Hi All,

Nando has trained himself to open all of our doors in the house! He is crate trained so not a problem when we're out, but when we're in and he fancies coming up stairs to meet us, he will just open the back room door and run upstairs. He is only 9 months so stairs are off limits to him anyway!

We have changed the back room door to a round knob and he can still open it! He wraps his paw around it like he has human hands. With the patio/conservatory doors, however, they are just leavers and he can open them much more easily.

I'm worried for a number of reasons, firstly we're getting work done in the back garden and I think if a builder was in the garden that Nando wasn't sure of he may bark or snap- after all he is a guarding breed (although not trained or encouraged to do these things!) and obviously the worry that he could get out too. Also his hips! He is too young to be on his hind legs all the time.

I think that just locking all of the doors will help as he will soon realise that the handles 'don't work' however as he jumps up and just 'peddles' with his paws, he has been known to unlock the door, too as we leave the keys in there.

He is *too* clever!!

Josh

I have been in people's houses where they have turned the handles the opposite way so that door handles have to be be lifted and not depressed to stop the dogs opening doors.  I don't know how they did it but it seems to work.

It's not possible on our doors unfortunately :( The door to the conservatory used to be our door to the patio, so has a strong lock on it. The locks are the same as that you get on a PVC door.

Put a dog gate the other side of the door, then he will realise it is a waste of time opening the door :)

Hooks and eyes on the top of both sides of the door ....it was the only way to stop our houdini lab Simba!

we moved into an edwardian house , with original doors upstairs , but they have hooks and eyes on them...the lady used to have very clever cats !

He is only 9 months so stairs are off limits to him anyway!

Why? Our GSD slept upstairs with us from 8 weeks old and soon mastered the stairs. My dogs are very much part of the family so are allowed the run of the house so they can be with us.

I think locking him in a room will do more damage than allowing him to use the stairs!

>Our GSD slept upstairs with us from 8 weeks old and soon mastered the stairs.

Using stairs isn't recommended for growing puppies, especially in larger breeds; going upstairs puts unnatural and excessive stress on the hips and going downstairs puts unnatural and excessive strain on the shoulders, and can lead to joint problems in later life. If you want your pup upstairs with you, then carry him up and down until he's nearer fully grown.

Of course if you want at least one area of the house that's free from dog hair, as many ardent dog lovers do, then there's no need for him to come upstairs at all, which saves the problem of damaging joints!

This drives me CRAZY!! Not only do you feel you have no authority over where the dog can and can't go but they ruin the UPVC doors when they do the paddle scratching, don't they?  Well, I tried loads of things but tbh the only thing that worked was locking the door and hanging the keys on a hook beside the door.  I tried the water hose treatment too(which might work for you) but that didn't work because I couldn't be there every time he went outside so sometimes he would get rewarded by getting back into the house and sometimes he would need to put up with the water.  It was a gamble he was willing to take!! So we stopped.
I took the outside hose into the kitchen via the windowand hid for a while.  As soon as the dog starts scratching the door or jumping up, you give them a squirt of the hose.  You need to time this perfectly and also hide so they don't know it's you that's dishing out the punishment.  Continue and be consistant till he stops(apparently!LOL).
Or you could just do what I did and leave the door open.  Saves the door getting wreck when you know he's coming in when he likes anyway!! Sorry!

I have a similar problem first with whispa mainly our bedroom door now I leave the door open and now with brooke. I have found the quickest and simplest way ius some form of lock or. Small bolt. Btw when my. Kids were young I did the same then for safety so they could never explore somewhere I didn't want. Now the doors r locked brooke is giving up trying but took a while and some ruined paintwork and pvc

Why? Our GSD slept upstairs with us from 8 weeks old and soon mastered the stairs. My dogs are very much part of the family so are allowed the run of the house so they can be with us.

I think locking him in a room will do more damage than allowing him to use the stairs!

Until he has developed properly, the unnatural strain of stairs on his hips and joints is too much at his age. I don't plan on letting him have free run of the house until he is much older- if at all!

Plus the dog hair comes into play, too!

This drives me CRAZY!! Not only do you feel you have no authority over where the dog can and can't go but they ruin the UPVC doors when they do the paddle scratching, don't they?


Not just the PVC ones, but the glass and also the wooden door to the living room! :(

I think we will just have to keep it locked constantly until he gives up. We can't really drill a hook and eye onto the PVC ones and changing the handles is out of the question, too.

Dont know what it is with doors but we never shut internal doors(dont have that many now though as our house it pretty much open plan) I guess we gave in,between the dogs and the cat we would get no peace with a closed door.I even put a doorstop on our upstairs bathroom,as the door swings shut and peg and daws have both managed to lock themselves in,the stupid thing is they dont even bark they just stay until rescued.
I also dont know why with two dogs they both fight to get through the door first,its only the garden but they still push eachother out of the way which results in somone getting thier head banged.

Our first dobe learned to push down door handles and push the door open away from him. Then he learned to pull the door towards him. Then we turned the handles upside down and he re-learned how to do the same again the opposite way. So it is not easy. I think hooks and eyes or bolts are really the only way, but of course door damage is a problem. We ourselves don't have a problem now - one of our bitches opens the back door by the handle, but to come in only, and she is so accurate is doesn't scratch it at all. However, I saw a gadget advertised which would have been really useful to me in the past to protect our doors from scratches.It is a perspex panel which fits over the door handle, and reaches to the floor. It seems to clip under the door somehow, so is easily removed when you want to be posh. I think it was in the House of Bath catalogue.