Friday, March 22, 2013

Opening Doors, Slice 22 of 31

He stood at the front door.  Front paws on the doorknob. Turning it.  He mimicked what he had watched a thousand times.

Max was fairly young - probably 4 or 5 months old.  A friend and two of her granddaughters came to visit.  Max was in heaven children to play with.  They romped they ran.  They took him out on a leash.  The three of them played hard for better than an hour.  Then the girls brought Max in and reminded their grandmother that it was almost time to leave for the movie.

She smiled and told them to wait for her she would be out directly.  The girls took the leash off and walked out the door.  Max was heart broken.  They had left without him.  He turned to me and cried.  Visibly upset he cried.  Trying to tell me that the girls forgot him.

I continued to talk to my friend.  Max went and stood by the front door and pawed it.  Looking back at me to see if I would take action.  I didn't.

Finally, he turned to me with such a look of disgust on his furry face.  He then stood up put both front paws on either side of the doorknob and turned it. I was very grateful that he didn't know you have to pull at the same time.  He was visibly frustrated when the front door did not open.

I called him to me just as one of the girls came back in to hurry her grandmother along.

The incident made me laugh as I went back to my daily life.  The next day Max mastered opening the sliding glass door at the back of the house.  Locking it made no difference.  As our other dogs came to live with us he taught each of them this little routine.  The door stays closed now because there is a chain lock above where he can reach.

As I look through my memories and the snapshots in my mind I can see him clearly standing up trying to open that door.  It was one of the few times I was glad that the front door sticks.  

8 comments:

  1. Max was a very smart dog! My dogs all learn to ring the bells dangling from the door handle to alert me to their need to exit, but turning the handle??? Never.

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  2. I love visualizing the look he gave you, so disgusted that he had to do it himself.

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  3. Aww what a cute pup! He's clearly very smart too! :)

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  4. Oh my goodness, what a smart dog! If we left the sliding glass door open a little, our bigger dogs knew to push sideways & open it, but I never saw them work at a doorknob. Only our cat tried that. I love hearing about Max, Ruth!

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  5. Oh yes he all but said - Then I will do it myself!!!"

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  6. Th's why I've always believed he was an enchanted boy with a fur coat.

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  7. I think he is very smart. Nothing like a proud parent huh.

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  8. I can picture your dog and his smartness. Great dog story!

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