The Privacy Issue

The issue of privacy is a big concern these days. From those strangers on Facebook you may or may not have gone to school with or former co-workers or employers stalking you sending friend requests, to Twitter trolls. And of course too many of us have had our email accounts hacked, our credit card number stolen and surreptitiously used to buy anything from concert tickets thousands of miles away to high-end electronics, just to name a few things.

Whether you live with little kids or dogs, the issue of “privacy” takes on an interesting dynamic that might not live in their lexicon. Oh sure, you can close a door on peeps, but dogs have a slightly different approach to a closed-door situation and are definitely of the opinion that doors are meant to be left open, or be opened. During cooler seasons, there’s usually a line outside the bathroom door waiting for me to return to the 4-legged members and not because ‘someone’ may need to use the facilities. “OMD…you’ve been in there for 90 seconds!! When are you coming out?? Whine, whine, scratch.”

Now that the official beginning of summer is just a day away and temperatures from coast to coast have been off sizzling so air conditioning is the norm rather than the exception. In our case, it means an evaporative air conditioner on the roof. This baby cools the whole house nicely with the added bonus of it adding much-needed humidity to the dry Denver air. The one downside to evaporative cooling is it frequently makes door jams swell. I guess there are worse First World problems, but when you have dogs, it can make for some interesting encounters, especially at the bathroom. In the winter, it’s not a problem unless noisy barks and paw stomping bother you, but these days…

While the door was closed as much as possible, it did not fit squarely in the door jam and stay closed so assorted versions of this generally happen.

Ah, poodles, God’s way of making us smile at long noses designed to push open doors for easy access. How do you deal with the issue of privacy and dogs at your place?

Live, love, bark! ❤︎

 

80 thoughts on “The Privacy Issue

  1. I’m lucky that since I live alone, I don’t even bother closing any doors and have accepted that I will always have a mass of dog or cat on me. In to know I’m not the only one.

  2. Its not an issue here as the bathroom is two doors away. The issue here is a certain dog, no names here, but starts with a B, likes to keep a close eye on what I’m doing and inches his way into the carpeted bedrooms more than he is supposed to especially after he has has been rolling in the sand…

  3. There IS no privacy. Especially when it is close to dinner time…sigh. Most days, I have a chocolate mass under my feet, and I don’t mean the Hershey’s kind. 😉

  4. OMD, those pics are SO cute. Our Abby used to follow me everywhere (used to also drink my bath water.) But Rita is respectful of other’s privacy. I have to admit, I’m generally here by myself or just with the hubs, so we usually leave doors open, but even w/ the door open, she almost never comes in to visit!

    1. It is cute but somewhat unnerving when the door is suddenly pushed open if you’re taking care of business. If I leave the door open both dogs would love to lay their heads in my lap. Silly mutts.

  5. We usually don’t shut doors in our house unless company is over lol. Too many animals would be upset if we shut them out. It seems if we leave door open they don’t bother. If we close it they bother.

  6. Humans just need to understand that when they invite dogs into their families they give up all rights to privacy. But they do get unconditional (sometimes overwhelmingly intrusive) love in return. 🙂

  7. I’ve found cats are pretty adept at opening any door that isn’t 100 percent closed as well. It’s also a bit unsettling to be doing your business in the bathroom and see little black or white paws emerging from underneath the door… blindly trying to claw and scratch at something for leverage.

  8. If it is the loo adjoining our bedroom…then no, no noses at the door.
    The loo in the main house though is something else…liberty hall! Pity the poor guest who nips in there…the Wild Bunch are at the door in no time.

  9. Cute pictures. I don’t close the door when I go the bathroom either, unless I have company. It’s interesting that Tippy will join me during the day, when a trip to the bathroom may mean that I am getting ready to leave the house and will surely take her with me. She will back up against me so that I will pet her and sometimes lays on the rug. But, if it is after dark and I have my PJs on, she never follows me in.

  10. OMD!!!!! Those are the cutest photos ever!!!!!! My humom doesn’t even bother closing the door anymore because I try to barge in anyway! I need to know what she’s doing in there!

