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Post by Morgan on Dec 11, 2021 21:41:35 GMT -6
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Post by Morgan on Dec 14, 2021 22:29:30 GMT -6
  ( The RoT is unused, simply tied onto the Dragon Dummy)
The first thing that Morgan had decided to work with the malii on was a technique well suited for his unusually long tongue and propensity for filching things from around the house; something that Morgan hadn't seen many creatures do before. They wanted to teach him how to grab objects from enemies. They had a fairly good idea on how to get him to do it, as well.
[1] - [Start 'Snitch!'] |
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 20:40:22 GMT -6
In order to get Kaodie to do this properly, though, Morgan was going to have to take away his rainbow rope toy. Their plan was to start using playing with that toy as more of a treat, since he didn't have any petting-related drive towards learning, and food-related drives were often a little less easy to keep up with (especially in small critters, like Kaodie!). So toy-drive training it was. "C-come're, Kaodie." Morgan said to him, waving him over. He trots over, head dipping momentarily beneath the black tire-rubber seats of a playground swingset to get to where Morgan stood firmly in a large sand pit.
The bespectacled human reaches out to grab the toy and initiates a game of tug of war with him. After playing back and forth for a bit, Morgan is able to trick him into dropping the toy, and they quickly pocket it.
"Alright, now we start." They proclaim with an uncharacteristic brightness in their voice.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 20:55:40 GMT -6
Their eventual goal was to get Kaodie to steal other creature's items with his long sticky tongue upon a whistled command, but they knew that just starting out with a random whistled command would do nothing to get Kaodie to actually do the desired work. Instead, they took the toy that they had taken from Kaodie (feeling his blank-looking gaze on them as they took the toy over to the dummy they had set up in advance). They tied the toy loosely using twine to the dummy that they had borrowed- knowing that it would be easier to start with an object that the creature already knew and liked as opposed to a random object.
Morgan then points to the Rope toy and whistled the desired command first. Kaodie does want to please Morgan at this point, but he has no idea what the new whistled command was! He tilts his head, his ears flopping as they perked up slightly.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 21:09:49 GMT -6
Now that Morgan had brought attention to both theirself and the training by taking an item and using it in the context of the training that Kaodie was always focused on, and then brought attention to the existence of a new and as of yet unknown command- they wanted to clinch the initial introduction. They gave the command for him to use his sticky tongue to grab something, and they pointed at the tug of war rope. This was something that they had already worked on before, so long ago- so Kaodie already knew what This command meant. He ignored the other command for now, and wrapped his tongue around the much coveted rope toy. The malii attempted to drag the toy towards himself with his tongue, but he was met with a bit of resistance. He tugged at the toy by dragging his tongue closer to himself, but he couldn't quite get it to come off yet.
[4]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 21:20:54 GMT -6
This was part of the plan that Morgan had devised to teach this particular piece of technique- because it would not always be easy to steal items from other creatures; especially in danger when it counts. They wanted him to learn to grab the items at strategic locations, so that they would pull or rip off of possible foes more simply. Taking a simple item from an opponent could really disrupt an opponent's day; from taking an object back that a person or creature had stolen to taking a strategic Ribbon of Telepathy from an opponent could really save them some trouble. Morgan was convinced that they would need it at some point- and no one ever had problems from being a little over-prepared.
"You can get it, Kaodie- keep up!" Morgan calls out to him. Still, Kaodie couldn't quite get it... That was fine. This was a good time to start the process to go between mostly treat-based training towards toy-drive training.
[5]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 21:33:27 GMT -6
"You're doing good, K-Kaodie, good boyo." Morgan calls out to him. "Here, take a break." They say, tossing him a piece of smoked salmon jerky so that he would be momentarily distracted by it and take it instead. "G-good job." They said as he ate, more out of habit than anything else. As soon as he was done getting the piece of food, they caught his attention again without too much difficulty, and gave the command yet again- the one from before that was meant for the 'taking items away from the opponent' technique. Kaodie's ears perk up yet again, his general tell for not understanding a new command but acknowledging that it was heard.
At this, Morgan points to the rainbow rope toy yet again and gives him the whistled command to use his long tongue on it. Kaodie knew that command! He immediately snaked his long tongue out quite quickly to wrap it around the toy and give it a tug to try to remove it.
[6]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 21:46:31 GMT -6
"Keep it up! You can do it!" Morgan encourages, their voice quite a bit softer than one might expect. The area was nice and calm around them; a bird flock rises up and over the nearly leafless tree branches to take off for farther lands as the world cools. A few of them stop in the branches or peck at the ground for what seeds have been left over, since the day was an uncharacteristically warm one and they were able to take a moment to rest. It was a great day for training a companion animal, even this late into the year.
Kaodie pulls on the rainbow rope toy, and pulls on it. He knows from Morgan's tone about what they want from him; to keep on doing what he was doing. So he does- until finally... The twine holding the rope toy to the dummy unfurls finally, and the toy is relinquished to him.
