For my home, I prefer the style of closet door known best to me as accordion-style, consisting of two large, folded vinyl panels that hang from a track along the top, are secured to the closet opening at the ends, hang freely at the bottom, and meet in the middle held together by a simple magnetic latch.

My just barely one-year-old male DSH recently learned a new game. Squeeze a paw under the vinyl panels. Wiggle it around until the magnets release. Push one panel aside. Enter closet. Climb the clothes suspended inside. Win!

Whenever I have caught him in the act, he immediately exits and runs away, I don't even need to say or do anything. I suspect previous sessions of getting shot with a canned air duster when he strayed out-of-bounds must be in his head, but not enough to keep him from trying when he think he can get away with it (i.e. all the humans are in other rooms).

I am torn between addressing this issue at the cat level or the door level.

At the door level, I suppose I could replace the doors with wooden bi-fold or bi-pass, but I prefer the convenience of the accordion style. Also no guarantees the cat wouldn't figure out how to open those- they are heavier, but still move freely. Any suggestions on how to re-enforce the magnet or add something where the panels meet at the bottom to keep him from being able to pop the latch (yet still allow humans to access their clothes with minimal disruption)?

At the cat level, I believe I do have a more general problem of "respect for barriers." Plant stands and knick-knack shelves have also been a struggle. This is where the air duster was used on him earlier. He backs off whenever a human approaches, but he still looks, extends a paw, and so on. So it seems he still has some thoughts or desires to cross the boundary, and the idea that boundary means boundary is not yet learned. I would welcome some tips to improve myself as a trainer.