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. The flap could also be replaced with harder materials, but the principle is the same – when your cat gets used to the door, it uses it to go out and come back in as it pleases. 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.
Unless you own many pets of varying size – big dogs and cats – you only need a cat door that’s right for your cat’s size.
It’s common for both animals to use the same flap.
All they have to do is push on the flap to open it. Now, there are lock settings on flaps, such as towards the inside of your house, or outside it. But this does not limit other animals – rodents, racoons, squirrels, cats and dogs you don’t own – from entering your house. You need a more sophisticated type of cat door for that.
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. You don’t want uninvited animals in your house – stealing food, pooping on your carpet, and stressing out your cat. The door opens (slides up in some models with electric motors) or unlocks upon “sensing” an infrared, radio, or magnetic device on your cat’s collar.
You may need to train your cat to use the cat door. 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. Your cat has to get used to the event – of the door’s opening – as linked to his vicinity to it. If your cat is shy, you can use treats to entice it to get close to the cat door.
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