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Post by Briar on Aug 30, 2020 19:00:23 GMT -6
Eventually, they roused out of their unease, though they certainly didn't seem to be in the mood to explore anymore. At least they were calm, more or less, which was all Aubrey could really hope for...
He thought maybe it was time to go home, but he also didn't want to end on a negative experience here for them. So he decided to sit with them quietly for a while.
Lyra came by and laid down next to him, and maybe out of boredom or curiosity, he began to idly pet her. She seemed happy enough to be patted on her back and her head, but she twisted out of his grasp when he played with her ears instead. "Hey now, don't be like that," Aubrey said, and it occurred to him that maybe this was a good time to let her get used to being handled. It would make clipping her nails easier, and it would definitely help with vet visits, right?
... And as always, Lyra seemed like the safe place to start.
He waited until she came back to him; she didn't seem particularly upset or startled at what had happened, so it didn't take very long. And then he played with her ears again. She made a noise at him, but he took out a treat and waved it in front of her nose until she focused on it, and then he played with her ears again, very gently. She twitched a couple of times, but not as much as before.
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Post by Briar on Aug 30, 2020 19:25:28 GMT -6
He did this for a little while, then let her go. This time she didn't move away, and stayed where she was. He waited a while before trying again, playing with her ears while distracting her with the treat. This time she just let it happen. He slowly moved to her shoulders, then her back, and then he picked up one of her paws.
She tugged it out of his grip, though not with much force. He bribed her with another treat as a distraction, and then repeated what he did until she either gave in or forgot about it. In this way, he worked over all four of her paws, and then her tail, never grabbing hard or suddenly, but gently manipulating them while he kept her attention elsewhere.
When she wanted to get up and leave, he let her. It was best to start slow with this sort of thing, probably. But when she left, Joker came in to take her place, and immediately began nosing at his hands. He must have smelled the treats or something, and Aubrey laughed as Joker's little whiskers tickled his palm. "You want to do it too? Okay, just remember you asked for this," he said. And then, gently, he began to stroke Joker's fur, just to get him acclimated to the touch at first, before he tried anything more interesting and probably objectionable. This much, at least, Joker could tolerate, and he only wiggled occasionally under Aubrey's hands as he did this.
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Post by Jack on Aug 30, 2020 19:44:28 GMT -6
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 16:57:13 GMT -6
Aubrey waited until Joker was good and calm before he started trying to play with Joker's ears or paws like he did with Lyra's. If Joker pulled away or shook Aubrey loose, Aubrey let him, and simply went back to petting him for a while; but after a little more time, he would do the same thing again, sometimes distracting Joker with food to facilitate it, until Joker stopped reacting to it, and let him do as he liked.
It took a while to get to that stage, but honestly not as long as Aubrey would have thought, considering Joker had also been a stray that Yeo-reum had picked up. "I wonder if you were somebody's pet at some point, huh boy? Were you someone's baby?" Joker looked up at him as Aubrey spoke, and his little tail thumped twice, but that didn't offer Aubrey any more answers.
Aubrey kept at it for a while, until Joker finally got restless enough to get up and trot off to initiate a play session with Lyra.
... Which left Loki.
Loki had been watching them on and off this whole time. Aubrey knew this because he checked on Loki from time to time too, just to make sure the pup wasn't getting into any mischief. He wasn't as keen on finding it as Lyra was, but it wasn't like he couldn't make his own trouble. That Loki had been paying attention to what was happening was clear; Aubrey just didn't know what he thought of it.
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 17:06:02 GMT -6
Loki was looking at Aubrey now, too, which was a little interesting because both his friends were engaged in a little game of chasing each other around. He looked at them too, but his attention returned to Aubrey, as though he were caught - feeling indecisive, maybe.
Curiosity piqued, Aubrey called to him. "Loki," he said. "You want to do it too? You want some pets, boy?" Loki didn't move, but his ears twitched at the sound of his name. Aubrey waited to see what he would do, but eventually he ended up resorting to holding out a treat, and waiting for Loki to pick his way over slowly, with an almost catlike aura of pretending he wasn't doing just that.
When he finally came close, he sniffed at the treat for a long time before gingerly taking it from Aubrey, more gingerly than he had done in some time. He had gotten used to eating from Aubrey's hand, at least, so maybe he was anticipating what was coming.
Aubrey knew he had to be very careful in how he approached this.
He moved his hands very slowly. One reached for another treat, while the other approached Loki's body. "It's okay boy," Aubrey said, keeping his voice soft and soothing. "It's alright. It's just pets. I'm not going to hurt you. You'll be okay. It's okay..." In this manner, using the treat to help distract Loki from what he was doing, he put a very gentle hand on Loki's back and patted him a little.
