Tomorrow, October 24, Bear will be 12 years old! 12 is definitely senior dog but he has been acting like young dog these last six weeks.
Still, the back end is not working as well as it used to. Early in the summer, it was obvious that he couldn’t get in the motorhome. Part of the problem is he does not have stairs in the house, i.e. no practice. Plus the motorhome has large risers and the metal bottom steps and depending on leveling, the first step is not always the same height from the ground.
I looked at various solutions … some options were not doable “on the road”. I needed an option that I could deal with at rest stops as well as overnight. I had a ramp which we’ve used but Bear does not like it and it was somewhat short making for a steep incline.
Not too long ago, I found this longer ramp. It is 87 inches long – 27 inches longer than the old ramp which makes a big deal in the incline.
Since the prior ramp had bad memories, I decided to start from scratch, take it slow and hopefully make this ramp FUN!!
The new ramp arrived last Wednesday and after a day of just letting Bear walk around and sniff it, I laid it flat at the entrance to the house. Armed with very small pieces of hot dog, I coaxed Bear on the ramp and then walking in and out. As he got comfortable, I got a bit stingier with the treats and also no treat if you step off the ramp. By yesterday, in and out of the house on the flat ramp was a piece of cake.
This morning, I set the ramp up on the side of the porch so it has a very slight incline.
“Have you got the hot dogs? Let’s get started!!”
No problem with the small incline.
No walking off the ramp.
Hot dog!!
Enter Auggie.
One man’s ramp is another man’s tunnel.
Once was enough and Auggie left to do something else.
“I don’t care if he plays on the ramp, but don’t give him any of my hot dogs!”
