Doggy Door Ideas

My Pitbull/Rhodesian Ridge-back Mix, Henry, is obsessed with going outside. That's not to say that he actually likes to STAY outside, most likely because our current backyard is all pavers and pool, but he probably stands by the door and waits for me to let him out around 15 times a day. So total I open our back door about 30 times a day! I swear I spend about 2 hours of my day just letting him in and out of the house. (Insert major eye roll) But who could say no to this face?!

Needless to say in our new house we are going to be installing a dog door into our Mudroom. There are a ton of ways you can do this. So many in fact that when I actually started this post it was meant to be all the different ways you can make your house more dog friendly, but instead it has turned into a post specifically about doggy doors. Here are some of my favorite that you can build into a new house:

Dutch Door

Picture from @jacktheinspiredgoldendoodle

You could do a split or Dutch door and leave the bottom half open. I love this idea, mainly because I love the look of the Dutch doors, but we also want to be able to give him access to the outside when we're not home and I worry about leaving the house unattended with the door open. However if I still lived in VT, or another rural area, this wouldn't be a concern of mine. And for anyone worried about the bug aspect with leaving a door open, they do make screen doors that allow a dog to pass through and snap shut on their own via the use of a magnet. Here's the current best seller.

Built in Dog Door

Another option would be to install a dog door into your wall. There are so many aesthetically pleasing ways you could incorporate it into your decor.

I found this on Pinterest and it is actually meant by the creators to be a crawl space door, but I love the idea of doing this in your mudroom with the doggy door behind it. Here is the link on how to DIY this project from the source.

This is a more traditional look for anyone (like my husband) who doesn't like the barn door look. Simple, clean and gets the job done.

However I believe one of the only ways I'll be able to convince my husband to put a dog door into the wall would be to hide it all together- so here's another idea I found on hiding a doggy door so when it's not in use it just looks like a cabinet. We may do something like this into the built in we are putting in our mudroom.

Installed into Door

Unfortunately for me I don't think my husband will be convinced to build a dog door into our wall like I'd like to do. So the route we are likely going to take is to get a door with the doggy door built in for our mudroom. This is a great option for anyone looking to add a doggy door to their current house and isn't starting from scratch with new construction. There are a ton of doors out there but here's one I was drawn to on Pinterest.

No matter what direction we decide to go in, one thing I'm sure of, and that is that my life is going to get a whole lot easier with a doggy door incorporated into our new home!