Keeping a dog out of a room with no door

[ladawn]

Toby will win no agility titles anytime soon so he isn’t the issue—Daisy is. We have successfully phased out crating because we are running out of space while preparing for this baby (originally had the dogs in what is now the baby’s room but that is no longer desirable). We moved the crates in the sunroom until it got too hot. We don’t want the crates in the living room (not enough room for the people to maneuver). Two big crates are hard to find homes for where they aren’t intrusive unless you have a pretty substantial house (which we don’t). It has been about 3 weeks and the liberation of the pups is working surprisingly well with one exception. Our formal dining room has no door. We keep all other doors in the house shut to limit access and temptation. The carpet in the formal dining room is off white. I don’t want the dogs in that room. It is in the front of the house and when the doorbell rings, or there is a knock at the door, or when the garage door opens, they have their little snouts pressed against that window trying to see what is going on. I am going to purchase a baby/pet gate, but I promise you, Daisy could compete in agility. I’ve seen her leap tall buildings in a single bound (OK, maybe not-but pretty dern close). That gate will be a joke in terms of stopping her; I’m hoping it will be a deterrent. My other thought was to buy the carpet protectors with the tacks on back and put those (tack side up) on the other side of the gate so that when she does clear it, that is what she will land on. I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that that was a good way to keep the dogs off of furniture. Is this cruel and unusual punishment? Does anyone else have any other suggestions (other than to reinstitute the crates)?

[samanthac]

Try what I did...

Get two of the rubber tipped gates and put one on the bottom and one right above it ($17.99 at Target) . Makes it about 6 feet high. Since most ceilings are 8' and doorways about 7', if she can jump that high and squeeze through a 1' opening then you need to rename her She-Ra! :)

[Bruce Lanthier]

You could train your dog(s) not to jump over the gates. That is what I did for my young girl. I think she could easily clear 2 stacked gates. It just seemed easier to train not to jump gates.

Yes, the tacks are cruel punishment.

[mmgy]

I have found that dogs that will clear a 4 or 5 foot fence in a skinny New York second, will not even consider putting a foot on a baby gate. I think they just know that they're inside, and that's the rule.

[samanthac]

Yes, mine are weird that way. They absolutely will not violate the sanctity of the baby gate...

...just everything else. :D

[mmgy]

Originally posted by samanthac
They absolutely will not violate the sanctity of the baby gate...

I think there's also a bit of relief, like thank-heaven-she-just-put-up-the-gate-and-didn't-lock-us-in-that-old-crate!!!:D

[Bruce Lanthier]

Once Betti was big enough she went over them at will, thus the training. Once I trained her not to jump, she got bigger and she would just bash right through. More training. Now she's my good girl. :D

[samanthac]

Athena is 7 and just too lazy :) The one time she did bump it and knock it over she learned real quick to never, ever touch the baby gate! :D


Disel is 7 months and so far leaves them be. He has thought about it, but for some reason always thinks twice! We'll see as he gets older though.

[samanthac]

Originally posted by mmgy
I think there's also a bit of relief, like thank-heaven-she-just-put-up-the-gate-and-didn't-lock-us-in-that-old-crate!!!:D

LOL...nah, they get crate time as soon as we leave the house. Otherwise they's be surfing counters, dumping the trash, drinking out of toilets and sleeping either on the sofa or my pillow. :D

The gates are to keep them contained while we are in the house. I have way too many rooms and not enough eyes to watch them. This way if they get too quiet I know I only have to look in two rooms to find out what is going on! ;)

Those gates are going to come in really handy in January when we add our third........ :D

[austin]

Hannah would always jump on the baby gate in our other house. We recently moved, and I was having a hard time getting the gate to lock over the door. She jumped up twice and knocked it over, causing a whole bunch of noise and commotion, and has not tried to jump on it since. So the answer might be to attach it so it will fall if she tries to jump on it at first, and she might scare herself/train herself not to jump on it.

As far as jumping over it, she loves to jump over anything that gets in her way when we are outside, but she never, ever tried to jump over the baby gate.

[Bruce Lanthier]

How I trained to not jump the gate -

Betti would always jump the gate when there was something on the other side that she wanted. So the training involved the normal occurences plus setting her up. Whenever she would jump the gate i would start saying NO,NO NO loudly and go after or stop her, depending on which side of the gate I was on. The idea behind repeating the NO's loudly was to get her attention and make the experience loud and uncomfortable for her. I would then get her scruff and march her towards the breached gate. Once she was motoring in the right direction on her own, usually a couple of steps I would release her and let her get back to the other side of the gate on her own with me following. When we got on the other side I would change my demeanor, call her a good girl and carry on. I could set her up by having someone do something that was exciting that she would want to involve herself in and then do the same corrections. She is jumping the gate to do something that she finds pleasing or interesting and I tried to make the whole gate jumping experience VERY unpleasant to her and it really didn't take a lot of times. Voice and demeanor (I am upset with you posture) were the keys during the correction, not necessarily grabbing the scruff but she wouldn't be wearing a collar and I needed to guide her in the proper direction, away from the fun. Consistancy was another key. Every time she jumped the gate it would be unpleasant. She NEVER "got away" with it.

One important thing to do in conjunction with the corrections is to let her know when it is OK to pass through the gate. She would be with me and I would open the gate and either call or let her follow me through. What I was trying to teach her is that it is OK to enter an area with the gate open just not to jump over. We have some gates on hinges but they are not always closed and when they are open I wanted the dogs to have access. If I just scolded her for jumping and never showed her how/when it was OK she might get the idea that I was scolding her for entering the area and not jumping the gate.

Our house is like the Panama Canal with gates all over. We use them to control our 2 yr old and the children my wife watches and to control the dogs and where they can be. Sometimes we herd one group from one room and the other group in.

[Bruce Lanthier]

Originally posted by austin
She jumped up twice and knocked it over, causing a whole bunch of noise and commotion, and has not tried to jump on it since. So the answer might be to attach it so it will fall if she tries to jump on it at first, and she might scare herself/train herself not to jump on it.

There you go. Make the experience unpleasant however you can. Dogs do not keep doing things they find unpleasant.

[Nina&Bill]

FWIW our bedroom has no door. I've kept both Smidgen & Amber out of it by placing a 6 foot folding screen in front of the doorway. Smidgen never bothered it (and the cat could go under it to get to her "sanctuary" in our bedroom when she wanted some alone time. Amber left it alone until after she completed beginner's Agility, then she'd nose it aside. I rigged up a cowbell on the inside & a chair right next to the accesible side of the screen & the nosing stopped. Now she leaves the screen alone as well, and no more chair or cowbell :).

It's just someting that works for us since the screen is easy for us to manouver & it comes in handy if you need to screen off a particular area when company comes :D .

Nina

[ladawn]

Gate Training begins tonight! Thanks Bruce and everyone for your input!

[codglvr]

Balder had cleared a gate, ate the eyes out of a stuffed animal and cleared the gate to get back out of that room when he was about a year old. He has never since done that again that I can find evidence of anyway. I just worked on the training aspect of "the dogs aren't allowed into that room unless I invite them". BTW the gate is still there but goes untouched by canine paws. :)