Ace’s Twin Guinea Pig Friend!

Hey guys! So my human and I have been working on all kinds of tricks over the last several months. Everything you can imagine – from doing tricks at a distance and weaving cones, to closing doors and playing fetch! I always look forward to playing fetch with my favorite ball (the human always dishes out extra food for that trick) although it’s kind of annoying when she rolls it ALL the way across the room. I mean, come on, I am a guinea pig after all! Running all the way across the room for any reason isn’t exactly on the top of my list of fun things to do.

I can also push a shopping cart, raise a flag, and play basketball, among many other tricks! I even do scent work, where I find one particular scent in a group of ten different smelling objects. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the scent I’ve learned to find – I think it stinks to high heaven! At least I get a treat when I track down the funny smelling thing.

Anyway, my human recently got all excited and told me I was officially a champion trick guinea pig! I mean, I already knew I was great, so I don’t know why she seemed to make a big deal out of it. But not wanting to miss out on a prime opportunity, I, of course, took the chance to act cute and beg for more treats (it works every time!)

She also took pictures of me with this giant ribbon thing and another shiny circle thing (the shiny circle thing tasted good by the way!) She didn’t seem to want me to chew the ribbon thing (which is a sure sign that it must taste good!) so it was harder to test that one (although I still managed to get a nibble or two when she wasn’t looking!)

My human recorded all of my champion tricks and made them into a video to show me. The video was a bit on the long side for me though. I only watched about 5 minutes of it (or was it 5 seconds?) before I started to get bored. I mean, I had a lot of eating to catch up on! Plus, I already know how smart I am!

But if you want to watch it, my human attached the video at the top of this post. Maybe you won’t have to eat as much as me and can watch the whole thing!

Thanks for reading my latest adventure!

~ Ace

Note from Ace’s human:

Ace was certified as a Champion Trick Dog (TDCH) by DoMoreWithYourDog.com. He previously earned his novice, intermediate, advanced, and expert titles before being qualified to submit a champion title. His video submission (above) was approved on January 31, 2017 and he was added to the list of official champion trick dogs/animals here. Guinea pigs can do dog tricks too! Go Acey! 🙂

Lately I’ve been feeling tired.

So tired.

That feeling that started in my legs seems to have spread over my whole body now. I sleep a lot, because that’s the only time the feeling truly goes away.

The human comes and pets me all the time. I don’t feel like protesting, so I just close my eyes and enjoy the gentle strokes across my head.

The last week or so has been the most tiring time I could ever imagine. The human keeps coming in and trying to squirt some stuff in my mouth. Says it is “food.” Well, I know what real food is, and let me tell you, it doesn’t taste like that.

Admittedly I’ve been too tired to eat real food lately. It’s not that I don’t try, but chewing is so exhausting… Sometimes I start to eat, and then end up falling asleep before I can even finish it.

Dreaming is more peaceful than being awake now. I dream of running and playing, because I can’t do that when I’m awake anymore. I also dream of eating real food, not the green gunk that the human insists on putting in my mouth.

I love my human, but being awake is so hard…. I feel torn between her and the happy feeling I have when I am dreaming.

One day I fell into a deep sleep. Deeper than usual. I could feel my human nearby, but for some reason, I couldn’t wake up. The tired feeling washed over me even more.

When I woke up, I felt so much better! The feeling was gone! That feeling that was clouding over me for 2 years was actually gone. I got up effortlessly, running over to the human like I always do.

Then I noticed she was crying.

She didn’t look at me when I climbed on her leg. She was looking at another guinea pig. One that looked just like me, I think. Was it me? It couldn’t be, I was right here!

She was saying my name and looking at that other guinea pig. Calling him a good boy. Suddenly I realized that she thought that was me. I tried to get her attention, but she was so wrapped up in the other guinea pig. She looked so sad.

She has looked so sad for a couple weeks now, but I was too tired to make her smile. If only she could look at me now! I could show off all the things I can do again and make her so happy! She couldn’t seem to see me at all anymore. It was like I was invisible.

Suddenly, I noticed another guinea pig. It was Ceico! I haven’t seen Ceico in a whole year! Mom said he had to go away for awhile. She started giving me a lot of cuddles after that.

I touched noses with Ceico as he walked up to me. I noticed Ceico was running now too! Ceico was slow for most of the 5 years that I knew him. Did he struggle with the same feeling as me?

He wanted me to follow him. But how can I leave my mom when she is so sad? She is so confused. I mean, she still thinks I am trapped inside that other guinea pig!

Ceico told me that’s how humans grieve, and that there is nothing I can do to help. He told me I can come back and visit, but the human won’t be able to see us anymore.

He said that our new home is amazing, and has lots of grass to eat and play in! The only bad part, he says, is that the humans can’t come with us. But we can always see them and watch over them.

