My son left his dog in my care 6.5 years ago. At the time, the dog had just had surgery on his leg after being hit by a car. He had to stay in the house, take medicine with food twice a day. When he went out to potty, he had to be on a leash to prevent him from running around and injuring the leg. By the time he healed, he was not accustomed to the Texas heat so remained an indoor dog. He was accustomed to eating twice a day. He is a big dog, about 95 pounds. Good dog and I love him.
BUT…he really cramps my style. I am single. After raising two kids and finally having an empty nest, I am totally tied down by this dog. He is not always friendly, which makes it hard to get people to care for him.
A pet door would make my life better, but my current door, which I bought right before I got the dog, is all glass. A new door with the pet door is more than $500. I don’t really want to spend that. I could put the door in the wall next to the door, but that seems so permanent. It obviously would be a big door. If I were to sell the house in the future, would a pet door in the wall be a deterrent?
We installed one in the wall in the last house. We used the flapper part on the outside of the wall but we built a small two-panel door for the inside with its own deadbolt. We did that type of door on the inside because we had wood panel doors all over the inside of the house. We trimmed it out just like the rest of the doors and windows.
We also had to put wood trim inside the wall to create the passage.
Yes, one door leading to the yard. Although it would be so convenient for me to have a pet door, I haven’t done it before now because I can’t trust the dog not to dig under the fence and escape if there is something on the other side that interests him. I already have holes stuffed with big rocks and cinder blocks (which he is strong enough to move). If I am here, I can monitor him from time to time when he is in the yard. If I am not, who knows, but I have to be out of town several times in the coming months for wedding activities and it would be so nice if whoever is going to care for the dog will only have to feed him and not worry about letting him out often so he doesn’t do his business in the house.
I’m not sure if this will solve your problem or not but we have a door panel that we can take in and out as we need it that works with our sliding glass door.
We have a doggie door in a wall. For us, it’s been a life saver. We have two dogs now, but for a year we had three. DH and I figured that we used to get up to let a dog in or out around 50 times a day. I mean, really! We plan to be in our house for the foreseeable future, but when we want to sell (by which time we probably won’t have any dogs any more), if our real estate agent suggests, we’ll remove the door and patch the wall.
Ogden Nash said: A door is something a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.
I do not have a sliding glass door, but that would be a great solution if I did. My door is like a single French door with 15 panes of glass (15-lite) although it is actually one piece of glass with this grid thing over it.
The interior side of the wall it would be going into is paneling that has been painted. Removing the dog door would require more than patching sheet rock. The paneling was cheap and ugly (here when we bought the house) so I painted it years ago. This is what I consider a sunroom. One wall is two big windows and the glass door, but my desk is out here and I spend a lot of time here. The exterior wall is masonite, which was newly installed just before I got the dog. If something happens to this dog, I do not plan to get another one so I am very hesitant to do something permanent.
I think it would be easier to replace the door, or, add a storm door to the outside with an integrated dog door. This is what we did for my first adult dog, but with a screen door, as it was only used while we were home.
As mentioned up thread, you might want to make sure the dog will actually go through the dog door; I had one golden that was terrified of the door, and even with the help of a trainer, we never could get her to go through the door!
You also mentioned the dog digs; if he is allowed out in the yard when you are not home, how will you monitor if he digs and gets out? Might you come home to find the dog gone? Can you not board the dog? There are boarding facilities with doggie day care that will give him time to play with others and then stay the night. A tired dog is a happy dog!!
There may be more options. Of course, if the dog won’t go through the door (not an issue with our dog) or he may dig his way out of your yard, the door won’t solve those issues. Good luck!
I would hate to cut a hole in the wall and then find he is afraid of it.
I have boarded him before. Because he growls a lot, they left him in a cage most of the time. He didn’t get to play with the other dogs because they didn’t know how he would interact.
I have decided not to do it. Most of the time, my son can take care of him (it’s his dog) but the next few occasions when I will be gone are for my son’s wedding and shower, etc, so he won’t be available.
I think that’s the right decision. I have two small dogs and love the pet door, but both dogs were acquired when very young (around 8-11 months), so easy to train to use the doors. Plus any flap that is large enough for a 95 lb. dog to use is large enough for a person, so a pet door for a larger dog can provide easy ingress for a burglar as well. (Obviously a determined burglar can also smash a glass door, but the pet door makes it easier.) Of course your big snarly dog probably is generally a major deterrent for burglars… but dogs can be distracted.
I think in the long run you’ll be happier if you can find a good dog walker / pet sitter who can come by more often when you are traveling. It would be good if you could make arrangements ahead of time so the pet sitter can meet your dog and get to know him… then he won’t be growling and snarling because he’ll recognize his sitter as a friend rather than stranger.
