132. VIDEO: Step aside, Buddy

Gus’s musical career is booming.  And jingling.  And shimmering.  Turns out he loves the hi-hat cymbals.  

To the separate, fully donkey-proofed pedal, I’ve attached a pressed-felt drum beater, but Gus doesn’t even notice.  Since I began by blitz-treating him when he stepped on the pedal once, I now need to teach him the toe-tapping technique of pressing it repeatedly.  He’s kinda made a start himself, simply because he loves doing it so much that he eagerly re-stomps after he steps back.  But today I try using our chacha cues in a smaller and quicker way:  I put my arms akimbo and instantly take them back down again, to give a go-back and come-forward signal.  And Gus freakin’ gets it.  !!!  We practice this a few times, and at each tiny gesture of my elbows he gives a slight foot-lift and rapid re-stomp.  Massive clicking and treating assure him that this is as fun and wonderful as it feels.

Next we move to the cymbals themselves, with the as-yet-unreinforced pedal attached.  He likes to nose them and get a shimmery sound, and I still click for that.  But now I ask him to find and use the pedal, even though it’s mounted so close to the central stalk of the hi-hat stand that he has to reach his foot forward and tolerate the cymbals nearly touching his chest.  To show him the idea, I lift and drop my own foot near the pedal; I step on the pedal; I tell him to “stomp it” as I did for the unattached pedal; and I give him time to cogitate.  When he lifts his foot but doesn’t quite reach the pedal, I click and treat for that good effort.  Within seconds, his foot finds the pedal and he stomps.  Now I try the minimal akimbo-chacha gesture, and again Gus freakin’ gets it.  An avid percussionist, he never flinches when I reset the cymbals farther apart for a louder crash.  He’s wailing away like Buddy Rich reincarnated as an ass.  He and I are equally transported by delight.

Gus’s new-found love of the hi-hat convinces me that he might dig the bass drum too.  Before I haul the thing to the barn, I run a little test: I move the beater-equipped pedal next to a wall, so that he can hear it bang when he activates the pedal.  The wall panel isn’t as resonant as the drum will be, but I want just a rough preview of his reaction to the sound.

Before we can try it, though, Gus informs me that this thing is scary and weird and he’s having none of it.  It’s the beater and its boingy up-and-down motion that flummoxes him.  When he’s stomping it in mid-arena, the contraption is underfoot and therefore pretty much invisible; his big head blocks his view, and he’s playing blind.  But now that it’s out in front of him, he doesn’t like what he sees.  So we spend several minutes touching the goblin, watching it move from different angles, etc., etc.  At last he believes that the menacing flapdoodle is actually safe, and he pretty readily transfers his stomping skills into this new location.  And the beater thudding the wall gives him no pause whatever.  

Next up — dare I?  — the bass drum.