Monday 30 April 2012

Dog on the roof

Axel, a cross between a Newfoundland, a Labrador and a Rottweiler spends up to five hours a day perched on rooftops so he can watch his owner, thatcher Richard Haughton, at work. Five-year-old Axel has learned how to climb a ladder to join Mr Haughton, 33, as he lays new thatch on country cottages all over Norfolk.
He balances patiently on the apex of the roof and surveys the local scenery until it is time to go home and he is carried down the ladder on his owner's shoulders.  He weighs 7 and ½ stones!   So quite heavy, but he is very good at balancing, it would appear.
"When he was a little puppy, we had to carry him up the ladder. But he soon learned how to climb up the rungs himself. You just have to be behind him so he has the confidence to get up.”
Mr Haughton was given Axel when he was a puppy by a relative who could no longer look after him as he was doing shift work. He was going to be taken to an animal rescue centre but in the end Mr Haughton decided to keep him.