Dogs and Ducks in disfavor again

I have written so much about the trouble that our dogs and ducks get into that I had to go to the thesaurus to find another way to say it.  In disfavor is a good way to put it.  Frustrating the heck out of us is another.

Let's start with the ducks.  Mike just broke down and bought us a automated coop door so we had more flexibility in our daily schedule.  I no longer have to get up by a certain time in the morning to get the poultry out of the coop before they start to get bored and either pick at each other or break eggs.  We also don't have to be around at night to shut them in anymore.  The door will do that for us.
As a result, we got complacent.

After checking to make sure the door was opening at sunrise and closing at sunset for two days, Mike and I assumed that everything was working as it should.  Saturday night on a whim I decided to double check that the door was closing properly.  Before I went to bed I threw on my shoes, grabbed a lantern and went out to make sure the poultry were locked in for the night.  I could tell right away that the door was shut and I was just relaxing when I noticed a duck standing on my side of the door.  Both ducks had been locked out.  So the good news is that the door is working exactly as it should.  It closes on its own at sunset.  The bad news is that the ducks are not necessarily inside the coop when the door closes.  Looks like we will need to check on the ducks every evening from now on.

As for the dogs, the latest incident began Saturday night with a thunderstorm.  Our two outdoor dogs are terrified of thunderstorms.  Even though we have a dog room for them, during a storm they would rather be with people so we bend the rules and let them inside the house.  Since this is an emergency situation, at least from their point of view, I graciously allow them to stay in the basement with the rest of the dogs.  However, now they are pushing the limits of my tolerance.  Here they all are upstairs in the mudroom.

This was not the worse of their infractions.  Once the storm was over, we put everyone of the dogs to bed in their normal spots.  The we went to bed.  By the next morning, Mike was in trouble with his folks.  Little Girl, one of the outside dogs, had left the dog room sometime in the night and wandered across the street and broke into Frank and Lois's house through the locked dog door and proceeded to spend the night inside their house.  

As a result, we have taken to locking Little Girl and Buddy in the dog room at night again.  This is not a great option because when Little Girl decides she wants out she will either chew our dog door or the wall trim or the locked cage door.  In the meantime, we have ordered Frank and Lois replacement parts for their dog door.  Where oh where is a dog whisperer when I need one?