Has your dog damaged your front door, and possibly other doors in your home by repeatedly scratching the paint or even gouging into the wood, or denting the aluminum? This is actually a very common problem. There are various causes of door scratching. Here, Pet Door Products offers you help in choosing the most recommended solutions to your dog’s door scratching habit, to restore peace in your home and prevent further property damage to doors.
Topics covered in this blog:
- Why Do Dogs Scratch Doors?
- How To Prevent Dog From Scratching Door?
- Where Do I Get a High-Quality Energy-Efficient Pet Door?
What Causes Dogs to Scratch Doors?
As with any kind of dog training, you need to know what’s actually causing the behavior. Each dog has its own individual personality and temperament and environment-based points of interest. Understanding the causes of your dog’s unwanted behavior is the way to find the right solution to it. These are the most common reasons why a dog habitually scratches at the door:
- To be let out to go to the bathroom
- To be let out to run and play outdoors
- Because of some sound that he/she thinks maybe someone or something of interest
- Just to stretch out in the soft grass and cool breeze or warm sunshine for a relaxing nap
- Boredom and trying to get your attention
- Striving to cope with anxiety
How Can I Prevent My Dog from Scratching Doors?
Naturally, your dog has no other options for getting to the other side of the door than to finding the most effective way to prompt you to open it. But, of course, when you open the door for your dog in response to the scratching, you are, in effect, training your dog to scratch in order to be let in or out of the door. That means you’re setting up a lifetime of continued door scratching by your dog.
If you are having difficulty figuring out how to protect your door from dog scratchings, here are three standard solutions for stopping your dog from damaging your door by scratching it.
Try Dog Training with Rewards
When a dog is scratching or chewing the door frame, the problem is most likely either boredom or an effort to get your attention for one of the reasons listed above. (If it’s a puppy who is focussed on chewing, your dog may be teething.) It can often be effective to coax a dog away from continuing scratching behavior with treats, chew toys, doggie games, or just by engaging with your dog in some activity, you both enjoy together.
Potty training, training to stop barking, and other needed behavioral teaching can be accomplished through positive reinforcement methods. Since scratching is most often about the need or desire to get through the closed door, simpler, easier solutions may be preferred, such as the two suggested below.
Add a Door Guard
If you’re having trouble training your dog to stop scratching the door, there are a couple of easy solutions for preventing property damage from the behavior. One remedy is placing a door guard over the area of the door that is affected by the habit. For larger dogs, you may need a full-size door guard, and for smaller dogs, a guard that covers just the bottom half of the door may cover enough to prevent any damage from scratching.
If your dog scratches both sides of the door, probably as his/her way of asking to be let in or outside, you’ll probably need a door guard on both sides of the door to solve the problem entirely. Decorative door guards can add an aesthetic quality to entry doors. There are numerous styles to suit different tastes available for ordering through various sources online.
Install a Dog Door
Here’s a solution that offers many kinds of benefits for you and your dog, in addition to stopping the door scratching problem. Installing a pet door for dogs liberates both your dog and you. Your dog becomes free from whining, begging, staring helplessly out the window, or scratching on the door to indicate he or she wants or needs to go out. With his or her own entry, your dog has the incomparable gift of free access to everything he/she needs and wants indoors and outdoors.
The best dog doors come with sliding security doors so that you can simply close the access whenever you need or want to control your dog’s going out or coming in. You are now free from a life as the door attendant for your dog. A state-of-the-art energy-efficient dog door is truly a game-changer for you and your dog.
Pet Door Products, Salt Lake City Utah
A high-quality energy-efficient pet door can be installed in any exterior or interior wall or door made of any type of material, including sliding glass doors. Pet Door Products offers our award-winning high-performance pet doors for increasing energy efficiency, preventing damage from your dog scratching doors, and liberating your dog and you.
Our premium-quality pet doors come in sizes to fit dogs of all breeds. Choose DIY installation, or have our professional install your dog door for a small additional cost.
Call Pet Door Products, Salt Lake City UT at (801) 973-8000, or use our online contact request, for more information or to order your new top-quality energy-efficient pet door.
5% of all sales proceeds go to the Humane Society of Utah (HSU). See our pet spotlight for adoption; we pay the fees!
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