Bear Sliding

Bear would do anything for me and my two daughters. When we would go to the park, Stephanie and Jennifer, loved to play a few minutes on each of the structures. From our home, the closest structure was the slide. They would run ahead and crawl up the ladder and wait at the top. They would encourage their sister to climb. "One more, Jenny. You can do it."
Bear would follow to the structure and as they went up the slide ladder, he would stand on his hind legs and reach high with his front legs. It was as if he was cheering for them to make it on up. Just as one would start to slide, he would race to the end of the slide and greet them as they lit on the ground. He would escort them back to the ladder and it would start all over.
Eventually, the girls started coaxing him to climb up the ladder. I was fearful he would catch a leg as he was falling and be injured. To prevent this, I would stand behind my ninety pound pooch and make sure he did not fall. Little by little, I helped him learn to hook his front paws over the step instead of on the step. We all encouraged him. Soon he was able to make it all the way to the top, as long as I kept him corralled. After quite a while, with no mishaps, I started letting him climb the ladder without staying behind him.
The first few times that Bear made it to the top, he still had the mindset that it was his job to greet the girls as they slid. He seemed confused. One girl would slide to the bottom and the other would tell bear to go. The girl at the bottom would be coaxing him to "slide". With enough coaxing, Bear would run down the slope of the slide. Try as we might, we never taught him to slide by himself. I even tried holding him on my lap as I slid, but it did not work.
When we went to different parks, we had to assure him to climb up a different slide. The girls were good about asking if the slide ladders were safe for Bear to climb. If they were marginal, I would stay with Bear while he climbed. We sure miss Bear!
Kayak Bandit