When Kayla Lee and her husband first bought their new house, they noticed there was a swing set left behind in the backyard. The couple is planning on having kids in a few years, so they figured they’d spruce it up a bit and keep it — but had no idea that it would actually become a playground for their three dogs.
Atom and Ryker are huskies, so they have lots of energy and are always looking for things to get into and new adventures to have. Their brother Atreus is a Shiba Inu and a little smaller than they are, but still thinks he’s the boss and loves to be involved in everything his brothers do. When the trio first noticed the swing set in their new backyard, they were curious but weren’t fully sure what it was or what it did yet. Eventually, though, they figured it out.
Since the dogs didn’t have experiences with it, they were very cautious of it at first,” Lee told The Dodo. ‘They would sniff it and mark their territory on it of course. I don’t think they even knew what it was until the local kids started playing on it. A dad and a bunch of kids came over to introduce themselves to us since we just moved here. They saw we had dogs and really wanted to meet them. I think that is when the dogs got the idea that it was meant to be climbed on.”
After watching the neighborhood kids play all over the swing set, the dogs were more curious than ever. Then, after watching their mom climb up into it to clean it and assess what it needed, they finally got the confidence boost they needed to explore it fully.
“They got very excited when I was up there but didn’t attempt to climb it even though they were jumping around it,” Lee said. Then … I was watching them play in the yard from my sunroom. They were really heavily investigating it so I grabbed my phone and recorded on the off chance they would actually make it up and they did!”
Once the dogs saw that mom was brave enough to climb up onto the swing set, the dogs decided that they were too. Of course, Atreus was a bit too small to jump up there, but Atom and Ryker made it up successfully, and now, it’s their favorite thing to do.
“They have climbed on it constantly since they learned they can get up there,” Lee said. “Though they act very dramatic when I tell them they need to get off of it to go inside. We plan to keep it and modify it so Atreus … can also climb into it (he was very jealous when the other dogs were up there). We also plan to make it safer for the dogs to climb down from as well.”