Doodles and Doors

[Lynda Kamrath]

Oh my!  Not even thinking of doggie doors, how do these dogs learn to use the regular doors in your house?  We only have two knobs in our house, on the front door and coat closet, and the dogs have not figured out how to turn a knob yet, but they can (and have) worked all the other ways to get doors open.

First of all, a sliding glass door.  Hondo used to stand up on the door and shift his weight to open the slider.  Freaked out a repair man who came to the front door and a huge dog opened the slider to come in the house.  We have since replaced this door with a heavier one that is hard for even me to open.

Next are the pocket doors.  We have them for all interior doors and closets.  No problem.  Dogs just put their paw on the door and slide it enough to get their nose in the crack and then open the door.  We have locks on the bathroom doors for privacy, but all other doors can be opened anytime they want to open them.

Exterior doors and doors to the shop and garage are levers so they can be opened easily when your hands are full.  Well, that is the specialty of our ALD.  He has figured out that if you want to open a door you just stand up on it and push down the handle.  So we have to lock the doors from the side not facing the outdoors when we are out of the house.  You can imagine the confusion there!  One time I came home to find Harpo waiting for me in the driveway.  He had opened the door into the shop and then the door out of the shop to the front of the house.

So security with dogs?  Luckily, usually one of us is home but privacy and security are not the things our dogs are concerned with.  They just love the independence of being able to let themselves in and out when they are so inclined.

[Julie and Max]

Max has learned how to open cupboards with the push down child locks on them. The child locks are old, just never bothered to take them off. I laugh though because my daughters boyfriend cannot get them open and I always say to him: even the dog can do that!

[Joanna, Zoe & Bender]

LOL so hilarious that Harpo let the repair man in!  I can't even imagine the look on his face!  

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Wow, not sure how I would like that, very smart of them though.  My girls won't even push on a door to come in the door if it is partially open!  I'm ok with that.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We have a traditional doggy door so my guys haven't ever needed to figure out how to get outside. I am not sure they could figure it out, but I don't think I will let them know some of their dk buddies do know how....  :-}

[Rose Coward]

Funny!  Molly does open the pocket door when I don't lock. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I think that's amazing.....smart Doodles.  Murph has not figured out how to open any doors but he does know how to hurl his body through the screen door to get to a passing dog.  Guinness is too small to do anything about opening doors.