Top 5 Benefits of Installing a Dog Door

A dog door will literally open the doors to freedom for your dog whilst allowing you to keep stress at bay.
An adult dog needs to relieve itself at least 3 to 5 times a day and a puppy may need to urinate even more frequently. A pet door allows your pet to enter and exit the house at their convenience without human intervention.
There are several benefits to installing a quality dog door in your home. Here we discuss the top 5 benefits.

Convenience and Comfort

As a pet owner, you are already accustomed to the routine of letting your pet out and letting it back in. Then there are those moments when they you have to hurriedly let them out right after you return home so they can relieve themselves after long hours of waiting.
Instead, imagine how things would be if they could independently relieve themselves without waiting on you? Imagine being welcomed by a peaceful, happy dog who is only too happy to see you instead of anxiously holding it until you return.
By installing a dog door, you won’t have to rush things nor do you have to worry about your dog holding it for too long.

Security and Safety

We’ve all been in situations where we absent-mindedly left our dogs outside the house only to take be bruised by the harsh weather. With a dog door in place, your dog can easily seek shelter when the weather gets rough.
It might even be safer for your pet to have an escape route when it is left all alone in the house and misfortune strikes (an electric accident or a fire). Should something go wrong, your dog can easily find safe passage out of the house. There’s no better environment than a home where the dog can get in and get out at will.

Convenience and Peace

One big advantage of installing a dog door is the level of convenience you benefit from. If you find yourself feeling tired and frustrated of the regular back-and-forth of opening the door for your pet to come in and go out, then a dog door is all you need.
Once you install a dog door, you can enjoy your weekends any way you want to. You could stay in bed for as long as you like on weekends without having to worry about letting your pet out to urinate.
If you have always wanted to stay in cuddled up on Saturdays, then a dog door offers the perfect solution. A dog door will be a huge blessing especially if you work long hours or take exhaustingly long trips everyday as part of work.

Mental Stimulation and Physical Exercise

Although pets can’t speak, they are living, breathing creatures with feelings and thinking abilities. Just like us humans, dogs and cats need to exercise their body and minds.
In the absence of mental stimulation, they will not only get bored, but they may fall prey to behavioural issues. When pet owners leave their dogs at home during the day, they have to handle behavioural problems arising from boredom. A dog door provides an instant remedy to this problem.
With a dog door installed, your pet will have unlimited opportunities to challenge and stimulate their minds. Then there’s the aspect of physical activity, which is another important aspect for your dog.
Playing and running outdoors will keep your pet healthy whilst providing the much-needed mental stimulation at the same time. The mental and physical activity and the sights, sounds and smells of the outdoors are the very ingredients of a healthy, happy pet.
Healthy stimulation is extremely important when you want to improve your pup’s mood, eliminate boredom, keep him active and fit. A dog door willl open the window to all of these possibilities.

No More Damaged Furniture

When your companion is bored, he may end up chewing on furniture, pillows and more. He may end up ransacking the kitchen supplies or the garbage bin. When your pup does not get the freedom to stay busy and roam free, they are likely to resort to destructive behaviour such as howling and barking, getting into food, digging and scratching and more.
However, when furniture is damaged, it’s an entirely different problem, especially if you live in a rented home. Scratching, chewing and other negative behaviour on household items can prove expensive.
Bid goodbye to all of these problems by installing a good quality dog door in your home.

Things to think about when considering where to install your dog door:

When installing a dog door, we recommend replacing the entire panel of glass that you would like the door installed into with toughened glass. Although it is possible to cut a circle in some types of window glass, we find that when we replace the glass with toughened safety glass, it maintains the integrity of the glass and minimises the risk of cracking.

The most cost effective place to install a dog door would be a small bottom panel window, that would be easily accessible for your dog to go in and out. The next option would be a door or sidelite to a door. Remember, the smaller the glass panel, the cheaper the glass replacement will be.

After deciding which window or door you would like the dog door installed into, Harbour Glass will measure the glass panel, cut it to size, including the cutout for the new dog door to be installed into, have the glass toughened then come back and remove the existing glass to be replaced with new. Total turnaround is less than a week.

We have a standard dog door that suits small to medium sized dogs, but when it comes to larger breeds we can customise dog doors to suit. Don’t hesitate to give us a call.