Baby gates

Many homes have them.  They are not one of my favorite things.   While we dogs DO rule this house, there is one thing that our human controls – which IS a bit of a challenge.  It’s called the baby gate.

We canines can go in every room in our house.  At times, our human will restrict our access to a room if she is not home – just for our own safety.  And the safety of some belongings.  For example,  Paxton and I have a bit of a bad habit – we like to chew pillows.  Just the ends.  A pillow to us is like a giant piece of gum – gotta chew it.  So if my human is not able to keep an eye on us, she will restrict our access to the bedrooms.  Or to keep us from chewing the pillows on the sofa in the rec room, she will place objects ON the sofa – like a broom – or a dog obedience jump – which deters us from stealing the pillows.  There is something ironic about using obedience equipment to keep us from being disobedient… But anyway.  She quickly gathers up the objects when company arrives.  And other than that, we can pretty much go where we please – with one exception.  There is one room that my human keeps off limits to dogs all the time and she refers to it as the “dog free zone.”  The living room.

The reason for the restriction is simple.  The living room contains a LARGE antique glass cupboard filled with glassware.  And my human knows, that should Paxton and I start our zoomies in the living room, and should he (or even his tail!) hit the cupboard – well it would not be a happy day in our household.  My human also has some hooked rugs in the living room– which Paxton and I find as appealing as pillows to chew on.  One of those rugs took our human something like 50 dog years to make.  So the dog free zone is OFF limits to all canines.  All the time.

To restrict our access to the dog free zone, my human puts a baby gate in the entrance.  We are not afraid of many things – but the idea of a baby gate falling on us is pretty scary – so we never even attempt to move it.  At least Pax and I don’t.  And then there is Frodo…

In the last couple of weeks, Frodo has decided that if our human is in the dog free zone, he MUST get in there.  So he basically pushes the gate aside and makes his way in.  The first time he did it, our human just looked at him.  And then she told him if he could lie down and stay out of trouble, he could remain in the dog free zone while she was in there working on her laptop.  BIG mistake.  Did you ever hear the phrase about “giving an inch…”

Frodo has now determined that the dog free zone is HIS room.  If our human is in there – he is INSISTENT on being in there.  And he has also gone one step further…

Yesterday morning our human was getting ready to leave for work and she was doing the “safety check” of the house…nothing to steal off the counters - check, water bowls full - check, and dog free zone was secured with chairs to hold the baby gate in place - check.  She even put an extra chair in place – to be sure that Frodo wouldn’t go in.  So the place was totally secure.  She got treats ready to give to us as she leaves, and she did a head count.  One, two….two dogs. OK, one dog missing.   WHERE is Frodo?  He’s always ready for his treat.  She looked around the dining room and the kitchen.  No Frodo.  WHERE the heck is he???  Froooooooooodo.  Where ARE you??????  Yup. You guessed it.  Safely secured IN the dog free zone.  When she moved the well-secured gate and insisted he come out, he just gave out a big sigh and ambled out slowly.

As I continue to emphasize, we canines are pretty smart.  And we DON’T forget. ESPECIALLY us PONs.  Frodo figures he has been “in the zone” before – so why not do it again?  Give us an inch…

Now if Pax and I could just get up the courage to move that baby gate too…

©  2014  Linda Wozniak