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Post by Malcolm on Nov 17, 2021 21:36:16 GMT -6
He didn't really want to go back to handling Cashew's paw too much for this, though in the end he was forced to do so at first, since it wasn't a movement that Cashew naturally performed.
Slowly, by incrementally changing what did and didn't get rewarded, Malcolm shaped the movement that Cashew did for the trick, until it began, finally, to resemble the side to side waving motion that people generally performed.
The process took several days, during which Malcolm began to seriously question his life choices. It wasn't that he spent all those days doing nothing but training Cashew, of course. Cashew didn't have the attention span, and Malcolm didn't have the hour by hour patience, to tolerate anything like that. But even so, the fact that it took so much effort to teach something that ought to have been so simple really made Malcolm wonder if it was even worth the trouble.
30
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Post by Malcolm on Nov 17, 2021 21:38:33 GMT -6
Eventually, however, the efforts paid off, and Cashew was able to do a little wave on command to Malcolm's satisfaction. With that accomplished, Malcolm sighed, and tried not to think about all the other things he still needed to teach Cashew before the creature would be even a little bit useful.
"What a troublesome thing you are," Malcolm said, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. Now that Cashew was no longer so uneasy around him, the little creature ran around to his heart's content on the occasions where Malcolm let him out of his enclosure for exercise. And Yoru had started acting up too, saying he wanted to pet Cashew and feed him treats.
But that wouldn't do. Cashew wasn't just a pet, he was an investment -- a tool, if only Malcolm could teach him the necessary skills. He wasn't going to lose sight of that goal, no matter how Yoru wheedled.
31 (exit)
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