[Dailydrool] Fear of doggie door

[Val Brewer]

Our Beauregard has twice through a period of being afraid to use the doggie door in our front door. We discovered the first time that there was a design flaw in the door. It was designed to keep the cold out by essentially having two layers on the swinging flap. One layer was the bulk of the swinging flap; the second a swinging flexible plastic frame with magnets on it which was heavier and closer to the door frame. Bo caught his foot in the swinging frame once and wouldn't use the door after. We solved that problem by cutting the swinging frame off the flap.  (It is warm year-round where we live, so we don't need the door to be air-tight).
 
We are not quite sure what spooked Bo the second time. I secretly suspect that it was our somewhat contankerous cat sitting on the other side of the flap and refusing to let Bo pass. Sometimes Lynx will sit on one side or the other of the flap and hiss if the dogs try to go through (kind of like a troll under a fairytale bridge). The flap is made of clear plastic, so during the day the dogs can see Lynx if he is there and avoid him. We realized that at night, Bo could only really see the side of the door he was on. So now we leave the porch light on after dark outside and a nightlight plugged in the front hall inside the house. This solved the second problem. Bo has had no trouble using the doggie door since he has been able to see on both sides of it and discover there are no bogeymen (or bogeycats) laying in wait.
 
So, with respect to the doggie door fear, if pushing the dog through a few times and giving him treats for successful passages doesn't solve the problem, I'd recommend making the doggie door see-through, free-swinging, and dimly lit on both sides. Hope this helps.
 
Our second basset, Harley, the fearless one, has never had any difficulties with the door and just ignores Lynx and pushes his way past him.
 
I am trying to avoid ?'s in my e-mails by eliminating all double-spacing. Hope it works. 


      
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