Door Darting

[DumaLove]

I saw somewhere recently that a good way to deter a door darter is to have someone else outside the door with a leaf blower. When the door opens and the cat wants to go out, turn the leaf blower on. After doing this a few times they might be less inclined to cross that threshold.

 

[Rafiki]

I am thinking that it works similar to my invisible screen door that is held in place with a magnet....you hit it and it winds itself up in the holder. I don't use it much anymore as Rafiki has been a wee bit enthusiastic when a bug lands on it but I can see how a half height one would be useful with a door-darter.

 

[Patti]

I saw somewhere recently that a good way to deter a door darter is to have someone else outside the door with a leaf blower. When the door opens and the cat wants to go out, turn the leaf blower on. After doing this a few times they might be less inclined to cross that threshold.

A leaf blower has been known to work, as has a hair dryer and vacuum cleaner - the cat(s) might need periodic 'retraining' though...

 

[NikkiA]

Our Diablo is a door darter. Given the opportunity, we double team him. One of us picks him up while the other person leaves. Coming home, we have full length windows next to the front door, and we watch for him. If he looks like he is going to misbehave, we come and go through the garage. He still gets out on us about 2x a month. Baby gates don't bother him at all, and he has learned how to open screen doors. The last time he heard the neighbor's leaf blower, he took off down the block... That was NOT a fun day.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I'm in agreement with those saying you need a double entry to be very sure..it works great here. And with Patti that having a backdoor enclosure reduces their need to try to escape out the front door.

You could try using treats to train him to go sit on a chair well away from the front door. Then hopefully leave him on the chair with a few treats as you swiftly exit the door...

 

[cbain]

Last Christmas my wife had big box of presents and when she opened the front door with her arms full our F2 kitten Darted past her and climbed a maple tree in our yard, every time he gets out he goes up this tree, I called him and he came down after a couple of minutes and he dropped to the ground and I picked him up and got him in the house , also he is getting big, we had to get him a jumbo litter box, if he uses a regular size litter box his butt hangs over the back of the box and misses.

 

[Carykd7kau]

He is a big boy, Carl. So handsome.

 

[John Popp]

Carl your boy is huge, and just look at the size of those mitts. Going to be tough to have him subscribe to the agenda you have set for him, as he certainly looks like he has some plans he intends to pursue.

As for the door, unfortunately, nothing I can do on the double door here as we are still in temporary housing for a few more months. Dino's also not motivated by food, so I would need to do something with a toy and I'd feel pretty guilty if I threw a toy for him and then bolted. Of course I would feel a lot more guilty if he got out and something happened to him.

I think I will try the gate in the back hall which will create a blind leap down a half flight of stairs. Not that he can't handle it, but tough to be sneaky about it.

 

[cbain]

Today we were very lucky, this morning at 6:15 am I went out to warm up my truck and at 6:30 am I left carrying my work clothes on hangers and was carful not to drop them when I stepped out the door , it was dark and I did not see Casey slip out, 8: 30 I got a phone call from Ellie ,she was upset and said, I can't
find Casey , I told her go outside and look for oversize cat tracks in the snow, she called back and said ,I can't tell so I told her go outside and call him, 9:00 am Casey trotted around the corner of the house to her, really tracking Casey in the snow would not be hard, the coin is a US 1879 Silver dollar

 

[Rafiki]

Wow. Close call! Glad he was a good boy and came back on his own.