Cat Doors - Finding the Right One

If you're getting tired of "serving" your cat, of opening the front door every time it wants to go outside, then simply have a cat door installed. The simplest cat doors, or cat flaps are just plastic flaps - easily blown open by the wind unless weighed down, or installed with a magnet. Of course, there are flaps of harder but lighter materials - but the point is the same: to accustom your cat to leave and come home when it wants to. Knocked over items, scratched furniture, potty accidents - these are some of the problems cat owners avoid when they have cat doors installed in their homes.

You want a cat door that's appropriate for your cat - and your cat alone - unless you're after a flap to be used by pets of varying size (if you own cats and dogs, that is).
Both animals can use the flap, it's not a problem. All they have to do is push on the flap to open it. Some flaps can be set to open only to one side, such as towards your house's interior, or exterior. It's one thing to put up a smaller point of entry into your house, and a completely other thing to assume animals of roughly the same size won't try to get in via the same new point of entry. For that, you're going to need a snappier, most sophisticated cat door.

Electronic or automatic doors are meant to keep away other animals from entering your house - actually the same principle works on small kids and burglars. You will find the same configuration in many electronic dog doors - a special collar and a special door. The collar, when near the cat door, triggers the door into opening or unlocking, allowing your cat to get in or out, but not other animals. Some pet owners are annoyed to find racoons, feral cats, and neighbour's intrusive cats inside their homes - and you want none of that. What triggers the electronic door can be an infrared, radio, or magnetic device.

Some cats, especially those accustomed to ordering you around, won't adjust to the cat door immediately; you have to train them. Take your cat close to the flap and show it how the flap opens, and that it opens to the world outside. If you chose the electronic door, as opposed to the traditional ones, make sure your cat wears the special collar - a sensor - that triggers the electronic door to open. You cat has to associate its proximity to the door with the door's opening. You can use treats to entice the cat to the door if it's still shy.