[Gift] Training montage: Prompt

“Hey Eden, do you think it’s a good idea to teach Ebi more tricks?” The sudden question made Eden slide off his sunglasses and raise his eyebrows, turning to look at his boss and close friend staring up towards the sky and not even glancing in his direction, like they asked it impulsively. The blonde bun sighed as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, letting crumbs from his recently finished burger tumble off his chest and onto the ground, the end of his tail twitching slightly as he did so. “Why the sudden question, Mckenna? You’ve seen Ebi on the obstacle course, he was close behind Everett-”

“Yeah, but…” Mckenna slid off the chair they were sprawled on, stretching their fluffy little body as they set the plate that was once on their belly onto the nearby table. Their veggie burger was long gone now, with the only signs of it ever existing being the crumbs. “I felt that, if anything, the race showed me that I could do more things with Ebi, like teaching him some tricks! Hutch’s Impups are so well-behaved and disciplined, have you ever seen them in action? They are amazing.” They said, tapping their paw against their thigh. “Of course, I find no need for Ebi to learn how to jump through hoops, but maybe I could teach him a trick that would be useful for me? Something like fetch?”

“Ebi does not know how to fetch yet?” Eden responded in bewilderment as he stood up from his seat, a look of doubt on his usually stern features. He stuffed his paws into his jacket’s pockets once the two left to search for Ebi, Mckenna’s Impup, with an unspoken agreement to deal with the dirty dishes later. “Well, Ebi has a knack for fetching the wrong things.” Mckenna explained, as they headed towards the farmhouse to grab more of the imp treats they baked in the morning. “That one time I tried showing Devona that Ebi could fetch, but instead of fetching the stick that I threw, he fetched Dusty by the tail.” The brown bun covered their face and whined into their hooves, telling Eden this story was rather embarrassing. “That poor Phloof has been traumatized, and that’s probably why Devona never brings her imps to the farm on apple-picking days anymore.”

The story only earned Mckenna a pat on the back when they finally arrived at the back door to the farmhouse. “If you want, I can help you with training Ebi.” Eden offered, shrugging lazily as he watched Mckenna push the door open and walk into the kitchen. He peeked in and lazily kicked his hoof about until the other bun came back with the treat jar. After having used most of the treats on teaching both Everett and Ebi how to run the obstacle course that the duo had set up near the orchard, Mckenna hoped that Ebi would still be keen on learning new tricks using some good old positive reinforcement.

Voicing their concerns to Eden as they stepped out onto the porch, Mckenna’s doubts quickly disappeared - upon opening the jar, it was like the Impup was summoned to their location. The sudden entrance of Ebi coupled with excited yips made Mckenna let out a startled gasp and shove the jar into Eden’s arms. He just huffed, amused by Mckenna’s reaction and holding the treat jar above his head. Ebi’s eyes were focused on the treats instead of their owner, pawing at Eden’s legs as he tried to reach the treats held by the blonde bun, who stood his ground firmly like an immovable boulder.

“Ebi, no.” He said sternly, watching the impup back away under his strict gaze, whining sadly. Meanwhile, Mckenna stood up and looked at Eden, amazed. “I never get why he listens to you but not me.” They pouted, only earning a sigh and a head shake from Eden in response. They soon tended to their Impup, leading both him and Eden to an empty patch of grass away from the house.

“Reinforcement is important to help, for lack of a better word, condition your Impup to pick up a trick.” Eden explained and Mckenna listened, nodding intently. “What you want to do is to reward correct behavior, but also not to punish Ebi when he gets it wrong. There is always a misconception that doing something to punish the imp would make them realize they did something wrong, when that only confuses them. Imps don’t have the same cognition as we do and do not understand punishment.” Eden rambled, huffing in annoyance at the thought of bad imp training and shaking his head disapprovingly. “The last thing you want to do is to instill fear in your imp when trying to train him, punishment might lead to aversion. I noticed that Ebi is rather food-motivated, so the same tricks I used on Everett might work on him, too. Here, let me demonstrate.” The blonde bun looked expectantly towards their boss, now seated on the soft grass and hugging their tail to their chest. Even though Mckenna’s fur obscured their eyes, Eden could tell they were gazing at him with wonder. 

Setting the lid aside and picking out a treat, Eden waved it around to get Ebi’s attention. “Up!” He commanded, watching Ebi get onto his paws and bow, wiggling his body and wagging his tail in anticipation. It was as if he was expecting Eden to drop it for him now that he obeyed a command, only to look back at him, then at Mckenna, puzzled. While Ebi was trying to compute, Eden picked up a stray stick from the ground and whistled to get the Impup’s attention. Ebi’s ears perked up as he turned to the bun again.

“Ebi,” Eden said slowly, waving the stick in the air to make sure that Ebi was focusing his gaze on it and not the jar. He only continued to speak once the Impup was fixated on the movement of the stick. “I want you to fetch this stick.” He said, heavily emphasizing the last three words, before throwing the stick in the opposite direction. The two buns then watched Ebi run after the stick and retrieve it without issue. “Good job, boy.” Eden nodded in approval, petting the Impup on the head before taking the stick and something else from the ground: Ebi’s favorite tennis ball that Eden had almost tripped on earlier when he went to the farmhouse to retrieve more popsicles. He was already considering asking for another one from Mckenna after he successfully helped them train their Impup to fetch.

