# Is it normal for GSD to open a door?



## GSDenthusias (Sep 17, 2018)

Hi everyone,
I know that this might seem strange but our dog Griffin has opened the door 2x in the last 2 days. He was outside and I came in for 2 mins to get something and I saw him come up to the glass door out his paw on the handle push it down and come in. Is this typical GSD behaviour? I know that they are very intelligent dogs but this has truly surprised me. 
I did not teach him this... to be honest, I wouldn't know how at this point. He has only been with us a week. 
Should I keep that door locked so he can't come in and out of the house as he pleases? It's the door from the kitchen to the deck (our 1 acre backyard is fenced in). I'm just concerned about the cold as it was -15C here last night and lots of snow.


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## sebrench (Dec 2, 2014)

Haha. He is smart! I'd lock the door just so you don't lose heat or have unwanted bugs/pests coming into your house. We used to live in a duplex that had door handles that pushed down (instead of turning). Our cat learned how to open the doors...if only she knew how to close them! One time, the neighbor's dog even opened the door. We found him in our living room. That was a surprise! We definitely got in a habit of locking the doors after that. We didn't have GSDs at the time because we were renting, but I bet they would have learned to open the doors too.


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

Sabi was very good at it, and sadly she attempted to teach Shadow.

I was standing outside with my arms full of groceries waiting for husband to come open the door for me and Sabi made a decision and opened the door for me. It was the beginning of the door saga for us and she was about 10 months old. 
However... when I was doing alarm response we had a customer who liked to leave their Golden in the yard all day. It took only one incident for him to learn that if he opened the kitchen door we would arrive to entertain him. It progressed quickly to 2-3 times a day or more, until we suggested that they hire a petsitter or dog walker which was infinitely cheaper then us showing up multiple times a day.


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## BlitzTheGSD (Aug 30, 2018)

Oh yes thats very normal. My 4 month old just figured out how to do it. Problem is once they figure it out they dont forget it, so now we lock every door that goes outside at all times. Better safe than sorry!


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I had a cat that figured out how to open doors. Sometimes they are just smarter than us.


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

My older girl loves to open doors. She figured out the screen door, and I woke up one morning to find she'd let herself out during the night! Fortunately, she didn't get hit by a car or get into other serious trouble.

As the lock on the screen door didn't work, I had to remember to close the inner door before going to bed at night, or she'd 'go walkabout' again during the night!

She also opens cupboard doors. This is what greeted me when I came home one day! :rolleyes2:


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## Beau's Mom (Nov 9, 2017)

My Beau has tried opening our door to the outside. I always lock it behind me so he’s had no success yet, but he clearly understands that pushing down on the handle opens the door, he tried a couple of times. 

I think he’s come to understand about keys, too. If we’re heading out and I stand too long at the locked door, he will look pointedly at the key in the lock and then back at me, and if I wait he’ll sometimes nose it and look at me or bark at me. As if he’s telling me to get a move on and make it open, so we can get out of here.


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## Malibu (Jul 27, 2017)

Is your door actually a lever because I had to change my door to a knob.


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## CometDog (Aug 22, 2017)

Yes, mine can open lever door and deadbolts if he is persistent. They can also lock them while you are outside. 220 on a locksmith later.....


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## Beau's Mom (Nov 9, 2017)

“I had a cat that figured out how to open doors. Sometimes they are just smarter than us.”

I had a cat once that required baby locks on all the cabinets if I wanted my food kept safe. I had to replace them when he matured because he got strong enough to force them, I needed to upgrade from plastic to metal. The same cat could with work pull open the refrigerator door by the lower corner, and a couple of times he teamed up with my GSD to get meat out of the fridge - they were caught eating their spoils together on the kitchen floor. Since it happened more than once, I’d have to agree: sometimes they are just smarter than us.


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

My big-boy learned that he could open doors. One day, as a pup, I heard a dog outside barking in the snow. Imagine my surprise when I checked and saw that it was MY PUPPY calling me to come out and play. My dogs could open my doors and gates but they respect them and don't. Thank God!


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## readaboutdogs (Jul 8, 2001)

We were at the vets , they had the type of front door that had the bar you push in to open from the inside. We came out of the exam room, you have to pass the door on the way to the front desk, he jump up, hit the bar and opened the door! I had hold of him, but everybody in the waiting room got a chuckle! He was ready to go!! I have no doubt from watching me he knew that opened the door! Also beware of dead bolt locks! One Halloween my son had went out and closed the door to pass out candy, and Cody or Clipper ( my gsds) jump up and hit the dead bolt and locked him out!! I drove up a few minutes later and he was siting out there with the bowl of candy!! The back door was locked so good thing it wasn't a long wait!


