It depends on the dog and your situation. I have never and will never allow my dogs to be outside when no one is home. A concrete fence would probably solve most of my issues (snakes, tree limb breaking fence, neighbor kids harassing or even poisoning). I'm almost 60, have had exactly zero dogs who loved being in their crate (except my first rottie who wanted it for sleeping in, gate open.. she didn't NEED a crate from the time she was about 6 mos old). But if you give them good quality toys and chews, dogs generally chill out. They sleep up to 18 hrs a day so I consider a crate a good safe haven. My basenji is fine left in my bedroom now that she's grown. My 2nd basenji didn't destroy things, she'd pee on my bed.. so she got crated. My first was incredibly dog aggressive, so the rotties and chow ran free, she was crated when I was out, slept with me at night (as did/do the other 2).
Door is magic
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LOL, Rita…yes it is amusing...at first. My girl Liyah can open doors by putting both paws around the door knob, turning the knob and knows to push or pull to get the door open. Usually when I walk her, when we get home, I tell her - open it and she opens the door. She'd do it anyway, so I might as well give it a command (so it at least appears I have some semblance of control :rolleyes:;)).
Thanks, thanks a LOT. You have now given me nightmares. Do you have to put latches on all your doors? OMG a basenji that can go into any room it wants. We already have Arwen who will push doors open to go in my husband's office and steal his cookies, lol.
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So glad Malaika can't open doors
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Abbey practiced on the front door forever before she hit on the twist method. Door opens in however so the first time she actually opened it a crack it whacked her on the nose. Escape thwarted. Problem solved.
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Mine have all learnt to open doors so where we don't want them to go in a particular room we have hook latches high on the door. So far I've only had one who learnt to close doors however!
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Thanks, thanks a LOT. You have now given me nightmares. Do you have to put latches on all your doors? OMG a basenji that can go into any room it wants. We already have Arwen who will push doors open to go in my husband's office and steal his cookies, lol.
Yes, we have deadbolts for all doors that go outside. We have 2 baby gates stacked on top of each other to keep Liyah from going upstairs - so those rooms are off limits unless she chooses to body slam the lower gate :rolleyes: and then she opens the door to my bedroom to get the upstairs dog treats. The rooms downstairs all have latches and all have baby gates in front of them. Many days we have a break-in - inside room break; but never a break-out (to the outdoors) which is all I really care about. LOL, she's a pip that one. :eek::D
And Patty…none of mine close the doors, although now I'm tempted to try training Liyah that trick. That would be funny.
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Goodness!
Just today, I went to take a nap and brought Paco into the bedroom with me and closed the door to keep him in there and out of unsupervised trouble. I woke up to him on his hind legs, pawing at the door, and then watched in shock as he sniffed the doorknob, then tried to turn it with his teeth! I'm sure that if it were a lever-style doorknob, he'd have been outta there!
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It's funny but only about the first three times they do it!
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We have lever door handles inside our house so its easy access for our tri, if the door opens inward. Quite a surprise for a guest going to the bathroom!
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We have a combo of lever and knob style. So far (knock on wood) Kipawa is not interested in opening up doors for himself. During the day, we close the doors to the laundry room and the bedrooms (one bedroom is the parrot room). He follows me like a shadow and waits for me to go through a door before he does (thank you Therese and Kevin!).
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He is so well trained!
