Tell me about your doggie door

[seriously1]

Do you have a dog door at your house?  If so, where is it located?
Was it difficult to install? Did you hire someone to do it and about how much did it cost? Do you have any regrets or things you wish you would have known?
Our house is siding with a glass sliding glass door so it would have to be installed through the siding, not sure if that is even possible.  

[cmeon]

When we only had our mini dachsies (and a full horde of them), we had one of the doors that installs on the side of a sliding glass door (totally easy to do). It worked great for them, but, I don't think you could go much larger than that. I don't remember when exactly we pulled it out, probably around the time we had a crawling baby, though. And our current dogs are way too big for doggie doors.

ETA: I was wrong- they make some pretty big sliding glass door flaps! Not exactly great dane big- ha- but, I imagine most dogs can find a suitable size.

[seriously1]

Wait, you can put them in glass doors? I will have to google that. We have a huge sliding glass door. Our dog is a westie 17 pounds

[cmeon]

Jan 17, 2016 11:06:42 GMT -5 seriously1 said:

Wait, you can put them in glass doors? I will have to google that. We have a huge sliding glass door. Our dog is a westie 17 pounds

You don't put them in the door itself (well, maybe you can- I haven't researched this in  awhile- ha)- but, you can fit a panel between the a door and the frame that has a door in it. It's been 10+ years, but, I think we got ours from Drs Foster and Smith (or whatever they were before they became them). You can also install them in screening, if that would work for your situation (easy and also quick to remove by replacing the screen/door).

[lavender444]

You cannot cut into the glass of an existing sliding glass door. At least we couldn't find anyone who could do that. But you can buy an insert, or buy a slider with the doggie door manufactured in it.

We went with an insert. We had an extra large insert. We've had everything from a freakishly tall GSD to a yorkie use it. The yorkie wasn't actually strong enough to open the magnet on his own unless he was really motivated. He ended up training the other dogs to open it for him. When he would scratch at it, they would go outside and he would jump out with them. Smart pup, that one.

[kris356]

My sister has the insert door in her slider for her shar pei. I am pretty sure it is this one. They are happy with it. It is in their living room and goes onto their deck.

[dr.girlfriend]

We have a two-step one...there's a doggie door from the mudroom into the garage, and another from the garage to the fenced-in backyard. It's great, because it allows her to shed some of the mud and dirt and stuff from outside as she comes in. It's hard to fit it right in paneled doors, and almost all doors have panels these days. We got a flat door for the mudroom one when we got the doggie door replaced with an electronic collar-controlled one that was part of our invisible fence system.

[spa]

We used to have an insert on the sliding door, we would get some draft in the winter which means we had to put in some garage door liner to block the wind.

We just bought an Endura Flap through the wall dog door and installed it over Christmas. If H had read the instructions with his dad the install would have gone better. It should probably take like 2 hours to do not 3 days, but he is a perfectionist ... it looks nice and is by the front door where the hardwood is, so when she comes in she can walk on the rug to wipe her feet and it keeps the carpet cleaner.

This is what we ended up going with www.amazon.com/Endura-Flap-Pet-Door-Pacific/dp/B003P5LWWC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453309884&sr=8-2&keywords=endura+flap+pet+door

The glass door ones we considered but after talking to the local companies that make them all said and done (install, replacement glass, and the actual replacement of the glass) it was going to be around $900 since we have specialty sized door or some shiz like that