Tayl

So tonight I went out with my family to visit with family friends for a few hours (approx. 7 hours) this is probably the longest he's been alone since I've had him, someone is usually home, if not when when I leave then soon after. So when we left Row went in his crate settled down like a good little man (he doesn't always) and we left. We come home and were greater by TWO dogs... There should only have been one out of her crate the other was supposed to be crying in his (not that I want him to cry, he just usually is).
Now the crate hooks closed then has a "pin" that locks it at the bottom and top.

Now I usually lock the top and only latch the bottom because he'd have to push at a precise point in order for it to pop open. Obviously I will be locking it from now on, but he still managed to open the top lock! So now I'm wondering will he be able to both? Geez hahaha.
Anyways my man was a good boy unexpectedly, nothing is missing and it looks like the only causality was my bath robes belt. I'm so impressed he even left the slippers alone, which since he was crated I figured would be safe on the floor instead of a high place. He did knock over a container I have for holding treats and random pet stuff which he got open and did eat all of the sample food I had for treats, which didn't agree with him so I was gonna throw out, but he didn't even touch the cat treats! Which are probably no good but still! Haha.
Now as impressive as opening his crate is, I also closed my door so Bonnie wouldn't go in a bug him with her freedom. So in order to great us at the basement door he had to open his crate and the door. I am kind of wondering if I didn't close my door tight and Bonnie came and pushed it open as she is wont to do ( which might have given Rowan more incentive to be free...) or he pawed the handle enough to (not sure the right term) unlatch it and then Bonnie pushed it open, because the door swings inward and I don't think he's figured that out yet, I have seen him try door handles before and since my parents put in the lever ones it's definitely something he could learn.
So yeah figured it would be an amusing story. Anyone else have any crazy Dobie smart stories?


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CH4Sure

Well not a smart crate story but I have a really smart pool table story! One morning not too long ago, my husband was hearing rustling noises as if someone was scrunching paper, it was coming from behind where he was sitting so he turned around, saw nothing, all dogs were quiet so he didn't think much of it and started watching tv. Didn't give much thought to it until a few minutes later when once again he hears "that rustling noise." This time he gets up goes into our living room, sees nothing so goes back to the tv, a min later he hears it again, he goes back and still doesn't see anything, Each time he would walk towards the room the noise would suddenly stop. lol. A few minutes later the noise starts up again, this time he's determined to figure out where that noise was coming from, so he sneaks into the living room real quietly and lo and behold, what does he see? Bella standing on our pool table! Like a statue. She must have heard him sneaking in and each time she froze like a statue and stopped chewing the paper, this time she was caught standing perfectly still with the paper evidence in her mouth. Didn't make eye contact with him, she just froze really still with her head down. We think she might have thought that if she froze like a statue he wouldn't see her and she would blend in with the room. Funny thing is for the longest time she did. Very sneaky move on her part. For me I will never let him live that one down. How do you not notice a Doberman STANDING in the middle of a pool table?

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Tayl

Haha oh wow. Rowan so far hasn't tried the statue technique but he does have a very obvious slow stalk :p


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Beaumont67

My Amy would go out to our retirement home reno, most days with me.
One day the carpenter wanted a fast bite to eat, so I locked old girl in the living room and we left for lunch.
Upon returning, Amy was laying on the front cement porch, by the front door...just waiting for Dad patiently, for my return.

I had no fear ever, of her crossing the road, but I am scratching my head...how the heck did she get out.
She had searched the house floor plan, for an escape route.
Turns out, like most warm days in the summer months, we often left the back door open, from the sunroom...which I forgot about.
I was so proud of her, realizing how happy and content...given much freedoms, in life.

When RIP Amy was 9-10 weeks young, I taught her to push the entrance garage door open, pushing with her paws...and left ajar slightly, with inswing door...she quickly learned to enter the garage or house side door...as she got older, I gave up trying to keep a nice coat of paint, on these two exterior door bottoms...LOL.
- if she was outside by herself, I left the door cracked open a 1/4" and Amy came into the house, when she pleased, a few minutes later usually // she comes in & all Dad had to do was shut the side door
- at 4.5 months old, Amy got out of her crate once, and nothing destroyed // so after that the crate went away, and she had full privilege's and run of the home, when we were gone

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------------Kelly & (Amy - RIP @ 11.7 y/o)

brw1982

He may have let himself out and opened the basement door...or Bonnie may have helped him with one or both of those things.