[7]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 21:54:07 GMT -6
That was what Morgan had been hoping for! "You did great, g-good job!" Instead of grabbing a treat this time, Morgan moves quickly to get to the now-frolicking with excitement malii and they grab one side of the rope toy to initiate a game of tug-of-war. "R-real good job." They manage to get out, between tugs. Kaodie manages to win a couple of times, and then Morgan snatches the rope toy away from him and moves to tie it back to the dummy. Kaodie looks a little disappointed at first, but whenever Morgan gives him a treat they could practically see the gears going in his head as he realizes that the game was a treat for doing good; so all he had to do to get another game out of Morgan was to do the 'right' thing during the training.
They could tell that he had a lot of determination now to work.
[8]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 21:59:28 GMT -6
This time whenever Morgan gave the command that they had chosen for the new technique, Kaodie acted like he was starting to associate this command with the action a little more. He sticks his tongue out in what Morgan would consider a 'blep' for him; but it was definitely much further out than most creatures could have gotten. "Yes, that's it- go ahead-" Morgan tries to get him to continue doing that instead of hesitating. The strange malii is happy to be egged on, and this time whenever Morgan repeats the command whistle they had selected the malii reaches out his tongue and wraps it around the toy that Morgan is pointing at again.
"G-good job, Kaodie, keep it up!" Morgan allows a small grin to grace their features for the most fleeting of moments. Malii were fairly clever animals, and Kaodie was no exception! He was getting it rather quickly. Kaodie tries to remove the rope toy from the twine holding it onto the dummy again.
[9]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 22:04:02 GMT -6
This time, Kaodie finds a particular twisting motion that seems to work quite well. "G-good job boyo, keep it up!" Morgan says as Kaodie slowly unravels the twine-tied rope toy from the dummy again and draws it into his mouth. How could any animal owner not be pleased that a creature was beginning to get the training? It would still take more work, but they felt a little more laid back about the experience now. Once a creature began 'getting' it, there was only so much to be done, and it was much easier from that point on.
They played another game of tug-of-war with him, allowing him to win a couple more times before removing the object and setting it back up. They would need to repeat this as much as possible to make sure that it stuck before they began working on items that weren't the rope toy (and thus, he wouldn't have as much drive for right away, though as a malii he might connect it faster than most critters).
[10]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 22:29:19 GMT -6
They worked like this over the course of an hour with lots of repetition, as much as Morgan could get fit within the hour. This would be one of the most difficult things that they worked on this morning, so they wanted to get it right. Each time, they would use the command that they had chosen for this behavior and technique (they did not have to use the command for 'sticky tongue' in general as a crutch for this one any more at this point), and Kaodie would reach out with more and more confidence and finesse each time to grab the rainbow ribbon toy from the dummy. Whenever he was able to get it free (Which he got better at doing each time that he had tried- reducing the time that it took to work on the technique) Morgan would play a game of tug of war with him as a treat.
[11]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 23:35:29 GMT -6
After all of that work, Morgan finally decides to try to move him from using the rope (which he had a decently high drive for) to other items; including the pale blue RoT that they had procured a while back but had yet to use. They figured that this would be the most commonly seen item to filch, though perhaps they should also move him on to other shinies with time... This time whenever they took the rainbow rope toy away from him they held it in their hand instead. Kaodie tilts his head in confusion, his ears flopping. "Don't worry boyo..." Morgan said, surprised at their own softness. It was a momentary lapse in sense, they were sure of it.
They gave the whistled command that they'd chosen for the technique, and Kaodie looked a little confused. As soon as Morgan pointed at the RoT though, little Kaodie seemed to get it nearly instantly.
[12]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 23:52:55 GMT -6
Perhaps it was due to his being a malii (notoriously clever creatures, able to come up with their own tricks and such- one time Morgan caught him standing on top of the counter to get at his treats in the cabinet that he'd figured out how to open) or perhaps it was due to him being used to Morgan's mannerisms, but he seemed to catch on that it didn't really matter What the item looked like, more that Morgan was pointing to it. That was something that Morgan was going to have to work out of his system, but for now it was working and that was what mattered. It seemed a little more difficult for him to pull the RoT free, but he managed to grab it in such a way that it easily slid from the dummy's spine that it was loosely tied to. Morgan didn't want to damage the RoT, after all.
[13]
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Post by Morgan on Dec 15, 2021 23:57:49 GMT -6
"Good job boyo!" Morgan calls out to him, as they move towards him to collect the RoT. Whenever the malii acts like he was going to pull the item back for a game of tug of war, Morgan just ordered him to drop the item. Reluctantly, he does so. Then Morgan brings out the rainbow rope to play a proper game of tug of war, and it seems to click for the malii. This item was okay to play tug of war with, but the other items were not immediately 'okay' for tug of war. He learned things quickly, knowing that Morgan would ignore or discourage activities that weren't liked. He'd been around Morgan for a very long time at this point.
After the quick game of tug of war, Morgan re-tied the RoT to the Dummy and began to work with him using that for the next twenty minutes; less time this time because Kaodie was becoming quite good at it.
[14]
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