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Post by Kadin on Feb 9, 2021 9:22:26 GMT -6
But they were good boys and they were doing their best, so they tried not to do those things so Kadin would keep giving them treats. They didn’t even seem to notice when the treats weren’t there anymore. And when Kadin finally called for a break, they were even disappointed. They liked getting treats!
Now he wanted to test their recall when they didn’t think they were doing anything important. He let them wander around, watching them quietly as they played in the river and the sand. Then, all of a sudden, “Skip, Come! Elk, Come!” Kadin called out, watching as they lifted their heads from whatever they were doing to stare at him. Kadin stared back and then made the same gesture he’d been making before, trying to tempt them over to him. “Come!” It took a moment or two of thinking about it, but eventually both houluh seemed to decide at the same time to charge over. “Good! Good Skip, Good Elk!” He said, pleased, and gave them both their treats.
They were surprised when they heard the human calling to them when they were supposed to be on break. Skip stared at Kadin for a bit, then over to Elk.
Come: 5
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Post by Kadin on Feb 9, 2021 9:24:10 GMT -6
Elk was unsure, too, but he started slowly walking towards the human. Skip couldn’t let him show him up! He broke off into a mad dash, Elk running practically at the same time as him, both of them racing over at the chance of getting treats again!
Kadin let them go back to wandering around and, every couple minutes or so, called them back over to him with a “come” to polish up their recall a bit more. He gave them more treats and praise for coming over faster and they quickly caught on, often racing each other to try to get to him first. He kept this up until he was confident in their recall and figured that they'd come to him whether he had treats visible or not at this point. Still, he kept repeating for a while longer until he was completely satisfied.
Both Elk and Skip were big fans of this whole game, of course. It got them a LOT of treats and all they had to do was go over to Kadin, who they liked, anyway. Especially since he kept giving them treats! Really this was just a great deal on all fronts. They really enjoyed the practice! And treats!
Come: 6
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Post by Jack on Feb 9, 2021 9:31:03 GMT -6
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Post by Kadin on Mar 3, 2021 7:53:58 GMT -6
Kadin figured that the next thing he should teach Skip was how to calm the fuck down. The pup seemed to have some anxiety issues, which wasn’t exactly surprising. Especially considering how long he’d been at the adoption agency before Kadin had a chance to come get him. So Kadin let Elk go off an explore on his own for a bit while he concentrated on Skip instead. Not that he was picking favorites, of course, but he wanted to make sure that Skip had all of the attention he needed. Elk was so excited to wander around and have some fun! He’d learned so many things and got so many treats, but Kadin was going to focus on Skip now. He was a bit sad about that and a bit jealous, but he was sure that he’d get attention later! Kadin was good about that and made sure that they both got attention sometimes, even if one of them was the focus at one time. The first step was that Kadin wanted Skip to be able to relax when it was just the two of them and nothing exciting was happening. That might be a bit of a trick, considering Skip.
At Ease: 1
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Post by Kadin on Mar 3, 2021 7:54:30 GMT -6
He called Skip over and pulled him into his lap, petting his sides slowly and saying, “Easy, Skip. Easy.” Skip, of course, was overjoyed by all of the attention! He flopped across Kadin’s legs, wagging his tail, and tried to partially roll over onto his belly. Kadin laughed a bit at that and pet his belly for him, but he refused to scratch him quickly or get him too worked up. He wanted to use nice, easy motions that Skip could relax into. Elk decided that the first thing he wanted to do was go off and find something! He sniffed around on the ground, curious what he might be able to find. There were plenty of fish around here and birds so maybe he could go chase them! He looked to see if he could find anything interesting, but honestly there wasn’t much around right away. “Easy, Skip.” Of course, it wasn’t that easy to get Skip to relax! The houluh seemed all over the place, rolling this way and that, all the while on top of Kadin and demanding pets on different parts of his body. He really was a little diva whenever he was given the opportunity!
