Misplaced Fears

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

We have handicapped doors in our house, you know, the kind with the long handles that you pull on rather than a round knob that has to be turned.  When Duke was about 10 months old, he could open them.  We worried that he would be getting into and out of every room.  While there wasn't one of these knobs on the front door, there is one on the garage. 
Our fears never came to fruition.  He never really took advantage of his power.  And it comes in handy now; one of his jobs is to let the dogs out.
There have been some odd things happening around here.  I've been writing a lot of them off because frankly, I can't be too sure if I've locked the dogs up, or been sure to shut the door from the garage all the way.  The dogs have been roaming free at odd times.  I know this by the trail of dog hair and doggie snot on my couch.  I know becasue they are at the door to greet me when I come home.  And I now know this because Hunter has opened doors consistently enough now that I no longer question my memory.
In fact, yesterday he escaped the house 3 times.  First he opened the door to their room twice- once in the middle of the night.  I came out early and locked them up again.  While I was making my coffee, in they trot, Hunter having sprung them.
Later we had them in their room again; once again a strange appearance.
That afternoon Trixie was whining at the window.  I thought maybe a cat or bird was out there.  Nope, it was Hunter, in our neighbor's yard, sniffing around and doing his business.  Miraculously I caught him and dragged him back in, being ABSOLUTELY certain to shut the doors tight incase the change in pressure from people going in and out had somehow freed him.  A few moments later, he was out again!  That little dog had figured out how to open the door form the kitchen to the garage, where the overhead door was open, and escape.
Door handle covers for our type of knobs are exceedingly expensive.  It would be $100+ to buy covers for them.  If I wasn't going to do that for the kids, I'm certainly not going to for the dogs.  So what options do I have?  (Hunter has a microchip, so they'd eventually track us down if he got really lost.  You can look at that how you like.)