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## Thecowboysgirl (Nov 30, 2006)

Oh my boy can open wire crates, doors, gates.

Actually he is my second GSD who could open doors.


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## GSDchoice (Jul 26, 2016)

I wish I could remember where I saw it...but there was video surveillance of a GSD escaping the animal shelter! She was seen opening the various doors and then trotting through the glass doors out into the street...so smart!! She must have observed the shelter staff.

Mine also opens doors, but it has always been the door to the garage...after we have all gone out via the car...poor guy, he really wants to go with us everywhere! We now lock the door to the garage ( afraid he will roam around in there and eat something poisonous).


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## Durk (Oct 31, 2016)

GSD's can put the seat down and flush so doors should be doable.


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## gsdworld7 (Nov 3, 2018)

The real question here should be, is there anything this wonderful breed can't do???

:halogsd:


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Have heard of GSDs learning how to use the garage door opener, when confined to the garage.

One lady I know had a Shiloh shepherd that got into her fridge. He ate all the meat he could find, then got into the eggs, and started throwing them around the kitchen, as if they were balls! 

She came home to a terrible mess, and had to rig up a lock for the fridge to keep him out!


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## Jenny720 (Nov 21, 2014)

Max can open the sliding glass door. One time my dad was watching the dogs and let them out in backyard. He went upstairs to feed the bunny. He turned around and found max and Luna sitting right behind him with big happy smiles on their faces. He thought they jumped through the sliding glass door! Lol! Lol! My first gsd Karat open doors I had someone come into the house ( a trusted non family member or friend but someone who Karat was used and had seen her a few times)when i was not there. I locked Karat in the room and Karat opened the door knob and let himselfnout of the room when he heard someone trying to enter the house and he would not let her in the house! I met a woman who we swapped many gsd door opened stories. She owned a gsd and she said she was making a turkey and that her gsd had opened the stove and ate the entire turkey!!!!!!!!


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## Heidigsd (Sep 4, 2004)

They're smart...Nikki started opening doors at 12 weeks old. Everyone gets a kick out of it at the vets office. Here she is showing off her talent...LOL!!!


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Jenny720 said:


> ....She owned a gsd and she said she was making a turkey and that her gsd had opened the stove and ate the entire turkey!!!!!!!!


OHHH, that REALLY would have pissed me off!! :surprise: Preparing and cooking a turkey is a lot of work, and I LOVE turkey!!


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## Jenny720 (Nov 21, 2014)

Lol me to I can’t imagine the scene in that kitchen. When max was a pup I was teaching him to open doors with rags tied on after hearing that story I stopped teaching that trick!


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Yep. I've had more than one foster that came into rescue because some family was frustrated about the dog always getting out. And some of them were true houdini dogs.


In my life I've known:


-A personal dog we owned in the 00s could open kennels at her vet. Whenever we left here there for anything, they'd call and say, "She's finished, and now that she's awake, we have no cage that will hold her. She wanders around the back area and stares at us while we're working. It's a little disconcerting. Can you please come get her now?" I always wanted to say, "Yeah, she's studying surgical techniques. If we board her a few days, just wait -- she'll know how to do a neuter."



-Same personal dog "liberated" all the dogs overnight at cage free boarding. The owner got in and found dogs in the retail area and all over the establishment, instead of in the gated sleeping area. Apparently the camera footage showed that MY dog had been in a kennel, let herself out, then let out the other dogs who were in the cage-free shared-sleeping area. She got a lock on her kennel there after that...and they apparently created a rule that all GSDs had to be in locked kennels overnight.


-Same personal dog could pull window screens off an open window and boost herself over the window ledge, to let herself in or out...she invented that trick when we put her out in the backyard for a little while in order to talk to a contractor inside. Minutes later, there she was in the house.


-Foster dog opened LOCKED sliding glass doors. She watched how the switch to lock it worked, then nosed at it until she flipped it and could open the door.


-Different foster dog was put in my chain-link, metal-roofed outdoor kennel for a little while on a sunny day when we had something going on. I put a carribeaner in the latch, as I'm no dummy. Next thing we know, she's popping through the dog door into the house. What tha? DH accused me of not putting on the carribeaner...Hm. Well, out she goes, and HE puts in the carribeaner so the latch is DEFINITELY secure. She did it again. At this point, we though she was teleporting. Now we put up a webcam, put her in there again, and watched from a computer in the house. The dang dog SCALED the fence, pushed up the tin roof in a corner with her nose, wriggled through the bent up corner, and leaped from the 6' rail of the top of the kennel. And she did it effortlessly. 



