Dog Doors

Dog doors are ideal for people who own larger dogs.

While they’re generally not an issue if you live in an apartment, or only have a small dog, dog doors can be a major issue for anybody who lives with a larger dog. If you don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night to let your dog out into the yard, a dog door can be very useful in letting your dog out for you.

Dog Doors are great!

Also, dog doors work well for any household that has mostly outdoor dogs but wants to provide a warm and dry room for colder or rainier days.

The first thing you need to consider before shopping for dog doors is the size of your dog. While this may seem obvious, if you have a puppy you definitely need to take into account the fact that the dog may grow a lot. Other things that you should consider are also placement of the door, and whether or not the area that the door leads to will be fenced in. Usually, with dog doors for large dogs it’s a good idea to make sure that the dog is fenced in once it gets outside.

Don't Let Just Anything in Your Dog Door!

Dog doors are very useful, however, there is one thing other thing that you need to consider before you decide whether or not you want to shop for dog doors. Essentially, if your dog can get in and back out, so can other animals. Cheap dog doors can often allow raccoons or other small wild animals into your home. If you want to prevent this, you should look at some of the latching types of dog doors.

Latching dog doors are also good if you want to be able to restrict your dog’s movements. For example, there are some dog doors that you can latch so that it will only open in one direction. This is great if you want to allow your dog to go outside at any point during the day, but don’t want it coming back inside until after you’ve finished doing something.

While you may or may not want to pay for dog doors that allow you to lock the door to one direction or the other, you definitely will want to get one of the dog doors that can be latched closed. As was mentioned before, it’s always possible that other animals could come in through your dog door. However if you can latch the door at night, then you can make sure that other animals can’t get inside.

If you can’t afford one of the dog doors that closes, there are other alternatives that you can try which would reduce the problems arising from animals getting into the house. For instance, some people choose to have the dog door lead to a laundry room or garage. This way, if you keep the door to that room closed, your dog can get in out of the rain – but can’t track mud all over the carpets, and any animals that sneak in through the dog door will be unable to get into the rest of your house.

The last thing that you should consider about dog doors is that if you get a high quality dog door that closes well, you can conserve heat better than you would with a lesser dog door. This is especially important during the winter – open dog doors can cause a draft that cools the rest of your house considerably.

Also, while dog doors are generally more important for people who have large dog breeds, dog doors can also be useful with smaller breeds – it’s just important to remember that smaller breeds can be more difficult to keep track of outside without a leash.

Hopefully with the large number of different dog doors available, you’ll be able to find one that will both work in your home and not be outside of your price range.

Dog Door Tip!

Be careful to not let your dog go outside in an un-enclosed garden, and make sure it is as safe as can be.