With that, I finally agreed to go with Ceico. I ran back to the human one last time and climbed up on her leg to say goodbye. I hope the human knows that I am okay now. And I hope that soon, my human is okay too.

❤️ Ace: May 2015 – August 12, 2021 ❤️

Did you know that us guinea pigs are actually pretty talented basketball players? I mean, I don’t want to brag (too much) but I am, for sure, the most amazing four inch tall (fuzzy and all) basketball player you’ve ever seen. If you don’t believe me, check out the two short videos below.

Running up for the Dunk

Dunking the ball is my favorite thing to do! Of course, the net may be a little shorter than the professional leagues, but don’t forget! I’m only 4 inches tall after all. Piggy basketball nets are built at the perfect height for my mini slam dunks. 

I also taught my buddy Ceico how to play the game. Turns out he’s a pretty talented basketball player too! (but not as talented as me, of course!)

Two Guinea Pigs Playing Basketball

Basketball is a pretty fun game, and of course the only thing cuter than one guinea pig playing basketball, is two guinea pigs playing basketball! One of these days, I’m going to take on Ceico in a 1 on 1 game to put our piggy basketball skills to the ultimate test!

Learning basketball was a bit of a process, but it was lots of fun! First, I had to learn to pick up the ball and put it in the human’s hand. This part is a bit annoying, because sometimes the human’s hand moves. Humans are such fidgety creatures.

After I was able to put the ball in that moving hand, we started practicing with a bowl. Every time I successfully put the ball into the bowl, the human would give me a treat and move the bowl a few inches away or to the side. Once I became pretty good at putting the ball into the bowl, we switched to a braided loop (basically a big basketball net!) and the human gradually held it a bit higher each time until I learned to lift up the ball and go for the dunk!

Finally, we started practicing with the real basketball net! (well, the 4 inch tall one.) The basketball net was a bit harder because it’s barely bigger than the ball itself. I had to be very accurate in order to shoot on the net. It took some practice, but now Ceico and I can both dunk accurately 99% of the time! (OK, fine, at least 89% of the time.)

If you humans out there want your guinea pigs to hone their inner basketball talent, check out the video below or the basketball trick tutorial page for more training tips. Give it a try with your piggies at home. They might just love it as much as Ceico and I, and it sure is a ton of fun once you progress all the way to dunking on a basketball net!

How to Teach Your Guinea Pig to Play Basketball

Thanks for reading my latest adventure!

~Ace

One of my all time favourite tricks is where I get to run around with my human. I love to be under the human’s feet as much as possible when I see her walking around. When she has food, I discovered that chasing her around and trying to climb up her leg is by far the best way to get it!

Usually the human doesn’t appreciate “tripping” on me all the time (although secretly I know she likes when I follow her around.) Personally, I find it funny to watch her shuffle across the room to avoid stepping on me. I like to sneak up behind her sometimes too. I can make her stop really really fast when I run in front and cut her off! It’s one of my favourite past times, and a fun one when you’re getting bored of your human!

One of the best tricks the human has ever come up with is where I get to cut her off and be rewarded for it! Well, to be honest, that’s not exactly the point of the trick, but I make sure to sneak it in here and there. 😉

Weave walking is where the guinea pig (that’s me!) has to go between the human’s feet every time they take a step. I usually weave walk all across the room and back, which is about 4-5 steps each way.

Isn’t it a cool trick?

When I first started training the human to do this trick, she didn’t quite get it. She was supposed to give me the treat just for begging nicely and being cute! But since she didn’t understand, I went along with her plan and we just learned this weave walking thing together.

One thing I did train her to do though, was walk faster! Humans are so slow and clumsy. I don’t think she knew how fast I could weave, so I decided to just take matters into my own paws and speed things up myself to show her how it’s done. 😉

It ended up being a lot of fun overall, although I still think it would be better to run in front of the human’s feet instead of through. But even after all my efforts to get my thoughts on the matter across to her, she’s still adamant that I’m not supposed to cut in front. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to settle for catching her off guard once in a while when she’s not expecting it.

If you want to teach your human to weave walk just like I did, all you have to do is follow what I did in the video below or find tips on the weave walk trick tutorial page.

Keep in mind that this trick isn’t always as easy as it looks though. The human says I’m a bit of an odd ball (a cute fuzzy odd ball she says!) so not all piggies would be as eager to be near a human’s moving feet as me. I mean, I understand how they feel; humans look awfully huge from down here! If the human is patient and takes slow steps for awhile, I think that would make most guinea pigs more comfortable and maybe they would enjoy this trick too!

As fun as it was, all that running made me hungry (okay, well, I’m always hungry.)

But anyway, maybe all you piggies out there can have some fun weave walking with your humans too.

