Ruby has learned to enjoy the freedom that a doggy door offers. Instant access whenever she wants. We have also started letting her sleep loose in the house — rather than in her crate at night. She seems to be over her peeing in the house stage (thank goodness!) and has learned manners about w
The doggy door, however, has led to a new bad habit. Not every night but many nights, Ruby decides there is something in the backyard that is bad. The decision seems to occur around 4am on most nights. Ruby tears through the house at 4am and runs out into the backyard and proceeds to bark her fool head off at whatever it is that is out there.
The problems with this are many. First and foremost, we have neighbors. I imagine – as I haven’t asked them outright — that they don’t appreciate her vigilance much at 4am. Secondly, whatever it is that she’s barking at is either a skunk or bigger and meaner than she is. There are no 4am squirrels out there. Skunks are not something I care to deal with at 4am so that’s not a good thing. Racoons or coyotes could easily have Ruby for dinner. Oh joy!
And, then I think about those owls that I sometimes hear in our woods. I’ve heard Great Horned Owls. I’m guessing that they could catch Ruby without too much trouble.
So, 4am finds me, leaping out of bed, running to the backdoor, flinging it open and whisper-yelling, “Get in here you barker-dog!” And, putting her in her crate for the rest of the night.
Oh, that Ruby, she’s a bad little doggers which is why we love her so much.
mother. wife. friend. teacher. writer. reader. photographer. birder. quilter. blogger.
Liza Lee Miller 
Can’t you close the doggy door off at night?
That’s got to be a tiring habit for you!
Miz S, I could close the door off but only by crawling on my hands and knees around my washing machine to the oh so convenient place that my husband installed it. I get WHY he installed it there but it doesn’t make it convenient, I’ll tell ya.
I second the motion: Block the doggie door after dark? She’s a little, cute, stinker :o)
What a cutie she is.
I do have a mental image of you, in nightgown, yelling (softly) out the door at your “bad” dog.
Hmmm–must be something you can do.
Our dog also decided recently she didn’t need to be crated at night. Now she sleeps on the guest bed!
Liza, I held a 10 week-old Jack Russell the other day and thought of you and Ruby. I can see why these dogs are so loved….this little pup was all zip.
Very cool, Susan. Jack Russells are very, very different from Rat Terriers though. They look similar but their basic personalities are pretty different. Jacks are more terrier-like — tough, strong-minded, fiesty and very, very energetic. Ruby is a more mellow version of the Jack Russell personality. She is definitely more strong willed than a Labrador, for example. And, strong-willed isn’t really it. She’s more independent and less dependent. But she’s quite mellow much of the time — she will get wild and tear around the house playing with toys but she’s happy to curl up and cuddle much of the time, too.
I say back in the crate for Ruby. Lily sleeps in her crate.
I figured out how to close off the dog door without crawling around on my hands and knees. Ruby is great in all other ways about being loose in the house — I just don’t need the “4am wakeup call!”