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We have a very smart puppy on our hands.
Cooper, our 6 month old Lab/Shephard mix managed to escape from his crate the second week that we had him by hitting the sides hard enough to seperate the top of the crate from the side of the crate. It made a hole large enough that he could crawl through.
We got a package of zip ties and reinforced the crate so he could not sperate the ties. All was good until this week. We have fully opened the crate so he could be more comfortable in it. Many crate come with a divider that you can move as the dog grows. This way the crate is sized so the dog has room to stand up and turn around and sleep comfortably but not so much room that the dog can makea potty corner. It helps with house training.
We removed the divider because Cooper has demonstrated good house training, ie no pooping and peeing in the house, and we thought he would like the extra space. Boy did he.
On Monday he greeted me at the door when I came home from work. I found one of the gate latches on the second door was not closed and he was able to squueze through. Solution, zip tie shut two of the three doors so we could not use them and accidently leave a latch open.
On Thursday my husband gets home from his Doctor appointment to be greeted by Cooper at the door. The latch on the front gate, the only one we used, was not closed. We always close those two latches. We have never left them open because we know the little guy can push through if he wants based on his first escape.
We hypothesized that he had figured out how to jar the latch open. So today we zip tied the front gate closed. I got home to a very slobbery floor, what the floor looked like on the days he did not try and escape, and both of the latches on the gate opened.
We have a very smart dog. He knows how to unlatch the crate from the inside. He figured out when he could not get through the one this time to try the second one. I think we are in trouble. (grins)
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