Pet Door – Let Your Pet Come and Go as It Pleases

Tired of having to drop what you’re doing just to let your pet in and out of the house? There’s a remedy for that – a pet door. Here’s a short guide to help you decide which pet door, and which features, you may want for your home.

Four-way pet door settings gives your more options. Ideally, a pet flap or door your pet can walk through is just fine. But you will also want to be able to lock the pet door once your pet comes home, so it can be safe at home with you. That means it’s good to have a feature that allows the flap to open one way – in or out – and then locks after your pet goes through it. Should you want further security, you can also lock the pet door yourself.

Installation shouldn’t give your headaches. If you’re not going to be installing the pet door yourself, then it should at least be easy and fast to install. Note that there are various types of pet doors you can choose from, such as those that are a good fit for patio doors and concrete walls. Naturally, for thicker walls, there are extra tunnel extensions that either come with the unit or are available as a separate purchase. Get the type that suits your home.

Why the height of the pet door is important. Unknown to some, pet doors aren’t “standardized,” since there are breeds that are large and some that are smaller than a cat. It’s not hard to see why some pet doors made for small dog breeds would be big-breed-dog-safe; that means if you have a small or medium sized dog, then the right door size means a bigger dog can’t get in.

It opens and closes only to your pet. Pet doors are often written off in articles and portrayed in media as a magnet for burglars and small kids who can fit through. What you can do to address this is to choose a particular type of pet door, that can be set to open and then lock after it swings either way. This system is not dependent on the flap or door alone, as it works with a unique collar your pet must wear. When that collar gets near enough to the sensor on pet door, it opens to let your pet in or out.

Keep energy loss at a minimum – keep heat in. Some pet owners reside in cold area, so their pet door should be set up to that heat loss is not much of an issue. To achieve this, some pet doors extend the space the pet goes through; for a thick door or wall, that means tunnel space – one flap on the outside, another for the inside. This is how it works: when your pet wants to get inside, it walks through the outer flap, through the short tunnel space, and through the flap indoors. That’s how you maintain a low level of heat loss.

You of course would have to be ready to train your pet, in case it needs time to get used to the pet door; some pets won’t even come close to the door.