The Magic Portal

We celebrated Winston's 3rd day after adopting us. He's come a long way in only 3 days. Our breeder, Dr. Mary McDaniel, told us that she thought Winston was very bright and would be easy to train. She was right on target.

Yesterday Winston learned how to navigate the rather tricky doggie door from the screened porch to the patio. The doggie door has a clear (well, it started clear) vinyl panel the dogs can push up with their noses and the bottom edge is magnetized to hold it in place during a breeze. The reason it is tricky is because if you aren't the first dog through, you must wait for the flap to stop swinging or you will catch the rebounding door as it swings back right smack on the kisser.

Winston, being the smallest, is always the last one to the door as the bigger dogs precede him. At first, you could tell he was a little leery of the other dogs passing through what seemed to be a solid mass like magic. But heck, if they could do it, Winston could do it. He put his head down and charged after Elliott and Carly. Poor Winston hit the threshold just as the flap came swinging back and it popped him smartly on the nose. Winston jumped back in pain and surprise. What the heck happened? This experience made the little guy quite wary of this seemingly dangerous portal and he chose to wait for Kelli or me to open the door and pass through in a more conventional manner with human help.

We decided to offer Winston a little help. We coaxed him to try the doggie door again working solo. After cautiously exploring the door a few more times, Winston decided to thrust himself through the door. Success! Hey, this is a piece of cake! Suddenly Winston could navigate one of the most confounded obstacles known to the canine world, the closed door. Congratulations, Winston, on finding the key to the magic portal!