By Hannah Van De Peer
Two dogs who became “best friends” are now able to see each other whenever they like – after their owners built a secret door in their fence.
Pooches Fritz and Trapper, both five years old, have been next door neighbors for the last two years.
Having both struggled with anxiety, their owners, Miranda Stockton, 45, and Whitney Tipton, 35, built the door to encourage the pups to play.
Now they can’t get enough of each other with Golden Retriever Trapper constantly sticking his nose under the fence to signal he wants to see his best friend, Fritz, a German Shepherd.
Miranda, a software engineer, from San Francisco, USA, said: “Fritz and Trapper are best friends – despite having super different personalities.
“I see Trapper popping his head under the fence – so Whitney and I will text each other and ask if we can unlock the door.
“Our partners both thought it was weird at first – but they already played together at the dog park, and Trapper would just break my heart whenever he’d come looking for Fritz.”
Miranda rescued Fritz in 2022 from the Humane Society and he had a number of anxiety issues which stopped him socializing with other dogs.
Around the same time, Whitney adopted Trapper – who she says has “boundless energy”.
The next-door neighbors decided to introduce their dogs to each other – hoping they’d bond.
Miranda said: “As they grew up, Fritz and Trapper would smell each other under the fence.
“Their personalities are so different – Trapper is a big, sweet, blundering idiot with a goofy smile.
“While Fritz is a very smart dog – and you can just tell he’s judging you.
“I think they really bonded on the fact that they were both a bit funky with other dogs.”
At first, the pair would take Trapper and Fritz to the local dog park – where they’d “aggressively” play with each other.
But after a while, Trapper started to stick his head under the fence to look for his friend.
“I asked Whitney if we could build a dog door,” Miranda said.
“I couldn’t take Trapper under the fence anymore, it was killing me.
“She said ‘no – it’s too weird’.
“I said ‘it’s not weird’. They already play together – and Trapper would always squish his little nose under the fence to see Fritz.”
Miranda messaged Whitney’s husband, Joe Parks, 35, with screenshots of dog door pictures on Pinterest.
He loved the idea and the pair tried to convince Miranda’s own husband, Josh Levenson, 47, to get on board.
After calling a carpenter and getting quoted for $600, Josh and Whitney decided to go for it.
Miranda said: “We worked with him to design it – I shared my Pinterest photos with the carpenter.
“He made a door to replicate the photos I had on my board – a perfectly-framed, little wood door with mini locks on both sides for privacy.
“It was only $300 each – Whitney and I paid half-and-half.”
Now, Whitney and Miranda often unlock the door when they get home from work, and allow the dogs to play with each other.
“Fritz has grown so much in confidence because of this,” Miranda said.
“He’ll come up to Trapper and now they’ll just start playing.”
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