About a week ago Rich installed a fancy high end in-the-wall doggy door so the hounds could come and go at their leisure to the back yard. This was fantastic, I thought, because I am not interested in making a career out of being Doogy Doorlady, which seemed to be rapidly becoming my full time job now that the weather has turned cold and the people door is shut all the time.
The Fantastic Doggy Door is not without challenges, however......
#1. Rowan gets on a power trip when the five other hounds are outside and she's not. She lies just inside the doggy door and, God Help!! -- the dog on the outside who wants to come inside. She thoroughly enjoys the power trip of being In Control of the door, and no one is allowed to enter while she is exercising her right as the supreme redhaired bitch of the home. It's the closest thing to a smile on her face that you can imagine.
#2. Jewel refuses to acknowledge that she can exit through the door herself if I'm anywhere to be seen. After all, I live to serve her, and serve I shall......she whines, barks and does everything in her power to get me over to the people door to open it (even though the doggy door is less than 12" to the side of it) rather than just go out her own door. If I refuse, she refuses to go out, and 15 minutes later the Princess routine to get the people door open for her starts again. Sometimes I just give in to her demands to shut her up which I know just perpetuates the cycle. I am well trained am I not?
#3. Rowan, unlike Jewel, flat refuses to go out the door. Although she is a tad too small, she can fit but simply refuses to do so.
#4. With a doggy door, the dogs have more access to the outside to go bark bark bark whenever they feel like it, unlike before, when I could choose to just not let them outside when a barking opportunity presented itself (squirrel, crows, UPS trucks coming up the road, etc.)
I'm not sure that the Doggy Door has resulted in any less energy expenditure on my part. With having to still let Rowan in and out, get up to move her physically from the door so the other dogs can enter, and getting up to call them inside after barking adventures, it's about dead even for me so far.
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