“This is the more advanced part of the trick.” Eden started, looking in his friend’s direction to see if Mckenna was watching before he first tossed the tennis ball, earning a curious yip from Ebi. Eden repeated both his command and his action like before, and the two buns once again watched as Ebi raced to retrieve the stick. However, seeing the ball closer to him distracted the Impup, causing him to pick that up instead and run back. “You see, that’s his problem.” Mckenna commented as they stood up from the grass, walking over to Eden who picked the ball from Ebi’s mouth. “He can’t seem to get the right object if something else distracts him.” The brown bun lamented as Ebi sat down, wagging his tail and pawing at Eden like he was expecting to be given a treat.

“Ebi, this is not the right object.” Eden said and bent down to talk to the Impup, shaking his head before gesturing towards the stick again. He only received a confused yip from Ebi. “Fetch the stick, then you’ll get the treat.” He added matter-of-factly, waving the treat. The Impup sprung back onto his legs, following the direction in which Eden was pointing. It was almost as if the realization finally hit Ebi; he let out a series of barks as he bounded towards the stick, picked it up, and triumphantly brought it back to the bun. “Good job Ebi, you’ve earned it.” Eden praised, bending down to rub the top of the Impup’s head before handing the treat over. Only then did he finally look towards Mckenna, who was now clapping their paws, their jaw hanging wide open.

“That was amazing, Eden!” Mckenna exclaimed. Eden only smirked slightly at the praise and handed one of the treats over to them, opting to hold the jar behind himself just so that Ebi would not get distracted by it. “I’ll… safeguard these for you.” He said while showing the jar to Mckenna, who nodded in agreement. Eden placed his coat over the jar and hid the bundle behind his ears, earning a surprised bark from Ebi. To an Impup who didn’t understand object permanence, Eden making the jar of treats disappear was akin to a horrible magic trick. He whined in disbelief until his owner’s whistling caught his attention again.

“Ebi, I still have one here! Look over here, boy!” Mckenna called out, waving the treat in the air to get Ebi’s attention. His sad whines changed into happy barks and he ran towards them, circling them and hopping in an attempt to snatch the treat. “Stand your ground!” Eden called with his hooves cupped around his mouth, now sitting in the same spot that Mckenna was in earlier. They nodded before turning to their excitable Impup, and put their paw on his head before continuing to speak. This seemed to have calmed Ebi down; he stopped jumping up on them, now sitting on his hind legs with his paws in the air, doing a little ‘begging’ motion instead. He hoped that would convince Mckenna to give him the treat, much to the buns’ amusement.

Looking back at Eden and waiting for him to nod back, they leaned down to pick up the ball and the stick. They would toss the tennis ball before waving the stick in front of Ebi’s face, only continuing to talk when his attention was on the stick. “Ebi, I want you to fetch the stick.” They said, not only mindful of speaking slowly, but also carefully emphasizing what they wished for Ebi to retrieve. They repeated the word ‘stick’ a few more times to form an association between them before they tossed it in the same direction as the ball, letting Ebi run after it. Eden decided to stand back up at this point to get a better look, peeking at the imp from beside Mckenna.

The little impup ran after the stick, only stopping once he was right in front of the ball. He sniffed the ball then scooped it up in his maw, before turning to face his owner to try and judge their reaction. “Ebi, the stick, not the ball!” Mckenna called out to him, shaking their head and repeating the word ‘stick’. It was as if a lightbulb lit up over Ebi’s head: he instantly dropped the ball on the ground and looked over to find where the stick was located. When he finally found it, he let out a triumphant sounding bark and picked it up. “Yes, Ebi!! That’s right, that’s the stick!” Mckenna clapped happily as the Impup hurried back over with the stick, wagging his tail happily when he dropped it right in front of his owner’s hooves. Afterwards, he sat back down in the grass and started begging for his treat again. “You deserve it, Ebi!” Mckenna cheered, patting Ebi on the head before handing over the treat, which he devoured in one big bite.

“On your first try, too. Good job, Mckenna.” Eden nodded approvingly as he approached the two. “Thank you, Eden, your advice was helpful. I don’t think Ebi would have learned as quickly if it weren’t for you.” The brown bun said, peering over their shoulder to look at him. Mckenna was now grinning and continued to mess with their Impup by giving him encouraging head rubs. Eden stood there silent for a bit and stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t say that he has fully learned the trick yet, but this is a start. He still relies on you to make sure he picks up the right thing, but we can work on forming the association next. That way he won’t need you to assure him.” Eden said with a small huff, now looking at Mckenna expectantly as well. “Now that we have gotten somewhere, let’s head back to get some popsicles. The weather is killing me.” He groaned before they slowly headed to the farmhouse. “Don’t worry, just give it some time, and Ebi will surely pick up the trick.”

(A week later)

“I think Ebi has gotten the trick down!” Mckenna spoke as both themself and Eden were once again tending to the apple trees in the orchard, watering the new saplings at the outer edge with Eden standing nearby leaning on the shovel. “I agree, Ebi seems pretty proficient with sticks now.” “Do you think we can get him to fetch other things? Like the newspaper-” Before Mckenna could finish their sentence, the sound of the orchard’s gate swinging open distracted them. In walked Devona, their friend and business partner, clutching an empty basket in her hooves. She was closely followed by Ebi, who carried a giant stick in his mouth. “Good morning, you two!” Devona waved to them between the saplings, tilting her head towards the Impup next to her. “Are you collecting firewood? It's so neat that you trained Ebi to help out.” She chuckled and bent down to pet the Impup, who only looked up at her as if expecting a treat.

“I think we might have trained Ebi to fetch sticks specifically. It’s going to take a while before he learns to fetch the newspaper for you.” Eden let out a humorless chuckle as Mckenna groaned and proceeded to bury their face in their hooves.