'Crazy Smart' Shih Tzu Puppy Uses Playpen as a Hamster Wheel to Roll Closer to Brother — Watch!

When a puppy named Tigo wanted to move closer to his older brother, Payton, he didn't let the confines of his playpen stop him.

The resourceful pup used his pen like a hamster wheel, flipping it over repeatedly as he traveled toward Payton.

The canines' owners, Brian and Rachel Hunter, of Savage, Minnesota, tell PEOPLE it was dinner time for the two Shih Tzus when Tigo's innovative incident occurred. Tigo had finished his food well before Payton, whom the couple has had for about 14 years.

"Because he's a puppy, he inhales his food, so we're like, 'Oh, we'll put him into his playpen just so Payton can finish because, being our little old man, he takes forever to eat," Brian says.

Brian — who's been documenting both pets' antics for their Instagram and Tiktok accounts (both @ShihTzusofSavage) — was filming Payton as he noticed Tigo in the background rolling toward him.

"The funny thing is that Payton, if you watch the video, [Tigo] doesn't even faze him," Brian says. "He's just like, 'Oh, whatever.'"

Rachel describes Tigo as "a bundle of energy." 

"He's crazy, crazy smart," she says. "He can figure out anything and everything very, very quickly. So I think he just quickly realized, 'Well, if I can't jump out through the top of this, I can just make it roll forward.'"

The couple welcomed Tigo last fall after they lost another dog, Rigby, the previous summer and wanted a new playmate for Payton.

Payton, Brian says, is "super laid back." "He is also a snuggler," he adds. "He's a typical stubborn Shih Tzu."

"We'll often refer to him as our grumpy little old man because Tigo will kind of get up in his face like, 'Want to play?' And he just won't have anything to do with it," Rachel adds. 

When Payton was diagnosed with a brain tumor in March, the couple was told he might not live more than a few weeks. But after getting him treatment, Brian says, "He's just outlived all of our expectations." They're also grateful that it hasn't changed his personality.

Despite their age difference, Rachel says Payton "tolerates puppy energy pretty well."

When Tigo moved in, Brian says the pup was "really interested" in Payton.

"He'd kind of follow him around everywhere, and Payton was just kind of, 'Whatever,'" he recalls.

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"They were both down on the couch, and Tigo just wanted to snuggle," he continues. "And his look of astonishment when Payton would sit there and let him snuggle next to him was just ... He'd be so happy and excited."

Brian says the response since posting the video on social media has been "pretty amazing."

"The community has been great in terms of just thinking it's silly and funny," he says. "A lot of people saying, 'My Shih Tzu does the same thing. That would be my Shih Tzu.'"