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Post by Morgan on Oct 23, 2020 21:23:40 GMT -6
Spook felt like it was his time to try to do what Morgan was asking for. The idea was to figure out what it was. After wagging his tail for a second, he moves his legs into the positions that must have sort of been the ones that Morgan had wanted him in. He figured that this was what the training was about. Morgan seems pleased, judging by their face, so Spook figures he must have done something right. Still, Morgan bends down and moves two of his legs slightly. He looks down at them, trying to memorize exactly that position. He wanted to do what his human wanted him to do- to figure out how to live the way he was supposed to. Of course he wasn't thinking about this THAT deeply, but he did want to do what he was supposed to.
Morgan gives him a treat, and lots of praise. Ah, so that was it!
[55]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 23, 2020 21:56:00 GMT -6
Morgan knew that they had to get it just perfect for shows. They were sure to spend as much time as possible working with him on it, while slowly moving him forward towards the inner gate of the mansion. Today- today was going to be the day that Morgan would try to spend some time in the mansion. Of course, they always told theirself that, but today, they were serious!
They would hold up the hand signal, and when Spook went into the position that they wanted- they would make any small changes that were needed, and then treat him. After a lot of repetition, Spook finally got into the position that Morgan wanted more and more often to the command until finally he wasn't making any kind of mistakes as they continued. Morgan was incredibly happy with the hard work they did over the course of thirty minutes- finally Morgan felt like he had gotten it, and they were to the inner gate of the mansion anyway.
[56] - [End of 'Stack']
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Post by Morgan on Oct 23, 2020 22:41:34 GMT -6
The next thing on the list was 'heel', and there was no better time than the present to work on it. Morgan bends down and clips a cheap leash to the puppy's cheap collar, and then stands straight up. This one would be relatively simple, they felt. They gave the houluh the command for 'heel' that they had chosen (a hand signal) first, and then immediately gave him the hand signal for 'follow'. The houluh may not have known what the first one meant, but he sure did know what the follow command meant! As Morgan began walking for the gate, the houluh kept up. Morgan always made sure to control the distance between them using the leash, to make sure that he was at Heel distance. Just before they got to the gate, Morgan stopped, and praised him. "G-good boyo, Spook!" They gave him a treat for his efforts.
[57] - [Start 'Heel']
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Post by Nadia on Oct 24, 2020 10:54:58 GMT -6
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Post by Morgan on Oct 25, 2020 14:44:47 GMT -6
Heel was one of those behaviors that while mildly useful, probably wasn't the most useful of skills. However, Morgan wanted to make sure that Spook had all of the basics down pat before moving on to anything strenuous. He was still a small puppy, after all- though he was growing quite quickly. Morgan made sure to continue to make sure he was walking at the correct distance whenever they started up again. Going through the inner gate of the mansion was always a little bit anxiety-inducing, but Morgan was confident this time. They opened the gate without difficulty and gave the hand signal for the 'heel' behavior. Little Spook did seem to immediately notice the hand signal, and he followed on the leash along with Morgan as the human kept the distance correctly for the heel behavior. They made it through the gate without any difficulty, and Morgan was pleased so far with how things were going.
[58]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 29, 2020 12:34:25 GMT -6
The pair continued working together. Spook was becoming quite responsive when it came to training. He was perhaps a bit more willowy than Morgan's other houluh, more willing to deal with changes or slight mistakes that Morgan made (though only slight at this point- Morgan was quite a decent trainer for most of the more basic critters at this point). Morgan would give the hand signal, and then the houluh would walk on the leash with them. They gave him a treat each time he did well, and soon enough Morgan graduated him from following their lead to having to figure out where the correct place to walk at Morgan's side was. They worked for quite a while on this as they explored around. Morgan found a few interesting items and little critters- but slowly Spook learned to walk at the correct heel distance to the command all his own as he was supposed to.
[59]
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Post by Morgan on Oct 29, 2020 14:44:09 GMT -6
Morgan was sure to give Spook lots of praise and a treat for his correct Heel. Now that he was walking at Heel as he was supposed to, Morgan knew that it was time to capitalize on the repetition aspect of the training session. However, it was getting late, and it was about time to head home. Morgan decided to have him walk at heel on the command out through the inner gate again and towards the outer gate. The sun was setting, and Morgan didn't really like the idea of being here at night with such a young puppy. "Good boyo, Spook!" Morgan said to him whenever they got to the inner gate. They gave him a treat for walking at heel like he was supposed to, and then continued on towards the outer gate. So far, so good, when it came to the mansion.
After they made it to the outer gate with Spook walking at hell on command perfectly, Morgan was sure that he had gotten it. They left for home after checking for anything to loot on the way out.
[60] - [End of 'Heel'] - [The pair goes home after checking for anything interesting.]
