Training Montage

Andi hadn’t had Wave for very long… but she could tell already that if she didn’t train this impup soon, she was going to be an absolute menace.

There were so many hints.  Well, calling them hints might be overstating the subtlety of the incidents.  Stealing dango directly from Kaili’s hooves as she dozed and turning herself cyan had been one such incident.  Luckily there was no harm to it, since she matched nicely with Kaili (who had taken it as a Sign Of Her Power), and now they knew her favorite food, but, still.  There had been the time she had gotten into Andi’s duffel bag for the gym and somehow shredded one of her sweat towels - and then taken a nap in it, to be discovered in the wrecked towel while at the gym itself…  There had been her launching herself at them in greeting and a near-miss at finding out what an Angora Sour and Salty Grog might do to an imp.

Yes, the new impup was a handful.

At least Andi remembered how Kaili had initially trained Adi, her phloof.  She didn’t need Wave to do anything complicated, at least, unlike Adi.  She just needed her to learn some words and then associate rewards to actions that followed those words.  Easy, right?

…yeah, not quite.

‘Stay’ was proving to be an impossible task.

Andi was almost at her wit’s end after nearly two hours.  She was almost desperate enough to try thinking, in spite of how uncomfortable it sounded - but she had to come up with a way to keep Wave from tackling them when they came into the house.  At a bare minimum.

Wave stared back at her as she held her, tail wagging happily.  She was bright and shining in her certainty that she was being the absolute best little imp, even if she was completely failing to do what Andi wanted.

Inspiration struck, fortunately, as Kaili walked into the room, yawning.

Wave attempted to leap to her, and Andi held her still.  “Stay!” she barked, before realizing.

Kaili stopped in her tracks too, brow knitting in confusion.

“Sorry, sorry, I’ve been trying to teach Wave-” Andi began.

Kaili got the picture quickly, seeing the disappointed looking impup trying in vain to wiggle out of Andi’s grip.  “Oooh, that makes sense,” she said.  She came over to give Wave a scritch.  “You look tired.  Maybe delivery tonight?”  Andi didn’t usually ever seem tired, with a bouncy energy at almost all times.  Still, if she had been trying to train Wave…

“Delivery sounds good, yeah,” Andi said.  She shifted her grip on Wave to one hand, going to stand next to her laptop, open on the kitchen counter.  Accessing an often used tab, she quickly ran through the process of ordering from one of their favorite places.  “All ordered.  Though… if you can stand to do it, would you mind walking in and out of the room a few times?  Maybe Wave will get the idea that way better than what I was trying, since I’ll be holding her…”

Kaili didn’t like the thought of the extra work… but it would be nice to know she wasn’t going to have an imp trying to take a bath in her drinks when they came home from the Rabbit Hole.  “I can do it a few times, and maybe more if it seems to start working?” she said, after a moment.

“Thank you,” Andi said, relief evident.

It took about four more times for Wave to stop struggling against Andi’s hands and gloomily sit there, which was enough for Kaili to be willing to try more.

They got their first live test around the twelfth try - when the delivery bun knocked on the door.

“Stay!” Andi reiterated, anxious as she didn’t wrap her hands around Wave.  What if she did make a break this time…

Kaili grabbed the door, glancing over her shoulder to see Wave sitting still in Andi’s open hands.  She looked as though she desperately wanted to launch herself at the door… but she managed to refrain, even when Kaili opened it, even with the smell of the food.  (She did whine though, and even the delivery bun giggled at that).

When the door was closed and the food safely on the table - and Wave ensconced in her kennel to sulk - Kaili wrapped her arms around Andi and gave her a kiss.  “You did it,” she said.  “I knew you could, my loyalest servant.”

Andi had wrapped her arms around Kaili in turn, and she lifted her and spun her (slowly) in a circle.  “I couldn’t have done it without you, my dark savior,” she said, setting her back down and kissing her once more.

Wave’s bark stopped the moment, and made them laugh, especially once Kaili noticed Adi hovering over Andi’s head.  “Indeed,” she proclaimed, dramatic as she could.  “Let’s eat now.  Maybe tomorrow you can get some of your coworkers to help with the stay?  If she’s at all like Adi, once she’s figured out one command, she’ll get faster when you do others.”

“I don’t think she’s like Adi on most things, but I really hope she’ll take after her on that.”

Adi swished her tail, almost smugly, floating to Kaili’s shoulder as the couple moved to the table, and that smugness did not abate - though it would lessen in a few weeks, when Kaili proved right and Wave had successfully learned the basics of manners at last.