“There must be something good in here.”
“Or here?”
Early on, Cricket, my fourteen pound Cockapoo, found the whole idea of a closed door, with her on one side and me on the other, highly offensive. Mom’s door is rarely closed, especially because there’s an ironing board attached to it and telephone cords running under it and pocket books hanging from the door knob. My room has no door at all, just a door way and a set of stairs leading up to the attic. So the bathroom is a room that is uniquely closed off to Cricket when in use, and she hates it.
The door was already not quite level, because the whole apartment is kind of tilted; which explains why a pan on top of the stove tilts all of the oil to one side, and the dust bunnies in the Living Room roll down hill. When Cricket started to throw her body against the bathroom door, in a panic at not being able to reach me for two whole minutes, she managed to make the lock pop open.
She was shocked at her power. She stuck her nose into the little space she’d created and then jumped back when the door opened even further.
We added a latch to the door, but even with the latch she can get the door open about two centimeters and stick her little black nose into the space. The funny thing is, when I leave the door unlatched, like when I’m brushing my teeth, she’s too wary to walk in. She doesn’t know what to make of all of that freedom. It makes me wonder if she really wanted to be in the bathroom with me, or if she just wanted to be in conflict with the door.
Cricket is a connoisseur of the people bathroom. It is as much her as ours, because she has her wee wee pad in front of the bathtub. She relies on the wee wee pad, especially when she uses up her outdoor time chewing on sticks and forgets to pee. She also takes advantage of the convenience of peeing in the middle of the night when getting her people to take her outside is an impossibility.
Before Butterfly came to us in November, Cricket used to stay in bed with Grandma in the mornings, guarding her head, until Grandma finally woke up, and then they would walk to the bathroom together for a morning pee duet. Then the caravan moved on to the kitchen for coffee, and then to the coat rack, for Cricket’s leash, and an outing.
Guarding Grandma
But now, with Butterfly here, I do the first walk of the day. Butterfly insists on getting up very early and stares at me until I give in. Cricket hears the footsteps and the leash rattling and relinquishes her guardianship of the grandma to come outside with us. As soon as we come back inside, Cricket runs, leash and all, back to Grandma’s bed to continue her vigil. Then, when Grandma wakes up, the routine continues as before, with bathroom visit and coffee caravan intact. But now Butterfly has added herself to the team and all three of them trail into the bathroom together.
The caravan
Butterfly and the people Bathroom
rachelmankowitz 
I like the way her legs are stretching in the second photo, so cute! I love your shower curtain too — wow!
Cricket is an overachiever when she wants to be. She has tried to free the fish from the shower curtain with her magical powers, no luck.
Aww, that’s so cute 🙂
Perhaps, dogs just have a thing with closed doors. Our border collie hates closed doors and in the middle of winter, comes in the back door and as soon as it’s open, he goes and sits outside again, He also comes into our bathroom when we forget to fully shut the door. Comes in. Says a brief hello and then exits. He just needs an open door.
Yeah, Cricket will batter at the bathroom door from either side, sometimes. She wants to come in and then she just as desperately wants to get out.
I am convinced Winston believes he is Matilda, or atleast has her powers. When a door is closed he sits and stares intently until it opens. And should you try and break his eye contact with said door, you get what I like to call ‘the stare of doom’.
I love that “stare of doom.” Cricket has about ten different versions of it to fit the version of doom she has in mind for me.
Oh you found an easter bucket in th bathroom – cool :o)
Is that what that was? No wonder Cricket was desperate to get to it!
There’s something about a closed door isn’t there…Gizmo has free rein here at home, but if we’re visiting friends and I close the restroom door he goes nuts…In his mind it’s like I disappeared into a black hole
I’ve tried to convince cricket to sit with me while her grandma is in the shower, and she’ll do it, but only as long as she can face towards the hallway and crane her neck so any action from the bathroom exit is visible. Does she think Grandma is going to climb out the window and escape her captors?
We have water dishes in the kitchen and the bathroom. Kenzie (rip Oct 5 2012) always preferred the bathroom water. It must have been the ambiance.
I wonder if the sound of the bathroom, the echo of all the tile, intrigues them. But maybe it’s just that so much water stuff goes on in there that it must be where the BEST water lives.
I think it’s just an animal thing because neither my dogs nor my cats tolerate closed doors — particularly when a human is on the other side. I think they take being shut out personally!
I guess I would take it personally too, in their position. Because it’s not like they have the equal right to close the door on me when they want to be alone. Instead, they have to crawl into tiny spaces where I can’t fit and stare out at me.
I love Cricket and Butterfly.
Thank you so much. They are love sponges, and every bit helps.
Silly, silly girl. I don’t remember when the last time was that I could actually go into the bathroom and close the door. There are 12.5 lifeguards that are ‘most concerned’ something would happen to me if they weren’t there to watch my back 🙂 That is all Cricket is trying to do for you… Notice the bathroom door of all doors in the house is the most reactive location when closed.
I’m picturing Cricket in her Baywatch red bathing suit (her color!). God forbid she had a whistle! I don’t think I’d ever sleep again.
This is precious!! Love the captions on the pictures! Thank you so much for visiting my blog and I am so glad I found yours! Blessings to you and your sweet puppies! Juliana
Thank you!
Might I ask in what key do they play the pee duet? I’ve giggled all morning over that. Zoe never cared if I wasn’t in the room with her. Dudley followed me everywhere, including the bathroom. Since it was just us I left the door open and he was usually content to lie outside the bathroom door in the bedroom. Unless it was storming, then he came in with me and urged me to hurry.
I’ve discovered that Butterfly waits outside the bathroom door for me now. She pants and worries and wrings her paws, but she is so polite about it. Cricket would have broken the door down within seconds.
Haha that pic of her in the corner was too funny!
Wouldn’t it be great if she meant to be funny?
What kind of a dog is Butterfly? They are so cute!
Butterfly is a Lhasa Apso, the dogs that guarded Buddhist temples. She stands on the lawn and guards the neighborhood with the same Zen level concentration.
She is adorable. I have Tibetan Terriers which you probably know are very closely related to the Llasa Apso, only a little bigger. See pix on my blog sportsew.wordpress.com. Thanks for the reply, I was curious.
Love your subjects!
Thank you!
Think of the closed door as a cue to your dog that you have left the building. What happens when you walk out the front door? You’re gone. Forever. Until you come back and all is well again. So, when the bathroom or any other door shuts… you’re gone. Possibly forever.
Forever?! That poor puppy dog!
coffee caravan. i love it.
They do this every morning now. The only way to break it up is to mention “cheese.”
My dogs hate closed doors-and they appear highly offended that you would want to exclude them from any activity-I enjoyed this post very much!
Cricket would rip every door off its hinges if she could, and she really does try.
Over the years, I’ve lived with many pooches, and they all love to follow people into the bathroom; even going so far as to scratch at the door if it is closed!
Butterfly has taken to sitting outside the bathroom door with a little pile of dog food or a chewie. You have to keep busy while you’re waiting, I guess.
:)Tweeted this post, Rachel.
Thank you!!!!!!!
Tweeted again, and another two 🙂
Thank you!!!!!!