Dog Doors

[miss2]

Can anyone recommend a brand or type of dog door please?

Also does anyone have any tips for a dog who has never used one before ( or an owner lol )?

[Little Gifts]

There's been other threads on this and I think Pig In Mud was a popular choice. I've only seen a pup learn to use one and it happened in a nano second following another dog out. I'm sure you could also entice them with some food - either stand on the other side with the flap up and your hand and the food right there or you could be on the same side as the dog, lift the flap and throw food through so they follow it.

[Serket]

Some of the doors are quite heavy and I have replaced them temporarily with heavy plastic while puppies are very small and then as they got bigger replaced the original plastic door part. One of mine was magnetic and quite hard to push open with floppy 8 week old legs even for a golden retriever, I found she was much happier to use it when it wasn't so hard to open and was fine when I changed it back later. It depends on the type how easy they are to open (stiffer is better for not letting the wind in though)

[miss2]

thank you, i didnt think about the weight of it so thats good to know :)

we are getting another pup in a few weeks so a heavy one is not going to work for the bubba!

[Nushie]

We have a Pig In Mud door and we taught Jager to use it at around 6 months old (which is when we got it). Had one person on each side of the door and at first we held the flap open for him and then we would call him back and forth through the door and gave him treats at both sides. Then we started lowering the flap (still holding it) but so that when he jumped through he would have to push it lightly, and then worked down until we weren't holding it at all. Took all of 5 mins for him to work it out and then just had 2 sessions of him jumping through once or twice with treats for a couple of days just to make sure he was confident.

Ours is really heavy/thick plastic with magnets at the bottom. This is really good when there is wind so that it doesn't blow open.

[miss2]

awesome thank you Nushie :)

[Ranga]

We have a heavy type of door which was already installed in our house when we bought it. Our original dog used it without incident, however, when we adopted another dog she caught her back on the heavy door once and now refuses to go through it. This is actually a good thing with this particular dog as otherwise we'd never know where she was :laugh:

[Mumsie]

Hmm, we carried fresh meat out to the BBQ and that was all it took for ours to use the door. With the next one, as mentioned above, treats on either side of the door and they learnt in no time.

[westiemum]

I have a rectangular medium sized 'Dog Mate' at the house-sit which will follow me to the new house - I find it works really well as it has a strip on the bottom which gently keeps it closed but it's not too heavy or too difficult for a really old disabled dog like Mac who is very unsteady to use. Personally, I'm wary of doors which require significant pushing to open or close or make a lot of noise - can be hard to train them to use.

Edited August 30, 2014 by westiemum

[Staffyluv]

I had mine professionally fitted (because I am a bit challenged in the home repairs and maintenance area)..

I actually took the door out of the frame for the first week and Zig went through it with no issue, then I put door back in (it sort of slides into place).

I made a fly screen curtain for it and only use that in summer time and put the plastic door back in for winter time.