At Ease: 2
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Post by Jack on Mar 3, 2021 7:57:45 GMT -6
What a cute little fish!
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Post by Kadin on Mar 3, 2021 8:25:20 GMT -6
Kadin refused to be dragged in to the high energy of it all. They’d been training all day long and even Kadin was a little tired. He wasn’t even the one who’d been pulling around a buggy! He was sure that if he waited long enough that Skip would eventually relax into the petting. He just needed to be patient and pet him nice and slowly, not getting drawn in to Skip’s demands for attention. He kept petting him nice and slowly, telling him, “Easy. Easy, Skip.” Elk whined to himself, wishing that there was more to do! Oh, wait! Kadin had toys! Elk trotted over to where there were toys and nosed around, looking for something to play with while he waited. He was a good boy and good at waiting! But it would be more fun with a toy to play with if Kadin wasn’t going to be paying attention to him while he was working with Skip. Eventually, Kadin turned out to be right. Skip wasn’t willing to calm down at first, but after a while of patience, he eventually sighed and started to relax in Kadin’s legs. That was a LOT better.
At Ease: 3
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Post by Kadin on Mar 3, 2021 8:27:55 GMT -6
“Good boy, Skip.” Kadin praised, but nice and calm, without too much excitement in his voice. He offered Skip a treat right in front of his nose and Skip accepted it with a thump of his tail. “Easy. Good boy!” Kadin continued to praise. He kept petting Skip nice and slowly, basically giving him a massage while he relaxed into his legs. He could feel Skip going practically boneless as he allowed himself to relax into being petting. All the while Kadin was murmuring reassuring words, telling him to take it easy and calm down. Alright. They were finally making some progress. Elk grabbed a toy he could find, which happened to be a squeaky ball, and started to run around like mad, squeaking the toy up and down the beach. This was so much fun! He loved balls! He love squeaky toys! He considered bringing it over to Kadin to play with, but Kadin was still busy, so he was going to be a good boy and stay away from now. After sitting with Skip relaxed and falling asleep, Kadin decided that they’d need to step it up a bit to make sure that Skip understood he could relax.
At Ease: 4
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Post by Kadin on Mar 3, 2021 8:28:15 GMT -6
He let Skip nap on him for a bit, but once the houluh showed signs of stirring, Kading gently extracted himself and stood up. He walked over to be near the water and beckoned for Skip to join him, which he did with enthusiasm. This time, he pet him nice and slowly while he was sitting next to him, not completely on top of him. He also did it by the water, where fish were swimming, birds were hunting, and all sorts of other small signs of activity flourished. Instead, Elk brought his ball over to the water and started squeaking it for the fishes! He even dropped his ball in the water to watch the water try to take it away! With a delighted bark, Elk chased after it while the current tried to bring it downstream. It wouldn’t be able to get away from him! He quickly snatched the ball once it got close enough to the bank to grab again, then he charged back the way he came to do it all over again! Skip’s attention was everywhere. Kadin told him to stay near him, however, so he wouldn’t go running off. Not like Elk was.
At Ease: 5
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Post by Kadin on Mar 3, 2021 8:31:18 GMT -6
He also kept petting Skip again, telling him to go “Easy, Skip,” in the same soothing tone of voice he’d used before. Skip clearly wanted to go running off, but Kadin kept him firmly in place with stay. With a whine, Skip shifted where he was and looked over at Kadin. “Easy, Skip.” Kadin kept repeating. Eventually, Skip huffed and laid his head down on his paws, still looking out at everything happening with longing in his eyes. While he was running back and forth like a crazy dog, Elk noticed out of the corner of his eye that something was moving in the water. He quickly dropped the ball and raced over to the water, barking like mad at the fish he saw there. Hello fish! He wanted it to be his friend, but it was in the water and he was on land, so it was hard to get to it. Maybe he could try and swim for it? Kadin just waited. It took a while, especially with so much to capture his attention, but eventually Skip’s attention started to drift. They were slowly getting there, even if it was going to take a while, and Kadin wouldn't give up.
