"Jaws" outsmarts me again

[John Ziebron]

A couple of years ago when I moved into my current house one of the first things I did was change the door locks. The home had all round knobs and I like the lever style, especially for the door coming into the house from the attached garage. This door opens into the house and it is much easier to press down on a lever and push the door open when you have an armful of groceries or whatever.

I have an 8 year old German Shepherd that loves to go with me in the van. Unfortunately, a lot of our summer days this year have been way too hot to take him if he has to be left in the vehicle for any amount of time. Whether I take him or not, when I leave I do not lock this garage to house door as the main garage sectional door is always closed.

Well a couple of months ago coming home and opening the big door I was greeted by my shepherd on the driveway. He managed to push the lever down (probably easy with his big front paws) and then pulled the door open. Just luck I thought at the time. But then it happened again a couple of weeks later. So I started locking this door when I left.

But I figured there should be a solution to this problem, so after a few days of pondering I had it. A simple, yet elegant idea. I bought another lockset, same manufacturer, that had round knobs. Since the lever handle is mostly useful to me on the garage side I put a round knob only on the house side. This worked well and he has not been able to open this door again. Then one day I came home and saw this:

[Frederick Skelly]

Yup. Sheppards are pretty dang smart.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Our Husky chewed up a whole slew of knobs....well over a dozen...plus the framing from two doors, the garage walls, a big hunk of Aluminum siding, the frame work around a sliding door (which caused it to fall out of it's mounting and onto the back porch) and on and on and on.....
All told he did thousands of dollars of damage to the house.

An another few thousand damage to his teeth......

All the damage stopped all of a sudden when we got him a doggie door so he could come and go as he pleased....

[Tom Giles]

Crates work wonders. Crate trained my GSD as a pup that the crate was his space. Never put him in as punishment. He waits patiently for my return.

[Michael Weber]

Reason number 384 to not have a dog

[Conrad Fiore]

Have you tried Yuck (or similar) sprayed on the door knob?

[Mel Fulks]

He is obviously smarter than the dog scientists in the Gary Larson cartoon wearing lab coats and studying door knobs under microscopes! Hang up a framed copy in his crate.

[John Ziebron]

My shepherd was one of many dogs that I raised for Leader Dogs for the Blind. But when he was turned in after a year he was found to have bad elbows, and as such, was not allowed to become a service dog. So he became my pet. While he was being raised he had to be crated when alone. After becoming my companion he is not crated. I would rather him be loose in the house when I'm gone in case someone decides to break in

Because of his early training, he has never chewed anything except things like nylabones. I'm sure the only reason he damaged the round doorknob so bad is because he was simply trying to get out and go/find me. And I hate leaving him alone but just cannot take him on hot days. Here is a picture of "his" van.

[Mike Cutler]

Not sure ifI'd be angry, or impressed, if that was my dog. He is committed though.
One of my Vizsla's used to open the door and let himself in and out.