So I experimented with the doggy door issue today. This morning, I moved the door into the bedroom slider. Sydney was sleeping. Oliver didn't like it. In fact, the doggy doorway itself is a bit obstructed in the bedroom, and he has to kinda twist a bit to get through, but he managed it. Of course, I had to bribe him with treats to get him to enter or exit through the door. Sydney and I went out to run some errands and play at Gymboree. We returned home to find that Oliver hadn't gone out the door once since that morning, and that he was pretty much refusing to have anything to do with it. He would whine at the living room slider to get out. Because I have guilt about his life being changed so much by the arrival of Sydney, I got up and let him out and in ... and gave him a treat every time.
After the third trip across the room, I had a moment: "Why should I," I asked myself, "get up and let him out every time he wants if it's what I would be doing if the doggy door was out here with the door blocked? Why not just return the doggy door and allow him the freedom at night and in the morning, at least? Make it an inconvenience for me throughout the day, sure, but small price to pay for keeping the baby from crawling out onto the balcony."
I returned the door, and now, everyone is happy: Sydney can't get out during the day (me happy), Sydney can't get in trouble for getting out during the day (Sydney happy), and Oliver has his door in the living room where, he tells me, "It should have stayed all day anyway, Mom," (Oliver happy).
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