At Ease: 6
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Post by Kadin on Mar 3, 2021 8:31:42 GMT -6
He rolled onto his side a bit, tail thumping as Kadin pet his belly. “Good, Skip. Good boy. Easy.” Kadin encouraged, calming feeling him a treat again for relaxing enough to show one of his most vulnerable areas. Kadin kept sitting with Skip, praising him for being calm even when there was so much around to distract him, until Skip was entirely relaxed yet again, eyes dropping, but tail still thumping on the ground. Kadin was sure to give him plenty of praise, treats, and pets (calmly, of course), to encourage this behavior. But Elk didn’t want to worry Kadin too much by jumping into the water. Instead he stayed on the bank like a good boy and madly barked at the fish as if the fish would actually do something and interact with him while he was barking at it. As if. The fish flicked its fins and just stayed in the water, not concerned about a puppy who only stayed on the bank anyway. Elk was mad with frustration! Next up was more of a challenge. Kadin needed to make sure that Skip could be calm when around other pets that he didn’t know or even people.
At Ease: 7
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Post by Jack on Mar 3, 2021 18:12:15 GMT -6
That's a really pretty flower you've found
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Post by Kadin on Mar 5, 2021 7:45:19 GMT -6
Luckily? Puppies were kinda stupid. Kadin could have a fake person, like a dummy, and Skip would think it was a real person. He could also use something like the estharne plushie from before and, once again, Skip would think it was real. He decided to bring each one out, one at a time, to work on Skip with so he could make sure to polish up this behavior before they moved on to the next one.
Elk wanted to chase down that fish for trying to swim away from him! He barked and barked and barked at it, but there really wasn’t anything for it. The fish had already swam away at this point and he was left, on the bank, with nothing to show for it. Elk huffed about that and trotted away, deciding that he was clearly going to do something else.
The first one he wanted to work on was the person since he figured that Skip would have an easier time with that one. Kadin set it up to look like it was sitting in a chair with its back towards them so that it was even harder to tell that it wasn’t a real person.
At East: 8
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Post by Kadin on Mar 5, 2021 7:45:50 GMT -6
Kadin had Skip come with him and stand about fifty feet away from the ‘person’. Skip didn’t seem too worked up about it, but he kept looking over at the ‘person’ to see if they were going to do anything. Kadin sat calmly next to Skip, telling him to stay “easy” and petting him calmly whenever he seemed like he was getting a bit worked up. Eventually, Skip seemed to calm down and enter the same state of relaxation as he was in before. At least he wasn’t looking at the ‘person’ anymore.
He looked over to see what Kadin and Skip were doing and noticed that they were going to say hi to a person! That looked like a lot of fun but they looked too busy to play with him so he didn’t bother them for now. Instead he sat and watched for a while, head tilted, wondering when he’d get to learn the same thing! He wanted to get attention, damn it! It was his right as a cute puppy to get attention
Kadin repeated the same process by getting a bit closer (around 10 feet each time) and trying to get Skip to stay ‘easy’.
At least: 9
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Post by Kadin on Mar 5, 2021 7:47:00 GMT -6
Still, Elk stayed away like a good boy and tried not to interrupt. Even if he really wanted to get some attention too.
Every time they got closer, Skip was more and more interested in the ‘person’, but he also got better at relaxing into it. Kadin didn’t really want him to be sleepy, even if he was at ease, so he was fine and praised Skip as long as Skip seemed calm and not interested in the ‘person’ that was nearby in a way that was making him more anxious. Honestly he’d even be ok if Skip was interested in them in a friendly, but very calm way! But right now they were just working on Skip being calm, period, so he was going to take what he could get so far. They continued the same condition training, getting closer and closer, until Kadin was able to get Skip right behind the chair and still get him into a calm state of mind. They stayed there for a while, just being calm and enjoying the beautiful day. Kadin even had Skip walk around the chair a little bit and allowed him to sniff at the ‘person’s’ knee.
At East: 10
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