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?
She put THIS on me. Yes. A pink cupcake bandana. I think I’m going to have to put my paw down soon. No amount of lettuce is going to make up for this. She even put the picture up on Facebook! She’s going to get some pretty unimpressed glares in her pictures from now on if she keeps this up.
The human has given me a lot of toys over the last couple years, but I have to admit….
This new one she brought home is eerily different.
When the human first showed me this thing, I sort of thought it might be another guinea pig that I could purr at! Ceico can be kind of boring sometimes. I mean, he just wants to sleep all the time! And he’s less than amused when I try to take initiative and get him to play with me…..
But that’s a topic for another day.
Anyway, going back to this new thing…. The human put it on the floor right away, and seemed to be encouraging me to check it out. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, so I approached with caution at first. It didn’t smell like another guinea pig, and it wasn’t moving at all, so I figured it must be something else.
At closer inspection, it appeared to even have eyes and ears, just like Ceico and I have! It had all the same colors as me, and even the same little white marking on its head, just like me!
Strange.
What was this thing???
What is this thing? It doesn’t run around like other guinea pigs!
Once I got close enough, I started the sniff test. I hate strong smells, and I make sure the human knows that by sticking my nose high in the air and shaking my head back and forth whenever I smell something I don’t like.
This object had a less intense scent that wasn’t really overwhelming in any way. Still, I could smell something subtly sweet on it, and kept sniffing for a minute, trying to figure out exactly what it was. It smelt good in a way, but it was also distinctly different than my usual favorite scents (ie. lettuce and carrots.)
After the sniffing, there was one more obvious thing to try. All my favorite toys so far have involved either eating or sleeping, so I chose to test out my favorite option….
Eating, of course! (There was no way I was sleeping right after I got a new toy!)
Anyway, I quickly realized this thing doesn’t have the right texture to eat. The hairs don’t taste particularly good, and they tickle your mouth when you try to chew. The human definitely didn’t want me eating it either (which of course, never stops me,) but I have to admit that she was right on this one.
I may be biased…. but this little guy is kind of handsome.
“Mine! It’s all mine!”
My next inspection consisted of everything else I could think of! I tried running around this thing, jumping over it, sniffing it some more, pushing it around…. It still hadn’t moved since I first saw it, so I figured it was pretty safe to let my guard down.
After awhile, I eventually came to the conclusion that this thing was a little boring…. after all, I still can’t eat it or sleep on it! But it did smell kinda good, and it was pretty fun to inspect this interesting new guinea pig thing.
Plus, I may be (just a little bit!) biased, but the little guy is awfully good looking too. 😉 I think I might just keep him around to play a bit more.
By the way, if you want to see my *very thorough* inspection process, check out the video my human put together below! It captures all of the most important steps I take when inspecting any new toy that the human brings home. 🙂
Thanks for reading my latest adventure!
~Ace
P.S. For some reason, the human doesn’t leave my little friend unattended with me…. I have no idea why, of course. I mean, it’s not like I would take the opportunity to try to taste the little guy again or anything….
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!)
Basketball is way more fun than just putting a ball in a cup.
Now THIS…. This is fun.
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. ♥
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.
You may have read part 1 of my painting experience, where I learned what a paintbrush was, and what *not* to do with it. After some brief hesitation, the human decided to let me try again from where we left off.
Well, not quite where we left off. She seemed slightly hesitant to put that colorful smelly stuff back on the paintbrush this time. So for awhile we just practiced picking up the plain old paintbrush without anything on it. Pretty boring stuff.
When the human finally decided to give me another chance with the funny smelling substance she called “paint,” she covered a big part of the floor with newspaper first. Plus, fenced off all the areas in the room that weren’t covered with paper.
What a way to spoil all my fun, right? Now I couldn’t even sneak off and take the paintbrush to my den for further inspection!
Turns out, I learned that meeting the human halfway with some things can work out after all. While running off with the paintbrush was pretty fun, I realized pretty quickly that painting is actually more fun when I stay near the paper thing that was sitting beside me.
