Doggie door!

[Lora]

We think our 10 wk old golden doodle is ready got the doggie door. What brands do you recommend? Thanks!

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Ten weeks is too early to let them come and go outside.  I truly would wait until ... around 7-8 months. At that time, all potty training issues have been resolved.   Also, it will take no time at all then for the dog to catch on to where this door goes.

Really, do not let a baby use a door to the outside dangerous world to come and go as it pleases.

Too many puppies eat rocks or for that matter anything outdoors goes into the mouths.

Supervise the outdoors for as long as you can before you install a door

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

When you are ready, whatever works for your situation.  Ours is in our kitchen sliding glass door.  It is a panel insert that attaches to the frame of the door and then when you close the sliding door it latches to the panel.  Only drawback is that you  don't have the clean looking line of sliding doors because you have the width of the panel causing the door to not fully line up with the center.  We have had one for 20 years and love it.  It also has a sliding cover that you can insert to close down the entry hole.  You can get them at Home Depot or any of the pet stores.  They do come in opening sizes so be sure to get the size that will work for adult size and not puppy!  If you are where there are critters, there are ones that only open if the pet has on a special collar that is like a remote.  If you Google you will find tons of options for doors!  Just don't "undersize"!!

[Lora]

Thanks for the advice! Getting a door at this time would be used but of course under supervision at this time. We are lucky because he already goes downstairs to the designated door for our fenced in backyard. Thanks again! He's had a little practice at our relatives house and seems to understand. We will check Home Depot and lowes

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

I don't have any advice other than 10 wks sounds young to me. I would love to have a doggie door, but who knows what Bella would drag in so there won't be any dog doors here.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We house trained Ned using a doggy door from about 13 weeks.  We carried him out first thing in the morning and when we felt we needed to 'hurry.'  But when we felt it wasn't a rush-him-out time,  we had him go in and out of the doggy door (we put him down on one side, had him go through, and supervised on the other side.  We had other dogs using it so it was pretty easy for him to get the hang of it.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I have a Pet Door in my screen porch so I still control access to it by a regular door to the porch. It has held up wonderfully well. It is A Hale's door.

http://www.petdoors.com/manufacturers/hale-pet-door.html?gclid=COyO...

[Marnie, Stanlee's Mom]

We use a Larson Storm Door instead of an insert or wall door. 

http://webapps.easy2.com/cm_mvc/GenericIndex?page_id=35780892&v...

 

We like this because we have control over when the door can be utilized and we have the option of either putting the cover over the doggie door flap but still having the storm door open for air circulation OR closing and locking the solid backdoor for security when we were not at home.  We started letting our dogs use the door around 12 - 14 weeks but only to get used to using the flap - we supervised all trips until they were about five - six months old but more supervised in the evening due to predators in the area.

[Kristi and Mickey Finn]

Our 10 weeks old puppy was having the hardest time figuring out the potty training thing. We live on a canyon so we have like a split level home. We were taking Mickey out every hour to no success. It was far to the "potty area" he would get there & either be tired or think ok it's play time. We had some accidents right after we would come in the house. Then we deco erred the doggie door! Changed our life! We have his "potty area" out on our deck off the kitchen/family room. We bought our doggie door straight from the factory "ideal Products" because our sliding door is tall and we wanted bronze. Mickey figured it out the 2nd day and its a life saver. Not all doggy doors go out to dangerous places.

[Lora]

Thanks so much! Every dog and situation are different! I will keep your idea in mind!