P.S. If they play dumb like my human sometimes does, just remember this one thing; it can take awhile for humans to learn new tricks, so be patient with them! All humans will eventually catch on with consistent training.

Thanks for reading my latest adventure!

~Ace

A couple months ago, mom showed me this weird looking thing. Of course the first thing I did was try to eat it. Hmm…. didn’t taste as good as I thought it would. It was sorta soft, but pretty tasteless and hard to chew. Mom didn’t seem to want me to chew it anyway. Not like that usually stops me, but I think she was probably right this time. Maybe some things just aren’t any good for eating.

Anyway, just when I was arriving at the conclusion that this thing was pretty boring and pointless, mom brought out the treats! This soft flimsy thing must have something to do with a new trick! I proceeded to turn my attention back to the thing she was calling a “bandana.”

I picked it up a bunch of times and even threw it with all my power! But nothing resulted in any treats. Apparently I was right. This thing was pointless. I can’t even use it to get treats from the human.

Then mom held a treat on the other side of the fabric thing. I tried my best to reach the lettuce without touching the bandana, but that was proving pretty much impossible. After inspecting it from all angles, I decided I would just dive in and grab the treat.

That worked pretty well for a few times. However, after a few treats, mom slipped the bandana all the way around my neck while I was busy eating! The nerve!

It felt pretty strange, but she kept feeding me treats, so I figured it wasn’t so bad. After a minute or so, I even kinda forgot about it. Then I tried to walk with it on, and boy that was weird!

At that point, I tried to shake it off, which only made it shift over to my chest. I couldn’t figure out how to walk with this thing on! After that, mom gave me some more treats and took it off.

A few days later, she put another one on! Great.

However, this one also came with lots of treats, and mom kept saying what a good boy I am and how handsome I looked. And I do like being told I’m a good boy….

Anyway, now mom seems to have a new bandana for me every week! I can’t say I’m thrilled about that, but I seem to notice them less every time she puts them on. But if she starts skimping on the lettuce, then we’re going to have a problem!

Lately she also started bringing the camera out and taking pictures of me! I’ve always liked the camera. Every time it comes out, I get to do tricks and get lots and lots of treats!

This is pretty similar, except I get treats for staying still instead of bouncing around and doing my usual stuff. To be honest, I think staying still is harder sometimes!

I have quite a collection of bandanas now. Mom says I’m a very photogenic boy. I’m not sure what that means, but she also says I’m “so cute” and “such a good boy” and I know what both of those mean! Usually that I’m getting lots of treats!

She also says the word “handsome” a lot when I’m wearing them. I’m not sure what that means either, but she always sounds happy and gives me lots of food while she’s saying it, so that must be a good thing too!

I don’t really mind these neck thingies too much anymore…. Well most of the time. I think mom might be starting to take this bandana thing too far though. Do you know what she did the other day?

Thanks for reading my latest adventure!

‘Til next time,

~Ace

So of course I know how to put a ball into a cup. Actually, I know it all too well. And you know, sometimes it gets a little boring doing a trick that I already know. So since my human lacks the creativity, sometimes I need to take matters into my own paws and spruce up the tricks all on my own! Putting a ball in a cup was a prime opportunity for that! I mean, I can play basketball and put the ball in a net! Why should I be downgraded to putting it in a cup on the floor? Basketball is way more fun (and so much cooler) than that!

Plus, the human needs to lighten up and learn to have some fun once in a while. I don’t always have time during training sessions to be my usual silly self (there’s only a few minutes to eat as much as I can!) so I usually reserve goofiness for times when there’s no food involved. But sometimes it’s pretty hard to resist the opportunity when I have the human’s full undivided attention (they’re pretty easily distracted creatures you know!)

Anyway, what was I talking about again? Oh yeah. The human doesn’t seem to mind too much when I act silly during training time, although she never feeds me for it. She usually just laughs at me and tells me what a silly pig I am. Sometimes I’m a goofball too, or even a silly fuzzball! I’m not sure what any of that means, but she always seems happy when she says it (not happy enough to feed me though!)

On another note, can you believe the video above is only 38 seconds?! So disappointing, I swear I had enough footage for at least 3 minutes! The human shouldn’t have edited so much. I mean, sure, I did the same thing a few times, but how creative do you expect me to be? All she gave me was a couple balls and a cup. It was as if she actually expected me to just put the balls in the cup without adding my own dramatic flair! Personally, I was pretty proud of myself, given what I had to work with.

I think that was enough silliness for one video though. I think I might even stick to being silly outside of training time from now on (well, until tomorrow anyway.) I mean, it was fun, but a little too much work for my taste if there’s no food involved!

Anyway, thanks for reading my latest adventure!

~Ace

Note from Ace’s human:

Only Ace can turn something from simple to silly in the blink of an eye. He’s a true clown in every sense and loves to add his own flair to everything. ♥