This “canvas” object was the key to a lot of treats! Every time the paintbrush hit that canvas, the human seemed to get really excited and hand out a ton of food. Most of my tricks take more effort than this, but throwing the brush towards the canvas and getting a treat for it is pretty easy.
Of course, I still had to find a way to put my own spin on it, so I started hitting the paintbrush against that canvas full force, pulling the brush up and down. The human laughed at that and gave me even more treats! I guess painting might not be as boring as I thought it was.
A little progress after my day 1 attempt at painting again.
A couple colors later…. Big progress!
From there, we progressed pretty quickly. The human used a new color on the tip of the paintbrush every day, and the canvas started to look more and more like a rainbow! A week or so later, the canvas looked just like the picture below.
The human said I did so well with my new trick, and that I’m just as great of an artist as Ceico now! (But between you and me, I know my painting is way better than Ceico’s!)
Painting was a pretty fun trick, but I think I might take a bit of a break from my artistic side for now, and leave the painting to Ceico. After all, I like to think of myself as more of a sporty pig. 😉
And I think the human might need a break from my painting trick too. I forgot to mention, in my enthusiasm, I might have painted a few things other than the canvas….. It’s all for the best though, as I still have so many new tricks up my sleeve to show everyone!
Maybe I will be like Ceico, and take up painting more once I get older and retire from learning too many new tricks. Although “retire” kind of sounds like “tired” which I don’t think I’ll be anytime soon!
Proudly standing beside my very first painting!
Thanks for reading my latest adventure, and be sure to follow my Facebook page, Amazing Animal Tricks to catch all my new tricks as I learn them!
P.S. The pictures below are a comparison of my first painting with Ceico’s very first painting. Mom says they are both equally beautiful, but we all know mine is totally better, am I right?
My human told me one day, that fear means there’s something awesome on the other side. I, of course, would have set her straight right from the beginning if I could talk! After all, guinea pigs know best! If there’s fear, it probably means there’s a giant bird about to swoop down on you! But it’s clear humans have a funny interpretation of fear, so I just went along with it this time.
So, I’m pretty proud to say, I don’t get scared easily. Ceico may run for the hills at every little insignificant noise, but I like to be brave and watch out for my human. (Plus, Ceico doesn’t know this, but sometimes those noises involve food, and I like to get a head start!)
Now after hearing that, you may be a bit surprised at the next part of this story. As you might already know, breezing through new tricks like I already know them is kind of what I do! So it was a little odd when I hit a brick wall with a new (and otherwise quite ordinary) trick. My human was even more surprised, pondering why I was acting so odd with a new trick.
I guess describing this trick as “ordinary” wasn’t totally accurate, so I’ll fill in some background on it. This trick was going to be my very last trick to learn and include in my video submission to become a Champion trick guinea pig! Oddly enough, it was also the very last trick that my human’s previous guinea pig, Spartan, learned just before he passed away. My human always speaks very highly of Spartan, and says he learned this trick within just one short training session! I guess he one-upped me on this trick! There’s a video of Spartan below if you want to see my human’s first trick piggy (before I was even born, can you imagine!)
So what trick am I referring to exactly?
Well, the trick in question involved flipping up this colourful triangular shaped hoop thing and going through it. Sounds simple enough, right? But for whatever reason, it felt odd to me when I put my paws up and it started to tip towards me. So what did I do?
I jumped off immediately and bolted. I know, I know, what a chicken. My human couldn’t believe my reaction and immediately tried to reassure me that the hoop was perfectly safe.
I didn’t believe her at first though. Like I said, humans have an awfully funny interpretation of fear and I wasn’t taking any risks this time. She then brought Ceico in and showed me that even Ceico could do the silly trick without getting scared. But that was Ceico’s decision to be eaten by that funny looking cardboard monster, and as far as I was concerned, Ceico must have a funny interpretation of fear too!
Look at this big freaky thing – it really does resemble a monster, doesn’t it!?
There are so many tricks that are more fun than this silly rainbow hoop trick…. like skateboarding, for example.
