Rory was exhausted. She was at her wits end with her most recent hatchling Cooper, the courshound. Pegasus, minicorn, narasad, Rory had exclusively raised equine companions up to this point and thought it would be good to try something new, and a creature of the canine persuasion seemed as a good a place as any to start. She was wrong. To start Cooper was a bit more energetic than she had anticipated, she took him outside constantly but he still had enough energy to destroy her room and on top of that he wouldn't listen to her. She knew he was gonna be different than her horses but Rory just couldn't figure out how to read him or get him to calm down. The idea of giving up on the courshound make her stomach turn, so it was a great relief when a friend told her about professor Milan, a traveling canine specialist who was offering classes in Synara city over the weekend. The journey was predictably difficult but she hoped it would be worth the effort.
"Welcome everyone! I'm professor Milan, Cesar Milan."
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It took the entirety of the 2 day course but Rory finally made positive progress with Cooper.
"You won't get anywhere when he's in this state." Cesar would say "Your calm needs to match his excitement! Wait for him- CH- ch- .... and just like that, see how he's much more receptive to you."
During training Rory also learned more about courshounds as a breed. Bred to be messengers, these dogs lived to run across the land delivering messages for their magi and could be rather pensive when they had nothing to occupy them.
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Her parents were happy to hear from her more often and she was able to rekindle some friendships with folks she hadn't seen in years. Between runs Cooper was sweet and loving, mostly resting as Rory studied and did school work.
When she was ready to look for a new creature to hatch and raise she thought about how much she learned about courshounds, canines as a whole and even about herself and thought; hmmm.... maybe I'll try a winged cat next...
