We have this one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001F2GDLW?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_60SHYNDCDYHX6N4RD6GE

I love that I didn't have to cut a hole in my doors.

I hate that I have to now catch mice and baby chipmunks that get brought into the house. :)

We got this one 1.5 years ago for our 60lb dog. It has held up well and I have no complaints about the item itself. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07FM9HBXN?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I like the easy cover so that we can keep him inside or outside when needed.

I wish we would have gone a size smaller because it would be nice to be able to open the other side of the slider a couple inches more.

I don’t remember the details of why, but there wasn’t a way to keep the one side of the slider door completely locked with this one that we were willing to do. I think we would have had to screw into our slider door to do that?? So something to keep in mind.

But it sounds like yours wouldn’t be on a slider, so sorry if that’s no help. Perhaps something else from that brand.

Wouldn't squirrels and skunks and opossums and raccoons, etc. get into the house that way?

We just always used a magnetic plastic flap cat door It worked well for us. We love them and our cat(s) did too. I had a large dog door at one time also. Only one time I did have a neighborhood cat come in and when he seen us he bolted out the door never to be seen again Now my daughter had two neighborhood strays come in, but she had the cat food bowls in the basement. When she moved the food to the kitchen they stopped coming in.

With my dogs, those critters would never make it across the yard, never mind making it to the house and through the pet door ... the word massacre comes to mind!

I'm with Chispa. We have a large dog door (two german shepherds) and never once have I worried about critters getting (and we live on a farm).

I can't really speak to smaller doors.

Wouldn't squirrels and skunks and opossums and raccoons, etc. get into the house that way?

My mom had a pet door in her old house, and a skunk came into the breezeway ONCE in the 15-ish years she lived in that house. He looked around and left pretty quickly, not finding the house up to his skunk-y standards.

With my dogs, those critters would never make it across the yard, never mind making it to the house and through the pet door ... the word massacre comes to mind!

Sounds like my new puppy. She's quite sure she was put on this earth to kill rabbits. No, she hasn't actually killed one yet, but she's sure trying hard to get her teeth on one.

Two notes:

- My mom had a small door for a small dog. I'd think that's easier than a door for a big dog.

- Her pet door had a "lock" for nighttime, and most of the critters you've mentioned prefer to wander at night.

Out pet door will be accessed on the inside from built in cabinets that are actually the pet crate. So critters cant really get too far :)

A skunk's influence reaches great distances.

My business partner had a dog pick up a "dead" possum and bring it into the house through the dog door. The story is funny now but probably wasn't nearly as amusing in real life.

I hate that my dogs don't use it. :( After spending $1200 on a door installed in a slider, they look at me like I'm asking them to jump into a fire. No amount of treats works. I have heard of a few people in my city having racoons come through the door at night to raid the kitchens and dog bowls.

As Scout can attest, animals don't like using the flap. You have to SHOW them it's a door, and nobody shows the vermin.

Anyway, it's a good idea to close the flap at night.

Scout, we had a beagle that a friend could no longer care for. The dog was not blessed in the intelligence department. Nope, food didn't work. What did work was us and our friend shoveling the dog in and out of the dog door before the light bulb went off.

@mark "A skunk's influence reaches great distances." This is a great life quote for any bad idea or ugliness that has pervaded a workspace. Very thoughtful.

I wanted to put a pet door to the garage in my home. But it turned out that it's against fire safety codes. You might want to check out the rules in your jurisdiction before you buy anything.

My business partner had a dog pick up a "dead" possum and bring it into the house through the dog door. The story is funny now but probably wasn't nearly as amusing in real life.

this is exactly what happened to me years ago. thankfully, once the dog knew the critter was "dead", he just walked away instead of ripping it into a bloody mess in my kitchen. i grabbed the snow shovel on the deck, scooped up the "dead" possum and put him out in the woods.

i used to joke about that possum being part cat with 9 lives because bentley "killed" it several times although he only sneaked it in the house once. 🤣

We are looking into them as well. I have seen ones that only open with a special sensor on your dog/cats collar which prevent critters from getting in.

Our dogs had audio communication and the doors were manually operated. It encouraged interaction between owner and pet.

Just because a critter hasn't gotten into your house, doesn't mean it won't happen. Red squirrels will get in any way they can find. Once a skunk came in through the dryer vent. No one was home for several weeks, so it died on the basement floor, probably from dehydration. Another house had an opossum in the crawlspace next to the basement. There were droppings throughout the house upstairs, so we theorized that it came in the front door while the cleaners were in the house cleaning it (they left the door open while cleaning), then hid in the basement when it couldn't find its way out. I know people that have to leave their trash cans in the garage so the raccoons don't get into it, so I imagine that if a raccoon could smell trash in the garage, it would do whatever it could to get into the garage and a pet door seems ideal.

Nobody shows the vermin? They don't have to be shown. They are smarter and more wily than you think.

I'm guessing most people wouldn't have guard dogs guarding the pet door 24/7, I know I wouldn't get a dog(s) for that reason alone. The sensor on the collar does seem to be a good solution, though.

Out pet door will be accessed on the inside from built in cabinets that are actually the pet crate. So critters cant really get too far :)

Sounds like an excellent design.

A skunk's influence reaches great distances.

Tell me about it. We have a significant skunk problem in our neighborhood, and I'm talking about a suburb with big lots, not the country. Do you know that skunk stink can wake you from a sound sleep?

I worry most about my dog tangling with a skunk -- She's a wild puppy (Husky mix), and she has no sense of danger -- I think that's the most likely problem. In reality, skunks don't want to come into your house -- your porch maybe, if you've left out food, but they're afraid of a place where people are around.

I have heard of a few people in my city having racoons come through the door at night to raid the kitchens and dog bowls.

Yeah, raccoons have little fear of people -- they'll show you their teeth and let you know their plans for you.

Last summer our chimney cap blew off in a storm, and a raccoon mama "set up shop" with her babies. For a couple days I thought I was hearing a bird trapped in the chimney. I climbed into the fireplace, stuck my head way up there, opened the vent and YIKES, I was nose to nose with a teenaged-racccoon. You know those guys are the #1 rabies-carrier, right? Let me tell you, I moved FAST.

I ordered some male raccoon urine online ($30 + shipping for a tiny bottle & ultra-smelly) and shoved a soaked rag up into the vent. I waited until early evening so mama would be comfortable taking the babies out in the twilight -- they evacuated quite quickly, and we got busy fixing our chimney cap.

Once a skunk came in through the dryer vent.

We had a mama chipmunk come into our dryer vent (that's what we get for having ivy growing up the side of our house). We ran the dryer and baked her and the babies. We just about died from the smell. This is a very good reason to insist that your dryer is placed on an exterior wall -- because our dryer vent was so short, it was easy/cheap for us to replace the vent and "throw away the problem"; had it been on an interior wall, we would've had to live with the stench until we could get a pro out.

Trust me, the skunk smell is evil, but it is better than something dead.

I have seen ones that only open with a special sensor on your dog/cats collar which prevent critters from getting in.

I have no experience with these, but they sound like a great idea.

We purchased THIS door to be built in on the screened-in porch. Works great and my dog has no problem using it. There is a magnet attached to the bottom of the frame and the bottom of the door that catches each time. The only down side is that it makes a really loud flapping/banging noise when those magnets connect going in and out. 8 times with each exit and each entrance. I am afraid that it could be annoying my neighbor that lives behind the porch.