Pets and Screen Doors: Turn Your Horror Story into a Match Made in Heaven
If you are like many people in the US, you use screen doors during the warmer months to allow a flow of air into your home while preventing bugs and blowing yard detritus from entering. But if you have pets, you may find yourself frustrated by them either pushing through the screens to escape the outdoors or ruining the screens with their paws in attempts to leave the house. Here are three types of common screen doors and how you can thwart destruction and jail breaks for peaceful coexistence between your pets and your doors.
Classic Screen Door
Your basic old-fashioned screen door is still used in many homes and summer cabins. This is a door that's hinged on the side, like regular entrance doors. The sound of a screen door slamming may mean summer to you, but it can also mean the sound of escape to your pets.
To keep your pets from pushing this type of door open, use a roller latch meant for screen and storm doors--an easy and inexpensive alternative to leaving the door loose. If the screening extends all the way to the bottom of the door, consider replacing standard fine wire material that can be easily torn with heavy-duty, non-metal mesh designed specifically for pets. This material also works on sliding screen doors, and replacement is often a simple DIY job.
Hanging Portable Mesh Doors
If you rarely have a need for a screen door, you may be using a portable mesh door that hangs with weights by Velcro from the opening and closes with magnets. This is the easiest type of door for pets to breach, and keeping your pets away from it requires training. (See below for training tips.) Therefore, a hanging door is the best solution only for very docile or tiny animals.
Retractable Screen Doors
In between traditional doors and hanging doors are retractable screen doors. This type of door is usually mounted on the side of the door frame and can be pulled open when needed and rolled back when not. Retractable screen doors are an ideal solution when conventional screen doors won't work, such as with French doors. However, because they are typically only loosely secured at the base (usually with magnets), retractable doors are also not always super pet friendly.
If you are shopping for retractable screen doors that will be more resistant to your pets, look for manufacturers that can add extra tension lines near the bottom of the door to make it harder for pets to push open. This works well for felines and smaller dogs. You can talk to a company like All Seasons Retractables for more information.
Training Tips
In any use of screen doors, proper training of your pets will help preserve your screens and keep your animals safe inside the house. Try these tips to reinforce the suggestions above.
If your cat starts to push open your screen door, use a squirt gun to create a negative association with that action. Most cats hate to get wet!
Larger dogs may be able to bull through any screen, but a remote collar that is activated when they push on a door can teach them not to do that. You don't have to use an electric shock collar; citronella collars also create a negative association with unwanted behaviors.
"Scat" mats can be used with both cats and dogs to keep them away from doors. These devices use a harmless static electric shock, sometimes combined with audio, to keep pets where they belong.
Teach your cat or dog to bark or ring a bell, instead of pawing at the door, when it wants to go out.