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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:10:27 GMT -6
But he did it so gradually that the whelps hardly noticed, and eventually he went so far as to open the gate to the enclosure and put the toys in there.
But by then, the hatchlings were more or less ready to move on. At first they seemed a little uneasy, but they didn’t hesitate for long before they felt that nothing had happened, and were confident enough to play with the toys. Grunty, for his part, barely batted an eye at their presence. This wasn’t his first rodeo, and he had been there to assist with enough desensitizing of other creatures that he had an idea of what Aster was doing by now, as well as what to expect. And even if he didn’t, Aster could always explain to him via telepathy, though if he was being honest, he sort of doubted that Grunty would actually care.
From there, Aster went on moving the toys closer and closer, until the hatchlings were playing pretty much right alongside Grunty. By then, they had become so inured to his presence that they didn’t mind it either. After all, Grunty had never done anything to them, and he was quickly beginning to resemble the scenery more than a living creature, much less a threat, in their minds.
Aster, emboldened by this success, tried taking them inside the enclosure without any distractions. That would be a real test of how well they could tolerate him, since there would be nothing else to hold their attention.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:16:48 GMT -6
The whelps followed him in without any hesitation. They had been doing this often enough by now that there seemed to them no reason for alarm anymore. Which was the point, and promising to see, especially when they could also clearly see that there were no toys waiting for them within either. For a while the lot of them stood at an impasse, and the hatchlings actually seemed as though they were getting bored, of all things.
As a last ditch attempt to see if they had any more startle in them, Aster prompted Grunty into moving around a bit. The 'Gug slowly rose, and wandered around a bit, the thudding sound of his footsteps shaking the earth slightly. But he was only walking, so it wasn't very loud, or at least not so loud that the noise would require desensitizing of a different sort just for the whelps to tolerate it. But then, Aster had specified about that too, just in case. Thundergugs were named for the heavy sound of their steps, after all.
And while the hatchlings seemed surprised at the sight, Aster rather thought it was for the fact that Grunty could move at all than for anything else. The Gug had been rather… stationary for most of their experience with him, preferring to nap or stand around.
Whatever it was though, they certainly weren’t cowed. It had taken them some time to get there, but Aster was content to call this a success for desensitizing them to large, intimidating creatures.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:19:32 GMT -6
Now that Aster’s second batch of whelps were a little older, it was time for him to start working with them too. He was teaching them more or less the same set of skills he had taught to Abelia, Alioth and Roland, and likely using mostly the same techniques too, though how things would actually play out once he started might be a bit different from when he had taught the first trio. After all, these whelps had different temperaments and dynamics between them. One of which was the fact that they didn’t seem to have a clear leader. Havoc was the most willful and independent, but the three of them didn’t quite become a cohesive unit the way the first three whelps were, so Aster didn’t know if a ‘follow the leader’ approach would work with them. He did still see them observing each other and taking their cues from what they saw another whelp doing, if that whelp seemed to be getting something they wanted--- like food. So learning and reinforcing through example should still be applicable here, he hoped. The reason he was doing this was to make their training more efficient, so if he ended up having to teach all three of them separately anyway, then that made it kind of moot, didn’t it? He figured this time, rather than starting them with sensing attacks, he would go straight into desensitizing them around big creatures to start. Maybe that would be easier. 1
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:20:08 GMT -6
That would give them a chance to get to know each other again, especially since Rici had been separated from them for a while. The time away had done her more good than harm though. She had hit a funny sort of growth spurt before her two brothers, so Aster had decided to group her in with Havoc and Velvet after all. Three was about the most he could handle at once anyway, so it worked out. They took a few cursory sniffs at one another, and Havoc tried to bowl her over only to have Rici dart a little out of the way. Now that they had real legs on them, they were moving about with much more control, though occasionally they still tripped over themselves just because they were growing so quickly. But having established the state of things with a cursory attempt at running her over, Havoc was content to leave it at that, apparently, and didn’t make any more tries at picking a fight.
Velvet was her usual self. If no one forced her into it, she didn’t scuffle with anyone. It was a good thing she could still be lured with food, or else Aster would have had a real hard time budging her at all. She was fast becoming too big and too heavy to be carried.
