I took the Canadian, Pax, up to the arena today for his “mid-week excursion”. If we could find the music “The Stroll” it would be perfect for him!!! We strolled up to the arena with a stop or two…
He walked up on the low pedestals. His approach is: place both front feet on, then paw the top of the pedestal. As his BIG FOOT was pawing my reaction was: “get up there and stand still before you rip the thing to shreds.”
While he was standing ten inches above the ground, enjoying the view, I set out the five cones with carrots. He managed to step off the platform with a hint of grace and started at cone three. He delighted in playing with it. I figured, “This is a good thing. You can never tell where a little curiosity will lead. Might even evolve into a new trick.” He used his mouth on the cone, then his BIG foot. He only chipped a bit of the base off the cone and cracked the dome. He taught me to gather the cones quickly!
He meandered down to the first two cones then MUCH to my surprise he placed both front feet on the tall pedestal (eighteen inches high). A few weeks ago he ambled over to that pedestal, took an interest in the surface and bit a piece of the non-slip surface attached to it. The low platforms have heavy-duty stall mats on their tops and, so far, he’s not damaged them.
I have not shown him the tall pedestal because I can’t imagine how he’d get up there and balance himself. But, to my horror, before I could get his attention Pax hopped up there and stood calmly with his four BIG feet on the top! I was stunned. The pedestal never wiggled (thank goodness!), but there was precious little surface area left over with those BIG feet up there. Now…how do I get this sucker DOWN? He quite liked being so high. He could see out the windows.
I tried to make interesting “come here” noises and much to my relief, he stepped off the thing. (It’s good that Bill made it SOLID. The pedestal weighs 200 pounds.)
Pax strolled onto the low platform and I rolled the big ball around. He watched it. He’s still a bit worried about it. However, when I roll it up to him he never moves or looks afraid. AND he’s always eager to eat carrots off the top.
I recently repaired a new stuffed animal, a dinosaur, and presented it to him while he was on the platform. He loved it. He took it in his mouth and flipped it, but didn’t let go. Hmmm….I finally got it out of his mouth, told him he was wonderful and let him take it again. He never dropped it. Just kept swinging it.
Thus ends this report on: Winnie surviving an outing with Pax the unpredictable!
This is the note I received from Ron, Pax’s owner:
Oh my god Winnie……that is hilarious!!!!!
I can’t believe he got up on the tall pedestal…..and got off it without breaking it or himself.
So it looks like I need to find some indestructible, cones, pedestal surfaces and who knows, once he figures out how to play with the big ball, I may have to replace it as well….lol.
Thanks for spending time with him Winnie!!!!!!!!!!!!
