Dune

We have a dog door from our entry into our garage. It was put in there many years ago when we had a pet dog. Shadow was a tall dog and so we installed it pretty high in the door. When we started raising puppies, our leader told us to make sure the puppies didn’t use the dog door. At first we were very watchful to see if they would figure out how to use it. Our cat uses it regularly to get in and out of the house. I’m sure they all would have learned with just a little instruction. But none of them did, until Dune, puppy #7.

You see, Dune likes to push on things. Plus she is very inquisitive. A couple of days ago, I stepped out into the garage and while I was out there, she pushed on the dog door a bit so it flapped. Last night when Zodiac and Dune hear the sound of the garage door opening, the signal that Bill was coming home from work, they both ran down the stair to wait for him to come in. I love to see this nightly ritual so I was watching from the top of the stairs.

Dune got tired of waiting so she went up to the door and pushed. It just happened to be on the dog door. Her little head went out and the next thing I know her back feet are off the ground and she is half in and half out of the dog door, high centered. I’m too far away to do anything but watch. It only takes another moment for Dune to get her control of her body and her tail end disappears through the dog door. I was talking on the cell phone with Bill so I alert him to the problem. He was right on top of it. When he heard the sound of the dog door flapping, he turned around and caught our little girl. Thank goodness Bill is right there ready to plop her back inside the house.

Our cat uses the dog door but it looks like we are going to have to lock it so that no one can go out the dog door but the cat can still get in. In his old age, our cat likes us to open the door for him to go out anyway, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Hopefully with a few weeks of the door being locked to exits Dune will stop pushing on it.