Thomas handles Fern

Thomas was content with his decision to move to Azzaru since he could work on landing a contract with a mining company to haul their rock or minerals to their refining centers. The possibilities also abounded being so close to the port town of Ynnis. Once they had wrapped up the citizenship documentation Thomas leaned in toward the representative and remarked, "Those hounds at the Paet booth are quite well groomed, and I have seen quite a number of them around town since I landed. Does everybody have these hounds around here?" The representative replied nonchalantly, "Oh yes, I've got four at home myself, though it is quite usual to have at least two. Here, there's a free hound handling class held twice a month in the outreach building by the port. The Trainer's Guild runs it though, so maybe bring your own coffee and doughnuts." Thomas thought on it and decided to attend, since he had to spend tonight and tomorrow in Ynnis before the subsidized travel accomodations were scheduled to take new citizens to Azzaru. "Thanks for the flyer, I'll check it out." Thomas thanked the city employee and ducked out to grab a bite and explore a bit before the class that evening.

The signage was somewhat underwhelming while moving through the city, but the front of the building (once he found it) did have a covered corkboard exclaiming the location and times for a Hound Handling class held in one of the ground floor rooms within. Remarking quietly to himself on the lack of adequate lighting, Thomas made his way through the entrance and down the hall to the mentioned room. As he approached the door he could hear the buzz of an excited voice and a tell-tale clicking of nails on hardwood.

Thomas pushed open the door and shuffled into a rectangular room with an open space near the door and chairs arranged in rows on the opposite end. A woman who could only be described as "overly-perky" welcomed the new arrivals and asked that everyone find a seat so they could begin. "Thank you all for coming! We're going to have a great class on hound handling tonight and once we've covered training the hounds, socializing, proper treat nutrition, and everyday handling, every one of you will be prepared for your new life with that special someone! By special someone, I mean a hound!" Ending with a boisterous giggle she sweeps her hand to the side and points to a row of hounds against the wall nearest the representative. "Here we have some volunteers who are more than willing to help you all get comfortable with hounds, if you have not already got your own!"

The attendees filled the chairs and turned their attention toward the representative. She began, "First things first, I'll introduce you to proper training methods. My personal favorite is clicker training. Clicker training is a straight-forward method to let your hound know that something they have done is 'good'! First you associate the sound the clicker makes with treats! Once they realize that the click means a treat, then you can click when they exhibit a preferred behavior, and give them a treat! Reinforcing behaviors that you want while finding ways to avoid behaviors you don't is how you can train your hound!" The representative had much more to say about typical behaviors and which might be best to avoid for the handlers safety as well as the hounds before she finally exclaimed, "Now! If you have not brought your own hound here tonight, please stand and make your way up here to the front so I can pair you off with one of our lovely volunteers! Just a side note, all of our volunteers are up for adoption, so if you really hit it off, please don't be shy and ask me about our adoption process!"

Thomas made his way up and stood in line waiting. As he got near the front he spied a hound with chocolate colored fur that blended down into orange. Most eye-catching however, was the ears. They were shaped like great colossal bowls. "Here we are! This is Fern, please take ahold of her leash and lead her back to your seat, we're going over nail trimming next! I'm sure you all heard their nails click, click, clicking on the floor!" The exuberant representative shoved a leash into his hand that trailed on over to the hound with the great deep ears that he was looking at from the line. Thomas sighed and walked back to his seat. Fern didn't appear too bothered by any of the goings on and with a gentle tug, padded silently next to him all the way back to his chair.

The rest of the class went by surprisingly quickly as Thomas soaked up all this new information about hounds. The guild rep got only more excited as time passed and when she frantically passed out some of her homemade treats more than a couple of attendees got some spare bits shaken into their hair and clothes, such was her fervor. Fern turned out to be quite tired, as Thomas noticed at one point she had rested her muzzle on his leg and seemingly fallen asleep sitting up. He spent the rest of the class gently stroking her head between her big, lovely, dish-like ears.

As she wrapped up the class, Thomas realized that Fern had woken up and was looking up at him with her sparkling green eyes. Not quite looking in his eyes though, maybe a bit above his eyes, at his hair? He noticed something hanging just at the top of his vision, a treat from the overzealous guild representative, stuck in the hairs hanging over his forehead. He pulled the bit of kibble free and tossed it to a gleeful Fern and stood up to go talk to the Treat Master about their adoption process.