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 17:26:53 GMT -6
Loki immediately turned around to look at the hand, and for a moment Aubrey thought the pup might bite him. Loki didn't, though his lip curled up, and Aubrey fought to maintain his own calm. It wouldn't do for him to lose his cool, since Loki was already uneasy. "It's alright, boy, it's just my hand. See, that doesn't hurt, does it? Is it nice? Is that nice, Loki?" He pet Loki again and again, very gently, where the pup could see his hand moving. After a while, some of the tension ebbed from him, and Aubrey was able to distract him with the treat again.
Loki's desensitization was... going to be trickier than the other two. Aubrey knew this. The best he could do for now was to be patient and take things slow.
He settled for petting Loki here and there in places the other two pups hadn't even fussed about. Every new inch of hide seemed to be its own battle, and Aubrey had to go very slowly, soothing the pup all the while. When Loki decided he'd had enough, he ran out from under Aubrey's hands, and Aubrey let him go. Coercion wasn't going to help him here; Loki had to feel that he had some control of the situation or he would just form more bad associations with it.
But they had already been here a while now, and as much as Aubrey didn't want to go home, he felt it was probably time for them to go.
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 17:38:27 GMT -6
After all, the house wasn't going to clean itself, and the pups were starting to look a bit more worn out than they had when Aubrey had gotten them here. That was a good sign. Aubrey hoped they would fall asleep once he got home so he would have some time to tidy things up before they woke back up again. And then, from there... Well, he didn't know how things would go, but now that they understood some basic commands, maybe he could finally get somewhere with teaching them how not to destroy his home. "Lyra, Joker, Loki!" Calling their names to get their attention, Aubrey gathered them to him, and with a combination of bribes and cajoling, he got the lot of them to follow him out of the gate and off the Mansion grounds. ----- The walks to the Mansion became a regular thing. September was a good month for it, since the area seemed calmer than it did in October, and there were plenty of new things for the pups to play with and discover. Aubrey would work on their basic obedience with them here, going over tricks they already knew - and trying to get them used to being handled. That last one was an ongoing project. The process started the same with all the pups: Aubrey would pet them a little to get them warmed up to the idea of being handled, and then pick up their limbs, their tails, their ears, and play with those for a bit. 4
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 17:51:28 GMT -6
If they seemed uncomfortable, Aubrey would stop, then come around to it again after more pets and a delay period for them to calm down again. He did this until they could tolerate the offending touch calmly with the help of a distracting treat; and eventually, calmly without the aid of food. And then he would do it over and over again, until it took less time, until they didn't seem to mind it, until they could tolerate it without seeming particularly bothered that it was happening.
Due to their different backgrounds, this happened at different rates for each of the three pups. Lyra was pretty good about it within the span of a few days, though as she figured out what Aubrey wanted and began getting bored with it, some days she would fuss just to get a reaction out of him. But he noted on one occasion where she got something sharp stuck in her foot that she seemed to understand when he was serious about something, and on those occasions she held still without making a big deal of it. And that was all he needed from her, so they didn't practice this very intensively after that.
Joker took a little longer, but not by much. He liked the attention, and as time went on, Aubrey was finding him to be a relatively laid-back sort, though with a mischievous streak that occasionally reared its head. He wasn't as bold about it as Lyra, but he had a subtlety that she lacked.
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 17:59:47 GMT -6
In some ways that made Joker's, well, jokes, harder to deal with. But for the most part he was a sweet little guy, happy to cuddle on the couch or sit and watch you do whatever it is you were doing, without the energy and some of the bossiness that Lyra exuded.
And then... Then there was Loki.
Loki's progress, to his credit, was still faster than Aubrey had anticipated. Sometime between the third and fourth sessions, he seemed to come to some sort of decision for himself while watching the other two pups receiving all their attention, and the next time Aubrey had a pat session with him, Loki bore with it with the kind of forbearance of a martyr subjecting themselves so a trial. But he didn't move away, and Aubrey got further with him that day than he had before, so Aubrey decided he would take his blessings where they could. And with Loki willing to subject himself to the touch, Aubrey hoped he would find out that much sooner that it really wasn't so unpleasant after all.
But it did take time. It took time because Aubrey wanted to make sure Loki was never so uncomfortable that he came to associate this with a negative experience with no reward, which he couldn't escape. And so if he showed signs of being overwhelmed, Aubrey would back up, and do what he could to help Loki calm down before they continued. If Loki had a bad day, then the session ended.
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 18:19:27 GMT -6
In this manner, Aubrey managed to slowly build up trust with Loki while also slowly desensitizing him to being handled. At some point the pup also decided that pets and attention was not that bad, and began seeking them out every so often. Jealousy was the motivator as often as not, especially when he saw Joker getting loved on, but given how he was in the beginning, Aubrey would take what he could get.
Eventually though, all the pups grew used to having their limbs and ears and whatnot handled. It had been a bit of a journey for one of them, but by the end of it even Loki was beginning to look as if he belonged in a home - in Aubrey's home, in fact. And that filled Aubrey with a keen sense of accomplishment, especially as a novice trainer who was still figuring a lot of things out for himself.
