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Post by Morgan on Oct 13, 2020 14:46:00 GMT -6
He was very cute. With his little pink tongue hanging out, he looked like a little bedsheet ghost. Thus the name, of course. "Good boyo, so q-cute." They said, smiling at him. They gave him another treat. It was going to take a few more repetitions, but they were sure that they could build on this over the rest of the training they had planned for today. Somewhere beyond them, the dead wood branch of a tree creaked. They weren't entirely sure how close it was, but it sent shivers down their spine.
The puppy raises his ears slightly, listening, but before long they were back to working on training him his name again. "Spook!" They called. The puppy seemed to be getting it very quickly after the next ten minutes worth of tries, earning his tiny puppy treats for each of the times he looked at Morgan. Soon enough, Morgan was sure that they could move on to the next thing on the list.
[15] - [End of 'Name']
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Post by Nadia on Oct 14, 2020 1:47:23 GMT -6
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 10:50:42 GMT -6
The next thing that Morgan planned on working on was the 'come here' command. The human was planning on using a whistled command for it, so they went ahead and pulled the warmed metal of the whistle from beneath their shirt. It was gonna be very cold by the time it was time to hide it again... Morgan winced just thinking about that. "Okay Spook..." They murmured, before putting the whistle to their lips. They stood up, walked two steps away (due to how small the little puppy was) and then whistled, holding out a treat in their hand. The whistle was obviously not something that the puppy had ever heard before- he lifts his ears up slightly again, and looks a little surprised. Morgan uses the command again, and emphasizes the treat in their fingers by waving it up and down. This time, the houluh notices the treat.
[16] - [Start 'Come']
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 10:59:22 GMT -6
Even though the puppy did realize that the treat was there, it still took him a moment or two to figure out that he could actually... Go get it. It didn't seem to be an immediate thing at all. Soon enough, with coaxing and another whistled command, the puppy finally seems to put two and two together, or at least figure out that the treat was for him. He pushes his way across the crunchy grass, and towards where Morgan held the treat between thumb and forefinger on one hand. The tiny puppy-sized treat was the perfect size for little Spook. The creature came to Morgan, and then sniffed at the treat. The human relinquished it to him, and he snaps it up, nearly dropping it and having to pick it back up from the air in the process. Morgan couldn't help but chuckle at him. He was such a small puppy!
[17]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 11:07:33 GMT -6
Morgan waits until he was done with the little puppy treat, and then backs up again another two steps, towards the inner grounds of the mansion. The idea would be to eventually get there, and really, Morgan just wanted to be able to explore the spooky mansion this month. The puppy was so small though, Morgan was sure that soon enough they would have to carry it. "G-good boyo, little one." Morgan says to him. Then, they bring the whistle to their lips again to whistle the command for him to come, holding yet another treat in their fingers. The puppy's eyes focus on the treat, and he bumbles his way over, tail loosely wagging, excitedly. He was so adorable! Once he got to Morgan's feet, they quickly gave him another treat. "Good boyo!" They said again, this time giving him an ear scritch. The white puppy loved that!
[18]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 11:13:46 GMT -6
Morgan was always amazed at how quickly houluh picked up things. Sure, at this point they'd come to the conclusion that the critters had been designed with this in mind. Their entire breeding system was based around it, in fact. They were very... Loyal. Morgan couldn't help but smile, thinking about Nico. It was hard not to think about Nico when it came to working with the other houluh. The human backs up a few more steps, brings the whistle back to their lips, and whistles again. The little puppy was savvy, at this point, as to what was going on. He moves on over with a bit more purpose, nosing the treat in Morgan's hand. "You're g-getting good at this, huh? L-looks like we need to switch it up a bit." Morgan mumbled, scritching him behind his ears. "Such a good o-one, yes." They patted his back, and stood back up.
[19]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 11:18:55 GMT -6
This time, Morgan did not show him the treat. It did give Spook pause, but only for a breath of a second before he trotted over (stumbling over his own too-big paws) and then he looked at Morgan expectantly. "G-good job, boyo!" Morgan said to him, leaning down to give him another treat. "Such a good." They said. Of course that wasn't really even a whole sentence, it was just something that they said sometimes when petting their animals. Slightly embarrassed now that they had noticed it, the human pats him on the head, and stands up.
From there on out, it is only repetition. Morgan used the whistled command after backing up, and then gave the puppy a treat whenever he came on command. Nothing was fooling the puppy by the end of the lesson, so Morgan was convinced that he had learned to come on command.
[20] - [End of 'Come']
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 11:25:33 GMT -6
Morgan usually worked on 'follow' next, but they figured that teaching 'stay' first would be more prudent in this situation. Morgan always used a hand signal for stay, since it generally was not a trick that would need to be used at a long distance. "Alrighty Spook, t-time for you to learn something new." They said. They walked away, and held up their hand in a 'stop' signal. The puppy didn't seem to notice it, and seemed to be waiting on a whistled command. After a moment, when no whistled command came, he sort of half inched forward, and Morgan shook their head, moving over to him and putting him back in place. They held up their hand, this time closer to his face, in the stop signal. Then, they backed up again. The puppy shivered a bit, not quite understanding what was going on yet. He stayed in place, though, unsure.
