Outsmarting A Puppy

I knew that having a puppy in the house was going to be alot of work, with having to house break him, teach him when it's play time and when it's not, what he can chew on and so on....

The thing I did not consider was the fact that it was going to be quite a challenge to keep him in one room at night or while we are gone. I thought the laundry room would be the perfect room for him. It has a tile floor, no carpet and it is a good size room so he has some room to move around. We put some newspapers down for him to potty on and he has his water bowl in there too. The room is just off of the kitchen and has a door that leads to the back yard, but it does not have a door leading into the kitchen, only a doorway. So we had to block the doorway to keep him in there. I didn't really think that it would be difficult to do this. He's small and there is a step down as you enter the room, so just place something in front of the doorway and, presto, he's in there until we want him out. At first we didn't have a gate, so for a few days we had to use what we had available in the house. Which was one of the floor cushions that we have, they fit perfectly in the doorway, all we had to do was find something to place behind it to hold it in place. This worked for a few days, then we had to resort to using some wooden boards that he could not push over. Finally I bought a baby gate and that worked for almost two weeks. We came home the other night and found him up on the couch and the gate was properly in place. I was the one that put him in the laundry room before we left. So I thought maybe I put the gate up, but didn't put him in the room. Didn't really think that much about it, being as I tend to do those kinds of things sometimes. (You know, go in to the kitchen to get something only to forget what you came in there for once you reach the kitchen.) Anyway, last night I put him in the laundry room, and began my normal routine of picking things up and turning off lights and such before going to bed. Peanut usually barks and whimpers for a few minutes until the house gets quiet and then he settles down in his little bed and goes to sleep. I could hear him doing just that and payed no attention to him. But then here comes Peanut trotting along into the living room. I thought maybe he had knocked the gate over, so I check. The gate was in place.

So I put him back into the laundry room and hid just out of his sight to see how he was getting out.

The little stinker has learned how to climb up and over the gate.

Smart little doggy!

So now I have to wedge the floor cushion up against the gate to keep him in. The cushion is a bit taller than the gate and he can't get over it.

We will see how long this will keep him in the room.