I made it perfectly clear that just because Ceico was willing to run the risk of being eaten, didn’t mean I was going to! I was holding my ground on this one! No way was I going near that thing!
And I didn’t go near that thing ever again! Okay, fine, well, until the food came out again. Of course, my human knows I have no impulse control whatsoever when it comes to food (I know, I’m ashamed….. well to be honest….. not really) so with the help of my favourite foods, she encouraged me to get close to the scary thing and check it out once more. She kept feeding me, so I didn’t really get the chance to run away again. (I mean, how can you run away when you are constantly offered more food???)
Plus, if even Ceico can do it, it can’t be that bad….
Before I knew it, I had my paws up on that thing and wanted to run away, but the food…. wasn’t moving anywhere, so I unfortunately had to stay. Once the food was gone, I found myself waiting patiently with my paws up on the hoop. I mean, it hadn’t eaten me yet, so why would it do something now, right? The human took the hoop away and told me we would work on it again later.
Next time I saw the hoop, I put my paws up more readily. After all, it didn’t move last time, so I assumed everything would be okay now, and keeping my paws on that thing would be a super easy way to get food. But this time, after staying still for the first minute or so, the hoop started to tip ever so slowly towards me again! I looked at the human, wondering if she believed me now. See? It did try to eat me! She must have seen it, because her hand was even holding the hoop at the same time it tipped back ever so slightly. She didn’t seem concerned about her unpredictable tipping hoop, and instead offered me even more food and praised me for not totally losing it over the tipping hoop.
So…. do you think I earned my champion trick title after all?
Spartan was a pretty amazing trick piggy – He learned some tricks even faster than me!
Eventually I noticed a pattern start to emerge; every time the hoop tipped ever so slightly (but never all the way) the human would say “Good boy Acey!” in a happy voice and give me lots of food. I couldn’t help but start to look forward to when the hoop tipped backwards.
Next time we practiced with the hoop thing, it started tipping even further back! This darn thing really has a mind of its own. But I did notice one not so subtle thing; the further the hoop tipped back, the more food I got!
To be honest, maybe this whole thing wasn’t as bad as I initially thought. All these scary things result in lots of food!
Eventually I became more relaxed and even leaned back a little. When I did that, the hoop moved again! The human dished out a ton of food when that happened. I tried leaning back again, a little more intentionally this time, and the hoop moved ever so slightly again. And again, the human gave more food. This quickly became a game, where I tried to move the hoop and get more food as quickly as I possibly could.
This was getting kind of fun after all!
This game was getting quite predictable at this point, and not nearly as scary as before. Then, one time I accidentally leaned too far back, and the hoop tipped all the way over! My paws clumsily slipped off the hoop as it tipped, and I couldn’t help but feel kind of shocked that the hoop fell over like that!
I didn’t really have time to comprehend what I thought of the hoop rudely tipping over, because the human sounded so excited and happy at that moment, and gave me lots of food. I couldn’t help but purr like a motorboat and dig in!
After that, I started to experiment with how I got the hoop to tip over. The human still gave me food when I tipped it back a little bit, but the real jackpot came when I managed to tip it all the way over.
I started to really get the hang of it after awhile, and was soon proudly tipping it over every single time!
Paws up on the *previously scary* monster thing. Yep…. pretty proud of myself.
Turns out scary things can sometimes turn into a pretty fun trick!
Shortly after that, I learned that I had to go through the hoop after I tipped it over. We also added some distance to the trick, where I had to run over to the hoop, flip it up, go through it, and run back to the human for my treats. It turned out to be a pretty awesome trick!
If you want to watch some of my progress, and the awesome results of the finished trick, check out the video below!
This trick actually turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I guess difficult tricks really are worth working through sometimes, and the end result can be pretty cool!
Thanks for reading my latest trick training adventure, and good luck slaying your own unicorns, no matter what they may be.
~Ace
Note from Ace’s human: I’m so proud of Ace’s progress with this trick. Despite being hesitant about a totally unexpected new trick, he conquered this trick to the very end and by watching the finished product, you would never have guessed how difficult it was for him at the start.
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!
