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Ok, I'll be the first to post here! We have started the first of many "home improvement" projects of the house we moved into last year. This one mainly is for the building an outdoor living space (mainly shade and protection from rain) with an outdoor kitchen. We are taking out existing sliding doors to put in an indoor fireplace with a window on either side and a doggie door under the one on the left. I thought the builder was going to have a heart attack when we told him how big the doggie door needed to be  ! |
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Hi Sandy,
Just thought I'd tell you a funny quip I once read in Readers Digest. It regarded the same thing you mentioned about the size of a doggie door.
The workman said, "Aren't you afraid with a door that size that a man can crawl through?" The person replied, " Don't you think they'd be nuts to crawl through a door that big knowing there exist a dog of that size that lives in the house?" ...Ha Ha ..Thought I'd share.
Marianne |
Ha, I would have to agree!
We had smaller doggie doors at our old house (had smaller dogs then). When had a 1st birthday party for my son and it didn't matter how many Small Tykes things there were to climb on or play in. The hit of the party were the dog doors, it didn't matter if they were 1 year old or 5, the kids spent most of the afternoon going thru them  ! |
hahahahaha.... So true Marianne.
I think it would be more practical to give our sheepies a key and teach them to open the door.  |
Why doesn't someone come out with a special dog collar with a small transmitter that would allow the door to open only when close enough. No collar... no open door!
I want royalties! |
umm... Don't they have those already? I think someone was telling me about those... sorry guru!
Karen  |
Hi,
They actually have had those on the market for quite a while. I've seen them in most pet stores but mainly for cats , and it comes with two collars. You can order more collars for multi-pets homes from the manufactor. Sorry about that Guru!! Perhaps you can invent a water bowl that resembles a toilet instead? arg! I'm kidding!!!
My problem is I don't have a back door, instead it's a large sliding glass door. Would be nice to install a doggie door. I had a locksmith install a bolt that allowed me to leave the door open slightly to allow the cats freedom to go in and out. I also have a cat door next to the front door.
Still, doesn't solve the problem of three active dogs in my house. Any suggestions as to what to do if the door is a sliding glass door?
Marianne |
| Just build one into a wall somrwhere... Couldn't be too hard! |
I have a small doggie door in my sliding glass doors. I'll take a pic for you, but I'm not sure if a larger doggie door would work with a similar method? We just ripped out carpet & we're going to be putting in ceramic tile there this weekend, so my floor looks really bad right now. Please excuse our mess.
 |
Hi,
Thanks for posting the pics as I can have some ideas to show to a workman should I have it installed. Jacob and Brandon's mom I have a question was your door pre-existing BEFORE you installed the doggie door? Or was it placed afterwards? Hope I made sense.
Guru  There is only but one small small where there exist a large pantry cupboard (removable) the rest of the wall has the kitchen cupboards and the sink. The only option at the moment is having a door installed in the sliding glass door or moving. 
Marianne |
| What about changing the 'sliding" door to a swinging type door. Then you would have room to do like in the pictures above with a doggie door in a fixed glass panel! |
| thought I'd pass on something I saw in Sunset Magazine years ago. The homeowners put the doggie's door next to the master's bed. That way the human only had to lean over from the bed to open the door for the dog. Otherwise it was kept latched to prevent other 2 and 4 pawed critters from coming and going. |
Marianne wrote:
Hi,
Thanks for posting the pics as I can have some ideas to show to a workman should I have it installed. Jacob and Brandon's mom I have a question was your door pre-existing BEFORE you installed the doggie door? Or was it placed afterwards? Hope I made sense.
Marianne |
It was put in there before we bought the house. I think that door is the original one put in the house from the 70s (it needs replaced SO badly), lol, but I do know the doggie door was installed later. |
| You can buy them at Home Depot and Petsmart. We bought a smallish sized one for our cocker. I don't know if they come in "biggie" sizes. They work great! It just slides in in the grooves. |
| There is a dog door called the Infra-Red Dog Door. You attach a little thing to your dogs collar, and a laser reads the code on it, so only your dog can go in and out, not other animals. |
I was in Petco and they had the pet door that goes with any exterior slider door. They had from small to huge for pets up to 130 lbs. I think its called a PetSafe Deluxe Patio Panel Pet Door.
Just in case anyone needed that info... |
Just read through this potsing and am on my way to petsmart!
Thanks for having a great column! |
I just installed one of those PetSafe Deluxe Patio Panel doggie doors for a sliding patio door. It went in without a hitch. There is an adjustable top panel to adjust for the height. You just put it onto the track, slide up the top panel, and drill a couple of holes to secure the top panel and a couple more to secure the whole unit to the slider frame. The sliding door will now close up against this new glass panel with the doggie door in it. There is a lock that gets attached to the sliding door so it will lock to the new doggie door panel. There is a night time plastic panel that slides into a groove on the inside near the dog door to keep unwanted critters from getting in, or if you go away.
All in all I think it is a fairly easy install with common tools (drill, couple of bits, and a screwdriver) and it seemed to work quite well. It is a bit pricey at about $200 for the medium size.
It did take the pooch 2 weeks to actually want to go through it on her own! |