Aster opted for nice, fresh treats this time, since he figured that once they saw Grunty, he would need to pull out all the stops to hold their attention.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:20:39 GMT -6
He held a bit of fresh offal in his hand, which immediately had all the whelps’ eyes on him. So far, so good. “Come on, you lot,” he said, and walked backwards with them, keeping a careful eye on them so that one didn’t bolt forward suddenly and snatch it from him. In this manner, he led them up to Grunty’s pasture, where the ‘Gug was out sunning himself on the grass, chewing contentedly on a mouthful of it in his usual slow, leisurely manner.
Grunty picked up an ear at their approach, but when Aster reassured him that he was just here to get some whelps used to being around him, he went back to what he had been doing. The nice thing about Grunty was that he had very little interest in getting too involved with what Aster was doing, if there wasn’t food in it for him. A more curious creature might have startled the poor whelps way sooner than they would have been ready to face such a prospect.
But even standing a few meters away from the edge of the pen, let alone Grunty himself, had an effect. Aster could almost see the exact moment in which they took notice of the ‘Gug. The whelps all startled in different ways. Velvet froze, Havoc jerked up and then began to hiss at once, and Rici flattened herself and tried to run away from there, though the smell of the food kept luring her back.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:21:11 GMT -6
Her conflict was the most dramatic and the most apparent, wandering back and forth and sometimes making pathetic little cheeping noises, as though beseeching Aster to hurry up and take them away from there.
It made for a pretty sad display, and Aster felt his heartstrings tugged a little, but unfortunately for Rici--- unfortunately for the lot of them, really--- he couldn’t do that. The whole point of them being out here was for them to get used to Grunty, so they stopped having such an aversive reaction when they were around him. And for that to happen, they had to stay where they were.
“Shhh, it’s alright,” Aster said, keeping his own voice and body language calm, to show them through example that it was alright. “You want this? You want this treat?” He held the meat closer to them, so that it would hold more of their attention, but he didn’t feed any of the whelps just yet. He didn’t want to reinforce any of their frightened or panicking behaviors with a treat. He was waiting to see if any of them would show a sign of being calm, or at least of being sufficiently distracted, before he rewarded them.
The first one to achieve anything like the measure of calm that Aster had been looking for was Velvet. Aster didn’t know if he was surprised or not. Velvet wasn’t a terribly motivated Sarane, but it also did translate into a relatively even temper.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:21:29 GMT -6
Maybe being frightened was too much of a hassle for her to keep it up very long, and that was why she calmed down first. But whatever it was, it worked out for him. Seeing that she was no longer acting up, or at least not acting as much out of the ordinary, he gave the treat to her. She snapped it up enthusiastically, only glancing at Grunty once. Well, it was a start, anyway.
The other two whelps, having seen their fellow get a reward, were paying more attention to Aster now. It took their mind off Grunty, which was a good thing. Soon enough, he had occasion to reward Havoc too. Rici took longer than her fellows, likely because she was a little more high strung, but eventually she did come down from her heightened state of alert. After all, nothing happened, and nothing had happened for quite some time. Aster knew nothing would, of course, because Grunty may as well have been a bump on a log most of the time, but the point was to teach the whelps that they didn’t need to be terrified of him.
As Aster rewarded them, the whelps focused more and more on him, and less on Grunty. For an initial session, it wasn’t bad. Eventually Aster wanted them to be able to approach Grunty without minding him or his scary head crest, but right now it was enough that they weren’t actively freaking out while in his presence.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:21:43 GMT -6
Aster kept them there for a while, and after the whelps had been more or less calm for a significant period of time, he called the session to an end and took them home.
They came back the next day to do more of the same. It was a gradual process that couldn’t be completed in just a day or two, so Aster did his best to be patient with them, and to monitor them carefully for signs of unease. If he could catch them before they freaked out and redirect their attention, that would help speed the process along. The fewer times they managed to work their way up to a full blown freak out again, the less they would associate fear with Grunty or his ilk.
