Electronic Door for My Dogs

I give High Tech Pet Products the highest recommendation for the company’s electronic door! In the past, I had to arrange my life around being home to open a door to let my dogs scamper into the fenced yard where they could do their business, as the euphemism goes. In 2012, I stumbled upon the High Tech Pet Products door, and I decided to try it.

As I have small dogs, I bought the smaller door, which no human intruder can squeeze through. Apparently, the installation was relatively easy for the construction professional on whom I rely.

High Tech Pet Products Door for My dogs

Online reviews said to replace the collars that the company provides, and I quickly discovered that the reviewers were giving good advice. I purchased leather collars, drilled holes through them for heavy string, and tied the electronic signal boxes to the collars. You see, each dog wears a small, black, plastic box on the collar. The box sends a signal to the door. When the dog approaches the door, it magically opens, and it closes again behind the dog.

It took less than a day to train my dogs to walk up to the pet door whenever they wanted to go outside.

I belatedly elected to purchase the battery plan, which automatically bills me for replacement batteries for the dog collars. I just received a set of batteries in the mail today, prompting me to write this blog.

The door has a large battery for back-up. So if lightning strikes and the lights go out, the pet door keeps working.

Only once have I been away all night, but I have enough confidence in the door to believe that I could take additional overnight trips if I chose to do so. I will not be gone longer than one night at a time because I want to ensure that my dogs have plenty of water and food. I worry that, if I were gone longer, a dog might accidentally overturn the water bowls in my absence.

At first, I was concerned that the opening of the door in winter might cool my house, but that was a foolish worry. The opening is small, and the dogs have not abused the privilege of going and coming as they wish.

On two occasions, I have had to replace the cable system hidden within the door. The first time, I hired a trusted HVAC guy to install the cable. The second time, a friend with a background in electrical wiring volunteered to make the installation.

Only once has one of the small boxes fallen from a collar, and I found it in the fenced yard. The newer boxes are more water resistant than my original ones were. I have had to replace the boxes once in the past four years.

If you have dogs (or cats) and have not tried an electronic pet door, you will be surprised at how relieved you will feel when you no longer have to open and close doors for your pets!

I have a Chihuahua that I recently acquired after someone else had trained her, and she prefers that I take her on a leash into the big yard that is not fenced. (She is soooo spoiled!) I am not entirely off the hook because of her, but, often enough, she chooses to hop through the electronic door to visit the fenced yard. I am sure I could be gone all night and she would avail herself of the electronic door.

Kudos to High Tech Pet Products!