Doodle scratched through screen and jumped out window!

[Kim Starbuck]

Hi!

My dog Cisco is very mellow and well behaved - he is 4 years old, never a chewer or destroyer. Last week, I was at work and I got a call from a VERY kind stranger that my dog was crossing the parkway by my house all by himself. I panicked, unsure how he could have possibly gotten out of the house.

Luckily he was unharmed - thank goodness. I came home from work early, to find that he had jumped on the kitchen table, and scratched his way through the screen and jumped 10 feet down into the backyard.

This is SO unlike him, as he had gotten plenty of exercise and generally is SO mellow. I was worried someone had tried to break in and he chased them out the window?? But I have no clue.

Has anyone's doodle ever done something like this? SOMETHING had to have made him want to jump out of the window... if only he could speak! 

Any thoughts?? See picture of the window attached.

[Amy and Annabelle]

That little stinker. I am assuming he has been neutered. Maybe he saw a squirrel or other critter running around. Last week my husband was out working in the yard. Annabelle was out there with him. She must have found a hole the rabbits had made and squeezed under there. She got out into the main part of the yard that isn't fenced. It must have scared her to not figure out how to get back in. She came up on the deck. I happened to look out and see her looking in. I thought my husband must be right behind her. Imagine my surprise when I saw she was all by herself. I let her in and went back out, found the husband and asked him where Annabelle was. He looks around the yard a bit, and says, she was here a minute ago. He was shocked when I told him what happened. She had never done that before. Has never even tried to get out. I don't know why she did it this time. Luckily, Annabelle isn't a wanderer or decided to become one.

[Kim Starbuck]

HA! So glad you got her back inside.

Yes, he is neutered. He is not much of a squirrel chaser... the only thing that makes him go a little crazy is food. If he saw or smelled some sort of food, I could see him doing something nuts like jumping through the window... so maybe somehow a hamburger ended up in the backyard?? Who knows!! Now I know to close my windows when I am not home!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Wow, I'm glad he wasn't injured! 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

At some point in time some of my dogs have gone through screens because our windows are low.  It has always been that they wanted to come to us.  I have not been pleased with their love and devotion!  Last time we had our screens re-done with a stronger screening supposedly designed for pets.  There are guards you can buy to make the screens more secure. If it's only one window that is a problem, I would purchase a freestanding decorative screen and put it in front of the window if it is open when you leave????

[F, Calla & Luca]

Glad Cisco was OK and kudos to the stranger.

[Adina P]

Yikes!  I could totally see my dogs doing this if another dog, squirrel or cat was close by on the other side. 

[Ginny Nightingale]

Everyone who knows me on DK might be interested to know that Cisco is my dog Lyric's son--a pup I raised and that has been a dream pet for Kim--so much so that her sister is now getting a relative of Cisco for her family from the litter I am currently raising--so this is really weird and not at all like our lovely boy, Cisco. It remains unexplained why he would suddenly behave this way, but let's hope it never happens again! So glad for a happy ending and a good samaritan that stopped and picked him up!!

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

Just read your story Kim, and I am so glad Cisco was unharmed. 

[Binny P]

I have had a very similar thing happen. My dog Zona (not a doodle) was the perfect guy -- he stayed home while I was at work, never chewed or destroyed anything, was totally calm. Then at 7 or 8 years old, he took to scratching through screens and window jumping!!

The first time it happened, I was convinced someone must have tried to break in or something odd must have happened, but nope. He had scratched through a window screen over my bed and jumped about 8 feed down. Once he figured out he could do it, he became a window menace!

All that to say, it can be a new behavior and may not be an indication that anything was wrong/is wrong, but now that you know he has done it, watch out -- it may become a favorite game!