[Dailydrool] Dog doors

[Julie Canny]

I have 3 dog doors!  All are Large.  The big trick is to have them low enough and make sure there is not too much of a step on either side.  We special ordered a glass storm door with a built in dog door for the front door.  The 3 bassets love being out on the front porch watching the world go by.  We have the steps with a permanent gate to keep them there.  We built an extra step (wider than the door and about 2 and 1/2 feet deep that's 4" high to ease the transition from outside.   We have a regular dog door in the laundry room door to the back porch.  The initial installation was a disaster.  The door was an insulated metal clad door and the carpenter put it in way too high, fearing he'd ruin the structure of the door.  So the bottom of the door going out was about 8" off the floor.  Since there is a 6" step down on the outside, this didn't work well.  I found the door on line and it's insulated with a panel that slides inside for security.  Anyway when I saw the installation, I was not happy.  "did you notice the height of the dogs when you built an opening with a 14" drop?"
We ended up buying a new wood door and had the dog door reinstalled just a few inches up.  Then, we had a step built so that there was no drop off.  Works great.  The third door is in the screen from the porch to the basset sized dog ramp.  It's a screen and works beautifully.  Guinness runs through all 3 doors like they aren't even there.  MacKenzie is a hefty girl and just fits through the front door, but gets through.  
Good luck!  

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