Fiona can let herself out of a wire crate and she can open Tali's crate, too. (Tali doesn't mess with crate doors at all.) For this reason I have to gate off the room Tali is crated in when I leave or I come home to both my girls loose in the house (which I can't allow for various reasons).

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Old Drum's Crimson Crisp, "Fiona"
Old Drum's Fiery Rumors of Taliesin, "Tali"

Toby'shuman

Not an escape story, but an entry story.

Our old chicken run ran along the side of our fencing (fence is 2 metres high) with the coop abutting it. Along the bottom area of the fence (around 2'.6" high there was chicken wire to stop the chickens poking their heads through the chain link fencing and so lose them due to my rather swift Terriers biting them off.
Anyhow.
My son had parked our Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4 close to the fence as we were having a delivery of water due that morning.
All was fine and dandy as some folk might say when we heard the most terrible racket, screeching, flapping, dogs barking in excitement. We dashed out to see both my Terriers and Toby who was around 7 months old running amok, chasing the chickens who were fleeing for their lives.

They had jumped/climbed onto the car, jumped over the small piece of fence between them on to the top of the coop, climbed/jumped down and they were in.
We dashed forward, into the run and made a grab for the dogs, who were having none of it.
Chicken chasing was just too much fun.
After several minutes of lunging, shouting, kicking and grabbing we got hold of the Terriers and Toby. (who I swear if he could talk would have been saying 'I only did what Uncle Jack and Uncle Russell did.')

Sasha my old Boxer girlie had been watching all of this through the fence, fascinated, when she obviously saw a chicken making a break for it.
Chomp, one dead chicken and one very pleased Boxer with it in her mouth were to be seen by the gate.

Needless to say we never parked the car there ever again. We also built an overhang on the house side of the fence to stop the dogs ever scaling/jumping the fence (as we have on the outside stretch of the fence for the foxes) as a just in case until we could move it all.

We have now moved the run, the coop and have a double layer of fencing which if any dog/fox were to scale/jump over would trap them between the two layers.

Ha, they shall not get in.

SoCalGirl

I would not be surprised if he did it all himself - Elke learned to open doors at about 4 months and she can really drive me crazy with it sometimes. I have to double lock her crate closed too...

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Amanda

www.dobermanassistance.org

Tayl

Dobes are so amazing =D haha good thing we love them!


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Sharly

I love how smart dobermans and sometimes you're like Noooooo!

Toorc knows he is only allowed on the sofa if I place his sucky blanket on it. And one afternoon during nap time, I noticed he wasn't in bed with me anymore. Went to check downstairs and found him sleeping. He had dragged his blanket with him and somehow managed to get it and himself onto the sofa -______-

Tayl

Aww that's so adorable!!


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dglvr

I used to have to padlock one of my dogs into his crate. :S Escape artists, the lot of them!

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Tayl

I might have to start doing that! He almost did it again tonight while be was in timeout, he popped the bottom open and unlocked the top but didn't finish unhooking it :p I want to get him a new crate that is a bit smaller (he's in my parents old Newfies crate and it doesn't fold up small to fit in a car) with probably a different style of lock.


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Levis Friend

I believe that your dog is more than smart enough top open up a crate.

Our old boy Zach used to have a nice bed in the living room. Each time we came or went he was "sound asleep" on his bed. Until one day I sat down on the couch to make a phone call when I got in the door. The couch nice and warm.

So we set him up, by leaving the sliding doors unlocked and going out. On the way back, I parked up the road and snuck in the side door. There was my buddy, REALLY asleep on the couch. He even had his head on the pillow.

You should have seen the expression on his face when i caught him red handed and gave him hell. He never did it again. :-)

Instant Noodle

Duke doesn't try to escape his crate...but he knows how to tug at your heart strings.

"Load up" means he needs to go into his crate. Lately, he'll make a beeline to his crate, only to make a quick u-turn right before entering it and start jumping on you to initiate play. This way, you forget the reason why you asked him to "load up" in the first place.

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hjgrl

Lol, Luci does this as well with my husband's favorite chair. She always either meets us at the door or will be laying on her bed b/c she isn't allowed in that chair unless he invites her up with him. Well one day he said he came in and for whatever reason immediately sat down in that chair to take off his shoes and it was warm........ little devil sneaks up on there all the time I'm pretty sure but I don't tell dh that.

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Tayl

Haha sneaky buggers.

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