Houdini hound! Dog owners turn their door handles upside down after he is caught on camera unlocking a baby gate and escaping from kitchen
- Arnie, seven-month-old Doberman, found out how to open kitchen door handle
- Sarah Cleavy and Dillon Worthington, both 23, turned the handles upside down
- CCTV captured moment the dog escaped their kitchen in Northwich, Cheshire
A family have been forced to turn their door handles upside down after their dog learned to open a door and a baby gate to escape from their kitchen.
Sarah Cleavy, 23, could not work out how her Doberman, Arnie, kept getting out and treating himself to snoozes on her bed while she was at work.
To solve the mystery, she set up a camera in her home in Northwich, Cheshire, and was stunned to discover that the seven-month-old dog had learned how to open the gate and work the door handle by mimicking her.
Arnie, a seven-month-old Doberman, was captured on CCTV in Northwich, Cheshire, opening a baby gate with his mouth before pressing down on the kitchen door handle and walking into his owners house
Footage shows the cheeky pooch tackling the intricate locking mechanism using only his mouth, throwing the gate open before using his paws to push down on the door handle and heading on off into the house to have fun.
The standards analyst and her boyfriend Dillon Worthington, 23, were stunned by what their CCTV captured and believe Arnie learned by watching them and then ‘trial and error’.
The couple have resorted to installing their door handles upside down so that they have to be pulled up to open – in the hope it will finally foil their mischievous mutt.
Ms Cleavy said: ‘I honestly do not know how he learned to do it, he must have watched us opening the doors and got it into his head how to do it.
‘It was probably trial and error to begin with, as he was jumping over the gate to begin with.
“But once we would start shutting the door as well as the gate, that’s when we figured out he must have learnt how to work the door handle.’
Sarah Cleavy, 23, set up a camera in her home to find out how her dog was managing to escape from the kitchen after he was shut in. The camera caught Arnie mimicking her to open the door
Arnie’s owners have been forced to turn the handles upside down in a bid to stop the dog escaping
Arnie becomes destructive when he is locked in, forcing them to add plywood to doors and skirting to stop him scratching them.
Sarah said: ‘He’ll go upstairs, lie on the bed. He’ll also go off and find treats which we hide all over the house.
‘He does try to look for us, he’ll go and open all the doors in the house.’
Sarah’s previous dogs have been smaller breeds – Shih Tzus and West Highland White Terriers – so it’s come as a surprise how much Arnie’s size makes him a ‘handful’.
Sarah said: ‘I work from home, so he’s not alone during the daytime. Me being in the house all day is probably why he tries to get out when we’re gone. He’s probably thinking “I know she’s in here, she’s working from home.’
Despite turning the handles upside down, the couple think Arnie may figure out how to open them again.
It’s not only the kitchen door that Arnie has decoded, as the mischievous hound has also learned to open up the back door leading to the garden.
Sarah said: ‘It’s turned out to be quite handy actually. If I’m on a work call, he’ll go outside to do his business or whatever, before coming back in.’