[21] - [Start of 'Stay']
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 11:41:13 GMT -6
Staying in place, even if it was because the critter wasn't sure what was going on, was exactly what Morgan was wanting with this lesson! The human walked over to him, lips split into a grin, and gave him a treat. "Good b-boyo, good stay." They said to him, giving him a pat on the back for the trouble. The puppy was excited to get a treat, but obviously a little confused. Morgan was sure that he would eventually get it, but it was going to take a little bit of work to get him to understanding. The bespectacled human backed up a pace or so after giving the 'stop' hand signal, and this time, they did note that the puppy noticed the hand signal. Perhaps that was the true talent of the houluh- picking up on their human's patterns quickly. The houluh wagged his tail, and watched Morgan's face as he lifted up a paw.
[22]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 11:51:49 GMT -6
The houluh must have noticed that Morgan's smile slipped from their face whenever he lifted a paw, so he puts it back on the ground and stays. It would seem that this was all the experimentation that he needed to get the first conscious 'stay' command done. Morgan let him stay for a moment, and then grinned again. "Good boyo, Spook!" They said, quickly grabbing a treat from their pocket and walking over to him to give it to him. They gave him the treat after squatting down, and then patted him on the back. "Good boyo." They repeated again. They knew that they would need to walk him through this a few more times before continuing on, they weren't quite done yet.
After the houluh was done with his treat, Morgan used the stop hand signal again, and then backed up a few more paces than they had before.
[23]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 12:06:29 GMT -6
Sometimes, when Morgan taught this specific thing to their pets, they got really anxious about Morgan being further away from them than they had gotten used to at this point while out and about. This time, though, that did not happen. The houluh simply kept his chocolate-colored gaze on Morgan, despite the somewhat large distance for him. He stayed right in place, though his tail was thumping against the crispy autumn grass. "Good job, boyo!" Morgan called out to him, and then asked him to come to them using the command from earlier. He moved forward until he was at Morgan's feet, and the human quickly gives him a treat, and then pets him on the back. "You did really good, Spook." They said to him. The puppy finishes his treat, and then looks up at Morgan, as if expecting to continue with the lesson. Houluh could be so smart!
[24]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 12:13:23 GMT -6
Morgan was always impressed with houluh when they acted like this. They worked for a while with the houluh some more, alternating between calling his name, asking him to stay using the hand signal, and then using the whistled signal to get him to come to them. They wanted to make sure that all the training would stick (though they really wouldn't know for sure for a few weeks, as always, since critters sometimes forgot things) and they also wanted to make sure that he got the understanding as well that commands could come in all kinds of forms. Soon enough, the houluh was staying like he was supposed to, without any hesitation. Of course, it was a really easy thing to teach, so it wasn't a huge win. However, it would help as they built on it more in the future.
The human had almost forgotten how cold it was out.
[25] - [End of 'Stay']
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 12:23:53 GMT -6
Now that Morgan was convinced that the houluh had gotten 'stay' down pat, it was time to teach him to follow on command. They figured that once they got these things done, that he would be ready to do some of the ever so slightly more difficult things that they had planned (heel was one of them, they hoped to use that to get more control over him before he grew up and started to get more rowdy, since that tended to happen whenever houluh hit their juvenile months). They used another hand signal this time, a little concerned that maybe the houluh wouldn't immediately realize that it was a new command from stay.
However, it did seem that the houluh understood, seeing as he looked directly at the hands this time, more specifically, and then tilted his head, as if trying to get a better look at Morgan, or ask what was going on.
[26] - [Start 'Follow']
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 13:07:46 GMT -6
Morgan tried to coax him along. They did the hand signal again, and then held a treat in their hand. They made sure that he could see the treat easily enough, and then began walking away. Spook steps forward two steps, nervously, watching the treat. He wasn't entirely sure if he was doing properly. The other hand signal had meant to stay, but this one was different, right? Usually when Morgan held a treat, that meant to come to them. So he decides to do that, following after Morgan to get the treat that was being held out where he could see it. After a few steps, the human glances over their shoulder to look at him and see if he was indeed following like he was supposed to be. When they noticed that he was, they where sure to stop and give him the treat, letting him catch up. "Good boyo!"
[27]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 15, 2020 13:58:11 GMT -6
The treat was gobbled up pretty quickly while Morgan gave the critter lots of praise for his trouble. It was always important to use positive reinforcement when working with just about any being, and this was no different. Creatures always responded to positive reinforcement much better than negative reinforcement, and so did people. By this point, Morgan was a fairly okay trainer (in their mind at least) so they knew to praise the pup each time he did what he was supposed to. As soon as Spook was done with his treat, Morgan gave the hand signal again (and made sure that he had seen it) and walked off, holding another treat behind them. This time, Spook was pretty sure what he was supposed to do, and he came toddling after the hand with the treat in it. He followed Morgan for a few paces before the human stopped, and gave him a treat and praise again.
[28]
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