We have company coming next week and they have a child. The child has not grown up around dogs and I want to keep Oscar downstairs. We had a folding “fence” but as soon as the doorbell would ring or I would go upstairs without putting him in the crate, he’d shove hard enough to move two 40 pound buckets of wheat that were supposedly stopping him from pushing the fence open.
Vince spend the biggest part of yesterday getting a baby gate type thing secure enough that Oscar cannot escape. Our house in Kentucky had a door at the bottom of the stairs to keep Speck from going down there and rummaging through the rooms. I wish we had a door in this basement. There’s no easy way to add one because the area where the stairs end at the basement level is open . . to a foyer type area and the family room.
Vince put 4 x 4 cedar posts on both sides of the purchased baby gate. He has one butted up to the back of the sofa and one butted up against the wall. The area is too wide for the gate and the two 4″ posts make it a very tight fit. Vince put several layers of foam and batting on the side of the posts so they don’t scratch up the sofa or the wall. Oh . . this dog! I hope he realizes how much we care about him and what a pain in the back side he can be!
I told Vince it looks like we’ve built a cedar fence inside the house.
I’ve been cleaning, getting clean sheets on the beds, dusting .. deciding if I’m going to cook or if we’re going to go out to eat. I’m leaning towards going out because if I’m upstairs cooking, Oscar will be in the crate and that’s going to be a lot of trauma for him . . strangers in the house and me upstairs and him downstairs so if we all just leave, he will have a couple of hours of peace and quiet. We’ll see!