-Different foster dog kept by a friend had a collar tag with the rescue's number, which usually forwards to my cell phone. At least 3 times, I got calls about this dog being found out wandering, during the work day. The last time, my friend said, "That can't possibly be my dog. It has to be some other foster's dog!" It was her dog: the dog had been left kenneled, in a bathroom, with the door closed, inside a locked house. She opened all that up, then pushed a room air conditioner out of the hole it was and let herself out. She had such a good temperament that we put the puzzle-smarts to work and placed her with a veteran who needed a dog to train to go to work with him. The trainer told me she's the best dog he's ever worked with.


So...opening doors, yes. Absolutely!


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Have a sad story to tell you. I know a lady (now retired) who used to run a rescue. One day she got in a dog that was severely dog-aggressive. She quickly found out the other problem was this dog was an absolute Houdini. No pen, crate or fence could hold him. He'd climb chain link, dig under fences, do whatever it took to escape. The only way to keep him confined was to tie him to a post. If she did that, he'd bark in protest.

After having him escape several times and get into serious fights that required expensive veterinary treatment, she realized he was never going to be the sort of dog who could be safely rehomed, and she didn't want him to have to spend the rest of his life tied to a post at the rescue.

Reluctantly, she had him euthanized. :crying:


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

That is sad but sometimes there is nothing else you can do. 

My gal dog used to open the back windows of our car while we were going places. good thing we had screens on the window. Never did figure out if she was doing it on purpose or accident.


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## Arathorn II (Oct 7, 2017)

*Dog proofed*

the entertainment console


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Arathorn II said:


> the entertainment console


>>


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

LOL, Arathorn II! I've known a few dogs who LOVED chewing remote controls over all else in the world...this would have been a good solution (we ended up putting them up on top on a very high book shelf).


I'm also a fan of baby latches on lower cabinets when living with a cabinet opening dog -- ESPECIALLY if the trash lives under the kitchen sink!!!! I've yet to meet the dog that figured out the metal baby latches that go on the inside of the cabinet. I'm pretty sure the plastic ones on the outside would be toast, with the right dog.


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Forgot to say my cupboard door opening dog mastered the plastic latches that go on the inside of the cupboard in just 3 days! They weren't nearly strong enough for her!

And it was the garbage she was after. I have to put anything she might find interesting in the hall closet cupboard where I keep my recycling bin!

She still gets into the garbage now and then. I usually do a post mortem on the mess to see what she possibly could have been after.

Here's a partial list of things she thinks make the scrounging worth it: waxed paper pieces that go between hamburgers, shrimp tails, a cracker bag with just a few crumbs in the bottom, and a ziplock bag that had a pork chop inside it. The pork chop had been cooked and eaten, but there was maybe just a tiny bit of meat juice left in the bag... :rolleyes2:

Oh, and a box that had contained a miniature pie - there were still a few crumbs of crust in the box.

Honestly, I DO feed this dog 2 square meals a day, but you'd never know it....


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## Arathorn II (Oct 7, 2017)

Magwart said:


> LOL, Arathorn II! I've known a few dogs who LOVED chewing remote controls over all else in the world...this would have been a good solution (we ended up putting them up on top on a very high book shelf).



We have yet to replace our two remotes missing battery covers and we still put them up high.

He loves to open things...sometimes he's taken the comforters out of the audomin, ottomans?? (I have no idea how to spell that and google spell check was no help) :grin2:


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

It's spelled Ottoman, after the Ottoman empire.  With a capital, because it's the name of a people - the Ottoman Turks.


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## Keylogh (Jun 5, 2010)

Yes, my very 1st male could open any type of door: lever, round knob, thumb, - all push, pull and sliding doors, he can also escape wire crate. On more than one occasion I've woken up freezing as he left back door open in the middle of the night. 
It came in handy one time when I was at motel and accidentally walked out, minus my door key card while unloading my Subaru. He was loose inside, so I went up to the door and called him to "open the door",....less then a minute went by and I heard him paw the handle and the door popped open and he let me in. That was good case. Bad case, I came back to motel room after dinner 2 nights later and he was sittting just outside the door waiting for me to get back. Needless to say he never closed what he open so he learned the hardway about spring loaded "C" clips. I do miss him and his antics very much.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

It’s not typical but yes they can if they are determined. My last dog could open a latch and any gate. He was an escape artist which is how we came to rescue him. He opened the gate at daycare and let all the dogs into the holding area. He locked me out once when he pushed up on the deadbolt and latched it.


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