When your newly adopted dog comes to “ask” you to open the door for it, you might find it funny or even cute, but after a few weeks of this, it becomes tiresome and irritating. If you start to feel like you’ve become your dog’s personal doorman, it’s time to install a pet door and train your dog how to use it.
Purchasing a Pet Door
You do not have to spend a lot of money to install a pet door at home. There are plenty of affordable and easy to install pet doors available in the market today. Before you get a door that your pet will use, you have to take measurements of the body of your pet. Once you have the measurements written down, you can start looking for a pet door in stores or on the Internet. Actually, it’s easier and more practical to get the pet door from an online store than by driving to a shopping center to a pet store. Shopping online will not only help you save energy, it can also help you save some money especially if you use a price comparison shopping tool. Price comparison tools can help you find the cheapest prices online.
When buying pet doors, you should buy those doors that you can install on your own. This is so that you also get to save money by not hiring a handyman.
The Installation
Installing the pet door is relatively easy and even if your carpentry skills are not really that great, you can still install this contraption within a few minutes. The first thing to do is to measure the distance from your pet’s stomach to the floor. You should leave two inches from the bottom of the door to your pet’s lowest point, and there should be a difference of at least three inches between the width of the door and the width of your pet. If your pet is still growing, you may need to change the height and the width of the door from time to time to accommodate the changes in your pet’s size.
Pet Door Training
After the pet door has been installed, you should start training your pet to use it immediately. To train your dog or cat to use the door, place your dog or cat in front of the door, open the flap and gently push your cat or dog outside. Just repeat this enough time and your pet will eventually get the idea.
