Dog Door

[elbenn]

I've been wondering if a dog door is something that would be good or not. Has anyone added a dog door? If so, did you get a new door or add it to an existing door? What are the pros and cons regarding having a dog door?

[trcy]

I wouldn't get one. Other critters can get in.


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[elbenn]

I wouldn't get one. Other critters can get in.


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This was actually one of my questions. My friend has one that only opens for her dog (it is electronic). Some of the ones that I looked at had pretty strong magnets, so an animal would have to push pretty hard to get in, so while a dog might do that, most other animals wouldn't. I don't know whether these factors would be enough to prevent other critters from getting in though.

[rin]

At a previous house, we had a dog door that opened onto an enclosed porch (so no access directly to our house, but access to an enclosed area). We had quite a scare one night when a raccoon came in through the dog door and ended up getting cornered by our dog in the porch area. Luckily our dog wasn't injured (raccoons can be nasty!), but after that I'd be super hesitant to have one into my actual living space unless maybe I lived in a very urban area with very little wildlife. Ours was a basic hanging flap with a latch that could be shut, but even with a magnet I'd still worry about raccoons or cats (I feel like mice/rats/squirrels/etc probably wouldn't be able to push a magnetic flap aside). The electronic option sounds interesting! Is your friend happy with it? I imagine the risk of wildlife is probably very area-dependent, might be worth posting on a local Facebook page to see whether people in your area tend to be happy with dog doors?

[mom2khj]

We've had one for about 14 years. Never had anything other than our own animals enter it, LOL. Knock on wood!

Our back door is mostly glass so we bought a storm door that had a dog door built in and had that installed. Works great!

[sadbunny]

We had one for 8 years and never had an issue with any unintended animals coming in! It didn't have a magnet, just a little flap. But the doggy door was on our security gate and we closed the door at night so nothing could come in or out. We loved it because our dog could come in and out whenever she wanted (we had a fenced backyard). Most of the time she was inside sleeping on our couch but she loved to bark at cats and birds outside.

[zukeypur]

We've had one for about 14 years. Never had anything other than our own animals enter it, LOL. Knock on wood!

Our back door is mostly glass so we bought a storm door that had a dog door built in and had that installed. Works great!

This sounds interesting! Do you happen to have a link?
We are leaning towards the one with the electronic control that only the dogs can open. I'm pretty sure our outside cat would figure out how to use it if it were just a magnet.

[mmsmom]

If your dog does not catch other animals then an electronic door that only opens for the collar would work. A friend had one for her cat and had to disable it because her cat was bringing all kinds of animals including snakes. Our dog chases birds, squirrels and all kinds of other creatures. He usually can't catch them but gets lucky once in a while so a pet door isn't worth the risk for us of him bringing an animal in the house.

[sdjeppa]

We have had a dog door installed for the last couple years. It's wonderful! We do close it at night to prevent unwelcome critters coming in. So far, nothing except our dogs come in and out of it, and I think my two big dogs would prevent anything else from entering the house during the day. Ours is in the wall next to the sliding glass door that opens to our fenced backyard, and it is just one of the regular flap dog doors.

[Mikey0709]

We had one with a magnetic flap for 10 years. Here's the kicker - it was for a 150 pound mastiff..... so the flap was large enough I COULD FIT THROUGH! It was an insert to sliding glass doors, not cheap, but worked VERY well for us. Basically, the top half was glass and it just fit into the door frame, so no need to make a hole in a wall. We replaced the flap probably yearly to keep a good seal, and no other critters ever got in.

[arivecchi]

We have a hale dog door for our great danes. Works really well. It has magnets so it closes after they go through it. Pretty energy efficient too. Even in a polar vortex. Have never had anything other than dogs and kids come through it. ;)


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[elbenn]

In browsing pet doors online, I came across this site which has pet doors you can add to a glass door. http://www.plexidorglass.net/plexidor-advantage-2/plexidor-glass-conversion-pet-door-faqs/

[R2sweetboys]

We had a cat door that DR rigged into a basement window as we had two indoor/outdoor cats as well as a ferile cat that we housed and fed. One day I heard some commotion in the basement. I went down to find a racoon with the ferile cat in his mouth.:( I was able to break it up and got the racoon out (of course DR wasn't home!) but we ended up having to euthanize the cat due to internal injuries. I'm sure this is not common but I will never have a cat or dog door again!