[seashorecaroline]

I will be moving to the Villages next week with my two little bichons. I purchased a courtyard villas and would like to have a small doggie door put in the bottom portion of the screened lanai. I have the name and phone number for Alan Byer as a handyman who has been highly recommended on TOTV but was wondering if he would be able to install a doggie door for me. Any other recommendations for someone who could install a doggie door would be greatly appreciated.

I am sooo excited about to moving to the Villages and hope to meet you all soon!

[bluedog103]

Originally Posted by seashorecaroline

I will be moving to the Villages next week with my two little bichons. I purchased a courtyard villas and would like to have a small doggie door put in the bottom portion of the screened lanai. I have the name and phone number for Alan Byer as a handyman who has been highly recommended on TOTV but was wondering if he would be able to install a doggie door for me. Any other recommendations for someone who could install a doggie door would be greatly appreciated.

I am sooo excited about to moving to the Villages and hope to meet you all soon!

Why not call Alan and ask him?

[skyguy79]

Alan installs overhead drop down stairs to the attic, so I'm sure he can do doggie doors!

[Vinny]

I had T&D put in mine when I had my bird cage installed so can't help you with your question. They will install for $65 though but you probably can get it done cheaper but T&D was able to put in the support bar and fit it exactly right while matching the tubing used on the bird cage.

Some tips that I learned the hard way.

- Also put a doggie door in your sliding door. They sell them in Lowes and elesewhere where you simple place them into the tracks of your existing sliders. Otherwise you have to either keep getting up to open the slider every time your dogs want to go out or leave your slider open which is a security risk (no matter the wall of how safe you think TV is) and will allow insects and perhaps other small things to enter your house.

- Make sure you get the right size. We initially went one size larger because the medium size looked too small but the larger door proved to be unpopular with our dogs and harder to push open and heavy on their backs as they walked through.

- Get a doggie door with a soft replaceable flap. Also try to get one that they can see through as much as possible as it makes it easier to train them.

- Do not buy the door unless there is a sample you can play with. Some make a lot of noise when they close which scares some dogs. Others did not seal very well at the sides and invited small bugs in. Some would blow open even in moderate winds.

- Make sure the door can be easily locked, perferably with a sold door that slide into place. Very handy during storms or other times when you do not want your dogs to go out, like when the guy comes over to mow the lawn.

- Here is how we trained our two Yorkies. After installing the door tape the flap open and use treats to get your dogs to go through the door. Do not force them as they will get scared. Let them use the door like that until they freely use the door which can take 1 to 3 days. Then tape the flap halfway so that it just touches their backs and head when they go through. We next taped the magnet that held the door closed to reduce the amount of force needed to open it and to reduce the noise it made when it snapped shut. Finally we removed the tape from the magnet and they now use the door as intended.

- My wife trained the dogs to use our first doggie door by taping open the doggie door and then buying screening and cutting out a rectangle and making a screen door for the doggie door. We were able to stuff the top of the screen into the space where the doggie door is hinged. We put some weights in the bottom that stuck to the magnets slightly and had ourselves a nice lightweight screen door which our dogs could see through and kept the bugs out. It was easy to get them to use that and then easier to transition to the regular door.

Now one of my dogs even sleeps outside at night. She does not like the heat but at night she roams our corner lot and is in and out. With complete access from inside our house to outside we can now be away from home longer than we used to be as we no longer have to come home to let the dogs out after 6 hours. As long as they have food an plenty of water they are good for the day. For some reason my dogs will not go out unless my wife is home. We have had people come over in the past and they say that my dogs will not go out for them and if they carry them out they will not go to the bathroom. My wife is their life.

For some reason our dogs still wake my wife in the middle of night to go out and she simply walks to the doggie door and they go out. They tried that with me but I broke them of that habit quickly. My wife is a pushover so... They may even still wait at the sliding door for you to open it and will be stubborn about using the doggie door. All depends on the dog and how long they got used to going out differently. Some people tell us that their dogs got trained to use the door within the same day. Ours are very set in their ways so it took us about 3 days which is not bad.

[bluedog103]

There is no way I would let our dogs go out into the yard unsupervised. At our New York home we have a very large, fenced in yard. At our Florida home we have an invisible fence but the same would apply if we had a CYV. If they go out, we go out.
There are many predators around, both on the ground in in the sky. Your dogs depend on you for protection.

[seashorecaroline]

Thank you both for your input on doggie doors. I'm glad I am not the only one whose dogs trained the owners. LOL I will give Alan a call about the installing the doggie door. I have a fenced yard now and still keep a watchful eye on the 'girls' whenever they go out so I will continue to do so even with the doggie door. Thanks so much again!!!!

[skyguy79]

Originally Posted by seashorecaroline

I have a fenced yard now and still keep a watchful eye on the 'girls' whenever they go out so I will continue to do so even with the doggie door.

It's important to do so to safeguard them from the potentiality of flying preditors. I'll let others more knowledgable about that subject explain further.