The Door Into Summer

On Monday, I had a dog door fitted. Katie seems not to have experienced one before, and wouldn’t go near it. Then I found that if I wedged it open, she would happily go through. I figured that I’d let her get used to an exit being there, and later teach her how to open it herself.

Over the last three days, she has been running in and out of the open door, but still ignoring it when closed.

So today, I wanted to move some heavy stuff from the conservatory to the garage, and the quickest way is through the badly overgrown garden, and the gate that keeps Katie out of that. In preparation, I shut the conservatory/living room door behind me, having unwedged the dog door, so she wouldn’t get into the yard and dash through the gate.

You know where this is going, don’t you!

The gate is open, the garage door is open, and I am pulling a 12kg ungainly box through and into the garage. There is a small *bang* and a beagle sized missile flying through the door, past me and into the glorious overgrown thorny garden.

I managed to guide her back into the conservatory, shut the doors behind me, and opened the connecting door to put her back in the living room

Whoosh! Through the door, straight out into the kitchen, and *LEAP*.

What a good game!

So I corralled her again, *locked* the dog door (I know, all the wrong messages) and finished my task.

Then, having shut everything, I unlocked the dog door and called Katie.

“LEAP”. Straight through. Brilliant. I left her sniffing in the yard, and came in to type this.

Three paragraphs in. Scratch-scrath, whimper, repeatedly.

So she knows how to go out through the dog door. I just need to teach her it is exactly the same process coming in!

One Comment

  1. chris
    August 22, 2019
    Reply

    And the next day, she not only remembered how to get out, but she tentatively pushed the door open, inbound, and carefully stepped inside.

    It took her ages to do it (I was watching, from the next room), but she managed it on her own.

    So she knows how, now. She just needs to gain in confidence.

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