  11. Well, we don’t have privacy issues with Dakota because we have a baby gate up in the hall way so he can’t get to either my husband’s bathroom or mine. The reason is because all of Cody’s toys and litter box are in the other half of the condo. I didn’t want to have to worry about a dog eating cat toys or litter! But……………now……Cody would LOVE to discuss the privacy issue with you because the other day I was coming into the bathroom and didn’t know he was in his litter box (he has a covered type of litter box that looks like furniture)….I was speaking loudly to my husband and Cody came FLYING out of the box! I must have startled him lol. Another time, I came in and saw Cody was going to the bathroom and I said “excuse me” and left. But….when I am going, Cody doesn’t offer the same consideration to ME!! xoxo

  12. I kid you not … Bear coming when he hears me in the bathroom is even more reliable than him showing up when the kibble bag rustles. It’s ridiculous. {and yes, out of curiosity, I have numbers to back that up!} We don’t do closed doors around here … and looking at the carpet around the doors will tell you why. One time, when I was gone for a couple days, I closed Bear out of one of the rooms (he was a cord chewer at the time – and I couldn’t figure out how to cover-hide them) – and put his heavy ceramic water bowl full of water over the carpet in front of the closed door – to prevent even more carpet torn up. When I got back … the bowl was empty and moved out of the way – yet the carpet entirely dry (and looking much worse for the wear).

  13. We have privacy issues with cats, too. One of our kitties takes it personally when we close the door to the bathroom. He’ll stand on his hind legs and try to push it open with his front paws, or if that fails, just sit outside the door and meow til it opens.

  14. Since poodles have the advantage of long noses and good smarts, doors stand little chance! I’ve learned to embrace it and always smile when I see Teddy’s nose push around the shower curtain to check on me. I love the photos of Elsa peeking in! What a sweetie!

    1. You know her internal clock is ticking and in a few seconds she’ll turn around and go into the living room and begin barking at me. I keep kicking myself that I encouraged the bark. Ok, not actually ‘encouraged,’ but was happy she found her voice. That was then, this is now. That little girl is quite the talker!

  15. Max doesn’t much care about the bathroom thing. His position is that we uprights have the divine privilege to pick up his poo whilst he has no obligations with respect to our elimination issues.

  16. That’s too funny how you and Jodi wrote similar posts only a day apart!! As I just told Jodi, I don’t even think twice about it any more when the girls join me in the bathroom. Except for when I’m taking a shower, I enjoy the company.

  17. Milo is still 3 months old. He has discovered the bathroom however, and accompanies me and wants to inspect all business done.

  18. Ummm… so we have a cat who believes very sincerely that your bathroom time is his attention time until you need your hand… he used to be the one that asked for the least attention so we let him do this. Now it is a requirement 😂. At the worst, I have had 2 cats and 2 dogs in the bathroom with me, but everyone gets very uncomfortable in that close of proximity to each other so it empties out fast if that happens.

    They are also used to being able to come in and visit with my daughter when she is taking a bath. Some out of curiosity, i.e. “WHY would you do that to yourself?!?!” and one cat out of desire to drink her bathwater and paw at it 😆

  19. My fosters generally follow me all over the place when inside, (unless sound asleep) some days I simply give up and let them in. They never have a problem if I leave them outside the door, they simply lay right in front of it until I come back out, which makes it so I have to open the door super slow so I don’t hit them, lol. It was pretty funny with my most recent one, every time I would go into a room and close the door without letting her in, she would get as close to the door as possible, flop down, and give a verrry long sigh, lol.

    1. I’ve tripped over a fur body in the middle of the night waiting outside the bathroom with Elsa who is black. Sam is light so it’s not usually a problem. The commotion wakes EVERYONE up, good and proper!

      1. Oh, my! Yes, that sounds like a problem. Night time is never a problem here since my dogs are crated, but tripping over dogs is a common problem during the day when they decide your work space is the perfect spot to take a nap.

  20. Ha ha! We have always owned old houses whose doors swell in humidity.

    EVERY SINGLE DOG I fostered popped into the bathroom. And every dog in my family has done the same thing. Until Honey.

    Honey has NEVER pushed her way into the bathroom. It makes me wonder if she’s really a dog at all.

  21. Our outside humidity hovers between 70 and 95 most days. Want some of it? And everyone at my house now leaves me alone in the bathroom. What a relief, in more ways than one!

    1. Yes, please. Always happy to have humidity around, especially when it comes from the sky. Ours averages in single digits or low teens mostly. If it ever gets over 20, we think it’s muggy. LOL

  22. Fortunately, it is not and has never been, an issue here in that regard. The only time a closed door really becomes an issue is if a four legged someone suspects you’ve got food in there and not sharing it with us.

  23. Cats are the same. The best of them can open doors. The rest push effectively. However once inside they immediately want to be outside, then inside, then outside….

  24. poodles are the philosophers of the canine species… no wonder that they want to see the room with the always closed doors what humans sometimes need so urgently that they run like the wind :o)

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