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Post by Nadia on Oct 30, 2020 15:25:52 GMT -6
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Post by Morgan on Nov 3, 2020 16:23:35 GMT -6
Morgan spent an inordinate amount of time doing things that later on they would look back upon and consider quite stupid. This was perhaps one of those moments. After what felt like an eternity of waiting for something that Morgan had not managed to maintain excitement for over anxiety's woes- a creature had been returned to them from an experimental Laboratory that managed to take organic beasts and turn them into something perhaps a little more botanical. Impi was the result of what was perhaps a rash decision- one that had finally come out right. The creature was still a royal pain in the ass, but she was now a lot less messy, and that meant a lot. Now, they were going to take her to the mansion grounds. They knew what month it was, and how stupid it was to bring a critter that had spent more time hiding out in Morgan's garden as a young filly than she actually had spent with Morgan at all. [1]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 3, 2020 16:24:11 GMT -6
It was difficult to feed her, at first. Finally, Morgan had opted to leaving her treats out, and putting up trail cameras to catch glimpses of her. She was a marvel and a half, really. If she had been a slightly weaker critter, Morgan perhaps could have managed with a decent familiar. She was a little too difficult to handle, as-is. The November mansion was a harsh thing, an ugly blight on the world. A little too 'perfect', a little too 'run down'... Somehow all at once. Morgan peers over the outer gate, eyes squinted behind glasses. Last year this had been a bit of a disaster- would it be a disaster too this year? Morgan had hoped to find some kind of a critter out here... Would it be possible to find one with Impi around? They had managed to capture her long enough to get her into a lead- so that she would have to follow. [2]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 3, 2020 16:26:38 GMT -6
Impi did manage to follow, but it was a partially back and forth seesaw of how she reacted with Morgan's attempt to bring her here. She would walk along semi-patiently, and then she would pull harshly in one direction, or toss her head and snort at another. She had been this way before Morgan had sent her off to be plantified, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. A mess, it was, to be sure- but certainly not unexpected. Not all plant creatures were docile, after all. Morgan had been sure to take her the 'back way', but she didn't seem entirely happy about being removed from her garden home again. It made sense. Morgan did not know how many homes the old equillion had been when she had been procured (before she was anti-growth potioned and then plantified) but she had obviously lived a full life and possibly been passed around quite a bit. [3]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 4, 2020 14:30:41 GMT -6
After the anti-growth potion had been administered, the older Equillion mare went from nervous and skittish (and cranky!) to something entirely different. It was an amazing transformation, she just seemed.... Happier. Playful, always hiding in the garden (only to pop out and perform some kind of annoying but usually not too painful 'trick')... It was honestly awesome. She was a great creature, but it was going to take a lot of work to get her more used to being around Morgan. The human looks over the too-perfectly manicured lawn, and then turns, sighing. It was time to get the little filly into the outer yard. "C-c'mon..." Morgan tries to coax. Impi snorts, her nostrils flaring, but Morgan manages to wrangle her through the outer gate. She tries to stiffen out her legs, but Morgan had dealt with several of Shy Guy's kids by this point, and they knew how to counteract this.
[4]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 4, 2020 14:41:02 GMT -6
The pair now took a trek across the outer yard. Morgan wasn't going to bother training Impi at the moment, they were going to make sure that they were inside of the mansion safely first. The last year had managed to make Morgan go over the events in their head several times over the year. They'd really, really messed up. Now with what they knew about the mansion itself, they felt like if they were a little more respectful, it may not go to hell in a handbasket nearly as fast. Of course, Impi herself was a bit of a liability. They fought a bit back and forth as they went across the yard, but thankfully Impi wasn't exactly all that strong, and she didn't seem to be thinking that she was in danger. She just really liked to be difficult, as far as Morgan could tell. The way across the eerily manicured outer lawn was overtaken quickly.
[5]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 4, 2020 15:18:25 GMT -6
The creepy part of the overly manicured lawn was that it was so perfectly flat and straight- but every now and again a single small strand would rise up above the grass. It looked incredibly purposeful. How could exactly one blade of grass survive such an obvious yard straight cut? They weren't even evenly spaced or anything- it just made Morgan feel incredibly uncomfortable whenever they took a look over the whole thing. If something was 'wrong' or 'off', they would normally look to their animal companion for help in making sure that it was an accurate deduction. However, Impi did not seem to be paying as much attention to their surroundings as Morgan would have hoped. They swallowed thickly, and doubled pace. The idea was to get to the inner gate quickly. With luck, they were able to get to the inner gate without any issues, and Morgan wanted to stop for a second to give their arms a rest.
[6]
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Post by Silver on Nov 7, 2020 6:20:09 GMT -6
Oh, those gloves are nice! Pristine condition, too.
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