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Our dog can open our doors now!

Basenji Talk
  • When we moved in our house, before dogs, we changed all our handles to lever interior handles.

    Our tri has figured out how to open all the "open into room" doors. He scares the heck out of my teen daughter in the shower, because he sounds like a burglar the way he pulls on the handles to open them.

    He wants in, he just opens the door!

    We used to leave through the mud room throw a treat on the floor and shut the door. Now within seconds he's coming through the door. Good thing he can't open round handles that lead outside.

  • Ha, ha, ha those little rascal Basenjis!! They're quite determined aren't they.

  • Video.. video.. :D :D ;)

  • They are smart enough to learn almost anything…and only do it when THEY want to!

  • Ah, this gave me a good laugh. Simply amazing what these dogs can do. :D

  • That is really cool that is as long as ours never learns. You got a really smart and nice baby.

  • I hear you with Lever handles… gggg ... doesn't take a Basenji long to figure them out....

  • We have to keep the downstairs bedroom and bath locked, or Kivu will open them and invite all the others in to wreak havoc!

    Terry

  • Oh no…!!!
    We're moving in two weeks to a place with all levered handles!!!
    I'll keep you posted!

  • Well, my wife said she went out in the front yard to work in the garden, shut the mud room door but left the garage door open.

    She looks over and our dog is standing in the garage entrance looking out wondering what to do next. My wife yelled him to get back in the house and went after him. He ran actually listened to her and went back in the house.

    She will not make that mistake again. He had to open two doors to get out that time.

    We normally think of our house as a submarine, where all door must be closed behind you to provide multiple blocks so they can't get out. The door opening thing changes everything now.

  • OMG - are you lucky she didn't take off!

    My first beastie learned how to open the sliding screen patio door to get into the house but I had to install a little bracket so he could go back outside (he couldn't grasp the concept of pushing in a different direction to go out compared to coming in). My current beastie can almost get the door open - soon she'll make it.

  • Our big dog Max (not a Basenji) jumps up to open the doors, all 11 1/2 stones of him. He has a trick of letting himself out into the garden in the evening just when we settle down to watch tv. Unfortunately as he has never learned to shut doors, it involves one of us having to get up and shut it after him.

  • Actually our tri is a male.

    At least he actually is a good listener, to some extent.
    He used to find a way to unclip him self from his leash on walks when he was about 2 years old by jerking sideways really fast. He would just pop off his leash. I would pick him up before he could take off. Needless to say we change the leash (was clip style clasps).

    Our girl opens our plate glass sliding door to the back yard. We have a fenced in back yard. She does it so often we just leave it open enough for them to come & go. We have learned to put locks on our gates as either we or someone was leaving the gate open. We also never let them out our sight and keep them locked in the house when we are gone.

    One time my neighbor calls me on the phone saying our Tri (Akima) was in his yard. I freaked out run over to his house all scared (the gate was wide open). I did not see him anywhere, so I ran back to the phone to ask what part of the yard he was in. I was all ready to call my wife and turn around. The dog was behind me looking at me like saying "what?".

    He ran back in the house while I went to the neighbors!

    I told him he's right here!

  • Our back exterior door has the dog door in it. I would just slide in the cover so our 2 couldn't get out. Then one day Katie just stood up and opened the backdoor by the handle. She wanted out, and by golly she WAS going out.

    It constantly astounds me how much they absorb from observation alone, and never let on, until the perfect opportunity arises. In this case the opportunity was the exterior house painters who were busy outside the gate in the front of the house, but those delicious lunches of theirs were on our back yard patio picnic table.:eek:

    Needless to say, we sprang for replacement lunches at McDonalds, but the dogs had home made meals of fresh tortillas with a variety of fillings, a partial roast beef sandwich, and a Subway foot long (unknown variety–it was decimated:D)

    Thank goodness they can't turn the round nobs!! BUT......

    Katie has the most dexterous toes and can determine within minutes any door that is not completely latched. She hooks that door open in a heartbeat and is in to anything she's been denied in the past (usually bathroom garbage, shoes, or dirty laundry)

  • Our Benji can open his crate from the outside. It has 2 sliding latches on each of the 2 doors. He lifts it up with his nose then pushes to the right until the first one pops out. Then he does it with the other one. We've put karabiner clips over the doors of all the crates when we don't want him getting in or when we don't want him letting another B out!!! He once managed to let himself out of his crate but hasn't done that for years. He's a bit thick tho. He sometimes opens the side door to his crate even when the front one is wide open!! :D
    Maybe he thinks of them as one for entry and one for exit. He likes to go in the side one and out the front one!!! :D

  • @Benkura:

    Our Benji can open his crate from the outside. It has 2 sliding latches on each of the 2 doors. He lifts it up with his nose then pushes to the right until the first one pops out.

    My 5mo pup, Liyah, can open the wire crates from the outside…and she is halfway there to opening the wire crates from the inside. :eek: When she is inside, I've watched her take her paw, move the sliding latch over and is working on flipping it up...I'm sure it is just a matter of time :rolleyes:. I know when she figures out how to get out that she would let her sidekicks, Ruby & Brando, out as well.

    I too have started using carabiners though (the real climbing ones that have the barrel lock on the outside...need the double protection with her!)...haven't seen her figure those out yet. At least I'm putting some of my old climbing equipment to use :D:D :rolleyes:!

  • @renaultf1:

    I too have started using carabiners though (the real climbing ones that have the barrel lock on the outside…need the double protection with her!)...haven't seen her figure those out yet. At least I'm putting some of my old climbing equipment to use :D:D :rolleyes:!

    That's too funny. :D Give her time and she'll have sussed it!!

    ps hope this works. Trying to use Quotes but never done it before!! :o

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