Some days they just spent their time exploring. On a particular Sunday, that was all Aubrey had in mind when he brought them to the park. He still had them on leashes, though they hadn't worked very much as of yet on how they would walk on those leashes, and it occurred to Aubrey that maybe this would be a good time to try.
By now they had fallen into a particular order of doing things: He always tried a new trick with Lyra first. "Lyra," he said, and when she turned to look at him, he coaxed her to him with a treat.
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 18:23:49 GMT -6
He didn't give her the treat just yet though. Instead, he put the hand with the treat down at his left side, and said, "Heel." He walked forward, and she, following the treat, walked forward with him, nosing at his hand. "Good girl," he said, and fed her the treat.
It was a very short duration, but it was a start. Immediately he began again, with another very small piece of treat. "Lyra, heel." Again he held his hand out on his left side and walked forward, and again Lyra walked with him. He walked a little further with her this time before giving her the treat. "Good girl."
He did this with her a couple more times, increasing the duration each time by a little. He wasn't asking very much of her yet, and she was content to follow the treat, though he could also see her trying to puzzle out what he wanted. The next time he said, "Lyra, heel," she went directly to his side before he had put down his hand with the treat.
Feeling emboldened, Aubrey decided to walk a little further, and after feeding her one treat, immediately held another to his side without saying 'good girl'. She paused a moment, but then noticed the treat, and continued walking at his side.
"Good girl," he said, after feeding her the second treat.
The other two pups were paying attention now too, but they seemed to have learned the rough idea of waiting for their turn.
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 18:33:02 GMT -6
It hadn't been something that Aubrey had actively tried to teach them, but as part of the rhythm of living with three pups who did a lot of things together, they eventually picked it up over time. After all, there was only one of Aubrey, and three of them, and sometimes he couldn't do something for or deal with all three of them at once.
Aubrey repeated 'heel' with Lyra one more time, this time moving her up to a duration of three treats before saying, "Good girl," and letting her go.
Normally he would have moved on to Joker next, but on this occasion it was Loki who trotted up to Aubrey, and looked at him with such an expression of expectation that Aubrey couldn't really say no. And it didn't seem like Joker was upset, though he did look a little confused. "You're eager today, aren't you, Loki? Did you want the treats?" Aubrey laughed, then set to work. "Alright, Loki, heel." He did the same thing that he did with Lyra, putting his hand down on his left side with the treat there. He waited until Loki drew alongside him to sniff at that treat, then walked forward, and Loki walked forward wit him at his side.
"Good boy," Aubrey said, and fed him the treat.
Once Loki had eaten, Aubrey began again. "Loki, heel." He walked a few more steps than he had before, then let Loki have the treat, and praised him for his work.
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 19:00:46 GMT -6
On the third attempt, Loki walked at Aubrey's side even past the first treat and the praise, and looked up at Aubrey with that same look of expectation. Aubrey supposed he must have been watching Lyra's attempts, and had seen that it could go on longer. "Okay, let's keep going then. Loki, heel." And this time Aubrey walked further with him, up to two treats, and then when Loki seemed like he could go further, up to a third. "Good boy!"
At that point, Loki seemed to be satisfied. Aubrey wondered if it would be humanizing Loki too much to interpret this as the pup showing him that he could do anything that Lyra could. But just to reinforce what he had learned, Aubrey practiced it with him a couple more times before letting him go. By that point, Loki had worked off his... enthusiasm, or whatever it was, that had gotten him to rush up to Aubrey in the first place, and was ready to hand things off to Joker.
"Joker, heel," Aubrey said, holding the treat to his side the same way he had done for the first two pups. Joker, in turn, followed at his side with his nose toward the treat, and after a few steps, Aubrey fed the treat to him. "Good boy," Aubrey said. Immediately he launched into the trick again. "Joker, heel." He walked a few steps further, and Joker followed while sticking to his side, until he earned another treat and some praise.
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Post by Jack on Sept 7, 2020 19:10:12 GMT -6
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Post by Briar on Sept 7, 2020 19:19:12 GMT -6
Aubrey did the same thing with Joker that he had done for Lyra, lengthening the amount of time that Joker walked at his side before giving him the treat, and then, after Joker had completed the command a couple more times, leading him around past the first treat with a second, and then a third. Joker also had a brief moment of confusion at the second treat; evidently he hadn't been watching as closely as Loki had been. But it didn't take him long to figure it out either, so it wasn't a major setback.
After that point, Aubrey let him go, and called Lyra to him again. "Lyra, heel," he said, and had her walk at his side for a little while, giving her treats as she did. He lengthened the time that she was walking at his side with each repetition, but she had the general concept already, so she didn't have any difficulty with that. At this point he was just trying to get her used to it, before he tried anything trickier with her. By the time he let her go for this round though, he could sense that she was getting bored, and knew by the next time her turn came around that it would be time to kick things up a notch.
For the moment though, there was still Loki to contend with. He didn't have to be called this time; he simply inserted himself in Lyra's place as soon as she cleared off.
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