, so he supposed he might as well. What Doc needed was proper, intensive socialization, so he could handle all kinds of new situations without freaking out.
Noa started with Nana, since teaching a creature to bite was generally pretty easy. She had tug toys, didn’t she?
1
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 15:58:07 GMT -6
He got her to look at him, then presented one to her and gave her a specific hand signal. The hand signal wouldn’t mean anything to her yet, but she bit down on the toy, and as soon as she did, Noa gave her a treat. As soon as the treat appeared, she let go of the toy in favor of it. Briar had been right; she was pretty food motivated. That was good, it kept things simple and straightforward.
As for Doc… His socialization training was taking place more or less at the same time. For the sake of efficiency, Noa had simply taken them both to the park, and while he was working with Nana, he kept Doc on a leash tied to a nearby tree, only a few feet away. That the tree happened to be next to a path was part of Noa’s plan. That way, Doc would be exposed to plenty of passing people and their creatures, which would give him the exposure he needed and also hopefully keep him from being bored. And even though Noa was still working with Nana at the moment, Noa kept a careful eye on Doc as well.
2
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 15:58:24 GMT -6
He made sure to check on the pup any time he saw someone passing by, or just every so often to see how Doc was doing. Thus far, Doc seemed to be doing okay. From what Noa was able to tell, he was friendly and happy go lucky by nature, and most of the people walking their pets in the park also had their creatures reasonably well in hand. A few passed Doc by without issue, and Noa turned his attention back to Nana.
He got her to look at him again, and gave her the signal to bite while presenting her with the tug toy again. She bit readily, and he rewarded her with another treat. He repeated this a few times with her, so that she began to associate the sequence with the treat.
It was going well with her so far, though he couldn’t say they had made great strides just yet - but at that moment he saw someone walking up the path with a Vulticus that wasn’t well controlled. He decided he had better stand by with Doc just in case. The Vulticus tried to snap at Doc when they passed by, and Doc shied away, ears down and tail tucked in.
3
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 15:58:38 GMT -6
But Noa distracted him with a treat, and kept doing so while murmuring softly to him until Doc calmed down and no longer seemed distracted. Then, just for good measure, Noa untied the leash and walked Doc back and forth along the spot a few times, to make sure Doc didn’t have any lingering anxieties. When he was sure that the pup was calm and in good humor, he retied the leash and returned to teaching Nana.
He repeated the process of the tug toy with Nana a couple more times, then wrapped a stick in some padding and presented that to Nana instead, again with the same hand signal. He saw her hesitate, so he grabbed the tug toy and tied it to the stick instead, and presented that to her with the hand signal this time. She took the bait, bit the stick with the toy attached, and got a reward for her efforts.
Now that she saw that she would be rewarded if she bit the stick, Noa tried again with just the stick and padding this time. She still didn’t bite it immediately, but after a moment she mouthed it, which was good enough for now.
4
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 15:58:55 GMT -6
Noa gave her a treat, and repeated the process a few more times, to make sure she got the message.
Their initial session went on in much that same manner, with Noa alternating his time between teaching Nana to bite, and making sure that Doc wasn’t being spooked or stressed out by any of the people or creatures he was encountering. Their subsequent sessions involved more of the same. Noa took them to various parts of the park, working with Nana on her bite command, and having Doc stand by in a relatively busy area.
With Doc, Noa also took him to various parts of the city, so that he could be exposed to a wide variety of environments. Busy streets, markets with lots of smells, all manner of creatures passing along the roads. They worked their way up slowly from the park to more distracting areas of the city, and Noa always kept treats on hand to help redirect Doc’s focus if he got distracted. If things became too overwhelming, Noa would take Doc to a quiet place and work on recall with him until the pup calmed down, before going out again.
Noa made sure never to end a session on a bad note.
5
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 15:59:06 GMT -6
If Doc shied away from something, they would go away but then come back to it, until Doc was able to face it without a negative reaction.
As for Nana and her bite training, biting was something that Houluh naturally did anyway, and with the strong basis established by their first session, it didn’t take long for Nana to get the idea. Noa did present her objects without the hand signal a few times, and if she bit them, she got no reward. At first that was confusing for her, but after some more practice alternating between with the hand signal and without, she picked up on the idea that she would only get the treat if she saw him make the specific hand signal.
After that, it was pretty much smooth sailing. He practiced with her a few more times to make sure she had it down, then called himself content with her mastery of the trick.
And by the time that Nana was done with that, Doc had also sufficiently been acclimated to the city and its various distractions. It had taken considerably more work and time on Noa’s part to accomplish that, but now he wasn’t concerned about leaving Doc alone either, unless there was a particularly aggressive pet that might pose a legitimate safety risk. Noa felt confident that Doc could handle anything else without acting out or becoming anxious.
6
|
|