Astro-Mutt

The first order of business after setting up the orbit was to do something he had no choice but to put off for a long time.

Acclimating the dog to Zero Gravity.

She had peed immediately upon being released, so that was not an issue. Neither was the presence of food in her gut, it was actually getting close to feeding time.

This in mind, he followed the manual's instruction and started throwing a ball for her to chase.

Fifteen minutes in, he ordered ARC to start lowering the gravity. This rate was slower than recommended, but for his first time doing this he wanted as little trouble as possible.

Time was aplenty.

Mercedes' attention was so focused on the ball that she only noticed something was off at about a third of normal gravity, almost twenty minutes of steady lightening. Stumbling had been growing more frequent throughout this period of time

She obviously wasn't fully aware of what was happening, but her ears were alert and she was looking around frantically for a perceived threat. A quiet 'halt' from Don signaled to ARC that the current level of gravity should be held.

"What's wrong Mercedes?"

Don's plan was, to put it shortly, gaslight Mercedes into thinking nothing was off.

"Come here girl! Ball!" He kept up the pitch of his voice so as to better attract her attention.

Upon her nervous return to him, marked by shaky legs and a hidden tail, he started giving her pets and hugging her tight.

ARC continued to decrease the gravity load.

Eventually, Don was only maintaining a façade of being affected by gravity. His toes were hooked in a notch in the bottom of his bed, with the rest of him dedicated to pushing down the dog.

She was still nervous at this point, but she did not begin to panic until she took note of some of her toys 'flying'. A stream of panicked barks, almost screams, at the sudden realization marked the end of the relatively calm period.

Don just let go of her and let her float. He was keeping a close eye on her physical state, and ARC was monitoring her heart rate, so there was little danger.

He chose to float alongside her as she panicked, cooing to her to calm down. Thankfully, Mercedes was already very tired from chasing the ball around. In spite of her desire to express her stress through vocal means, her breathing was growing ragged.

With some foam at the edges of her mouth, Don bounced his way around into a position right above her back and ever so slightly to the side. Letting out a long 'Shhhhh' he hugged her, applying light pressure around her hips to hold her legs in and pulling her neck to his chest. This was explained to be have a calming effect.

Mercedes let out a light whimper, but she did not resist. For a while, they just stayed where they were. Don was not entirely sure how long he was supposed to hold her like this.

At ARC's mark, he slowly released his hold on her, careful to keep her within an arm's breadth in case she did something less than smart.

Instinctually, she tried to balance herself. However, without the force of gravity to balance against she assumed a rather weird position.

Her neck was extended and her head tilted slightly downward, forelegs extending upwards and outwards. It looked similar to when Don picker her up by her armpits. Her rear quarter was gyrating slightly, her tail desperately attempting to orient herself properly.

The only word to describe her current appearance was pathetic.

Keeping his hands just behind her ribcage, he kept some pressure on her to keep her calm. Her heart was beating, fast, but it was starting to slow down. Presumably, Mercedes' levels of stress and adrenaline were also decreasing.

Once Mercedes calmed down enough to realize she was not in danger, she turned a pleading gaze towards Donovan, correctly assuming that this unnatural phenomena was his doing.

He would not be swayed to stop now.

Don let go of her entirely, pulling back his hands slowly so as to not alarm the dog. She started to whine and shake while she remained suspended in air, but Don's calm demeanor kept her from panic.

According to the videos, being calm was an important aspect of training a dog. They explained that when dogs are puppies, they act very much the same as babies in how they learn. Emotionally they are also very similar, largely being mirrors. They reflect the condition that their parent, the trainer, is exuding.

If he showed worry or stress then Mercedes, not knowing what was going on, would also become stressed assuming there was something wrong.

Obviously, this was by no means an ironclad law. If the dog was subjected to a wave of jumbled information such as loud noises and flashing lights then confusion and panic would set in regardless.

Don had actually expected getting Mercedes to this point to take a few attempts, but the first try turned out to be enough. Now he just had to stay there with her for a three hours.

Three hours he would spend reading up on training techniques, after which he would fall asleep.