Their order of progress was pretty much the same as it had been in the first session. Velvet was the first to lose her alarm, which faded relatively quickly to indifference. Havoc was more the type to puff himself up and bluster, but that helped him work up the nerve to brave Grunty, even if the bravado was obviously false sometimes. Rici remained the most difficult case, since her first instinct was to avoid anything that unsettled her, but with lots of food bribes, eventually Aster was able to get her to calm down and ignore Grunty with the other two.
As their reactions dulled, Aster was able to use dry treats, which the whelps liked well enough but which didn’t grab their attention as well.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:21:57 GMT -6
Eventually he was even able to substitute toys for the food, baiting them along with a bit of rabbit hide on a string, or chew toys for their developing teeth. It didn’t have as much of an impact on Velvet, but by that point she was no longer really the concern. Once she realized she could nap in Grunty’s vicinity, the game was pretty much over for her, and she opted to do that while Aster baited the other two into chasing something around the field.
And then, at last, they came to a point where Aster tentatively tried not bothering to distract them entirely, to see how they would do with that while in Grunty’s presence. It had taken them over a week to get to this point, sometimes with multiple sessions a day, especially as their comfort levels grew. Aster had limited it to one a day at first, just to keep from stressing them out, but when he was confident that he could distract them fully, he upped the ante a bit.
He hoped he hadn’t misjudged the timing on this. If they panicked again, it would set him back somewhat. But he had to do it sooner or later, just to be sure that they were no longer bothered by Grunty, and now seemed like a good time.
But he needn’t have worried. The whelps carried on as usual, and in the absence of Aster and his toys to play with, Havoc struck up a game with Rici.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:23:12 GMT -6
The two of them had bonded somewhat in the time Aster had spent training the three of them together, despite having spent some time apart earlier. Velvet, who was more content to take naps or sit out of the action, was doing more of the same.
Well, they weren’t frightened, that much was clear to see. They weren’t even paying much attention to Grunty at all. Aster supposed he could call that a success. Intimidation tactics weren’t as common in the fighting pit as they used to be, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. Besides, the fact that he had a Thundergug on hand meant it was easier on him if his creatures didn’t freak out whenever Grunty was around, so it wasn’t like this was a waste of time either.
That was that for desensitizing them.
The next thing on the docket was going to be more unpleasant for the whelps, but Aster had gotten his first whelp trio through it without too much hassle, so he hoped these three would also take to it quickly. This time though, he suspected it would be Velvet who had trouble with it, while Rici would catch on quick.
He set it up the way he had done with Alioth, Abelia and Roland, by taking all three of the whelps he was working with now to a pen. That part was easy enough. He could just lead them in with the promise of food and then close the gate while they ate.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:23:26 GMT -6
They weren’t particularly concerned about being in the pen either, since it wasn’t dissimilar to their situation back at the stables, aside from the fact that they happened to be outside now. And the outdoors certainly didn’t worry them, not with the number of excursions Aster had been taking them on since they were small.
It was the next part that was going to be uncomfortable. Aster approached the fence, and then through it, shot at the whelps with a dart gun.
It hit Velvet square on the shoulder. She squawked indignantly, and then turned to hiss at him. Aster paid her no mind, and shot again, this time at a different whelp. He picked Rici this time, to test his theory on how each of them would take to this challenge. She had been watching him, and when she saw the dart coming towards her, she tried to dodge out of the way. She wasn’t quite fast enough, so he didn’t reward her yet, but she was definitely motivated to make the attempt.
And then, just in the name of fairness, he shot at Havoc too, to see what that whelp would do. Havoc hadn’t been paying as much attention as Rici to what was happening, so the first shot took him by surprise. He hissed at Aster with much more vehemence than Velvet had done. Hopefully the irritation, or the blow to his pride or what have you, would help motivate him to avoid them later on.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:24:22 GMT -6
But the foam darts didn’t hurt. Aster had used them last time, and they were more of a nuisance to a whelp at this half grown stage than they were a credible threat. They left just enough of an impact to be felt, and to be mildly unpleasant, but they didn’t do lasting damage. So Aster didn’t feel too badly about firing again.
He went for Rici this time, and this time she was ready for him. She scrambled out of the way, then hissed at him for good measure, seeing as he hadn’t stopped targeting her. But since she had dodged it, Aster gave her a treat for it. “Good girl,” he said. “That’s the spirit.”
The other two took notice, and immediately started up a clamor, begging for food as they closed in around the fence across from where Aster was currently standing, feeding Rici. Aster didn’t give in to that though, and simply reloaded the dart gun and fired again. He fired on Havoc this time.
The message hadn’t quite sunk in, so Havoc merely continued to hiss at Aster. Aster wondered if he just needed to see what Rici was rewarded for a few more times, or if he really wasn’t going to understand. But it was still early, and without a proper way to explain what he wanted to the whelps, it was understandable that it might take them a while to cotton on to what he intended.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:24:59 GMT -6
He didn’t have much hope for Velvet at this stage, but he shot her again too, just so the whelps got the same amount of exposure to the training method. But to his surprise, she did try to budge herself to avoid it. The problem was just that her reaction time was too slow, and she didn’t quite manage. But still, he hadn’t expected her to be willing to move at all this early into the training, so even this much seemed like something noteworthy.
“Hey, not bad, Velvet” he said to her. “A little more and you’ll be able to dodge it.” Not that she would understand, but it helped Aster break up the monotony of repetition.
Aster aimed for Rici next, to keep her on her toes. Like last time, she anticipated the strike and evaded it, so Aster fed her another treat. She gulped it down as fast as she could, as though she was worried that someone else was going to take it from her, which honestly reminded Aster a lot of what Roland had been like as a whelp. He had plenty of reason to feel that way though, since he had grown up in a batch with two much bigger and more assertive whelps from a higher tier. Velvet and Havoc didn’t try to hassle her so much, so Aster wondered if that was hereditary too.
The other whelps were definitely paying her more attention now than they usually did though.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:25:15 GMT -6
And when Aster shot at velvet the next time, she was a bit faster off the mark, so he just barely missed her. He did wish she would get a bit further clear of the dart, but that would come with practice, he supposed. And considering how little she liked to budge herself, the fact that she had accomplished this so quickly was praiseworthy.
Besides, a dodge was a dodge. So he fed her, and she snapped up the meat from his hand with such ill grace that Aster had to laugh at the sight of it.
By this point, Havoc was starting to become quite cross. The two hen whelps had both gotten fed, but he hadn’t been fed at all, and moreover he had been pelted with these foam darts that he didn’t care for at all. He hissed at Aster again, maybe just to get Aster’s attention, and probably to protest the way that things were going.
“You want to take another shot at it?” Aster said. “Well, alright.” Obligingly, he shot off another foam dart in the red whelp’s direction. It bounced off his snout, and this time Havoc recoiled.
Hoping to use the averse reaction to get something out of Havoc other than hissing, Aster immediately shot at him a second time. This time, Havoc had finally had enough and got out of the way. He wasn’t as slow as Velvet, so he had no problems with it now that he had made the conscious decision to avoid the darts.
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Post by Noa on Jul 4, 2020 20:25:37 GMT -6
“There you go,” Aster said, brightening, and fed Havoc his first real treat of the day. He was honestly relieved. He didn’t know for a second there if he was going to have to intervene because Havoc was just standing there and taking darts. He was a bit slow to cotton on, contrary to what Aster had expected of him, but now that he had succeeded once, Aster felt a little more optimistic. Hopefully now Havoc would know what Aster was looking for, and things would go more smoothly for him.
It took a little more trial and error before all three whelps were dodging consistently. Well, it took more trial and error for Havoc, anyway. Rici pretty much had the idea down, and for Velvet, it was more a matter of developing her speed and reaction time through practice. But once everyone was dodging consistently, Aster called the session to an end. That was good practice for their first time being introduced to the idea, and they would expand on that in the next session.
The next time they came to the pen, Aster shot a few times at them just to get them warmed up. Velvet was a little slow to start, but they all seemed to remember what they had learned last time well enough. That was good to see.
It was time to up the ante, so Aster started moving around when he shot the foam darts at them, to get them used to attacks coming at them from different angles.
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