Doggie door for extra large breed?

Hi

I am curious how owners of extra large breed (Irish wolf hound, Great Dane etc.) who have their dogs indoors most of the time manage to allow them to go out the yard for some fun, peeing and pooing on their own especially when noone is home?

A doggie door would normally be used for small breeds but how would that work for such extra large breeds especially the security part of it (burglars could easily get into the house if a doggie door that huge is used!).

We don't have one we keep the back door open,If it is too cold or raining Ollie asks but trouble is he doesn't bark he rattles the handle with his nose so we have to be aware he might need to go outside.
You can get the doors that lock so if you are going out you can make the house secure.

We decided to get a dogflap fitted because my OH is looking for work, and I don't think it's fair to expect a dog to "hold it" until you can come home at lunch time and the end of the working day to relieve himself. Before moving out of my parents', we always had dogs, and dog flaps and never had a problem. Also, since putting the flap in, Amber's housebreaking has suddenly become much easier, and she has far less accidents indoors.

Ours isn't extra large, but it is a large size dog door (labrador or GSD size), that a child or very small adult could possibly fit through. To be honest, I think two big dogs in the house would put most burglers off to begin with!

We also have 6ft brick walls all around our garden, which joins our neighbours gardens on two sides, and a heavy duty 6ft gate with a mortis lock on it. Our yard was made secure enough both for my owl's aviary and for my OH to keep his motorbike, so we're fairly confident that we're secure. We also put keys away safely, so if anyone could get in, they'd have to break a door/window to get out with anything, which makes breaking in through the dogflap fairly pointless! I don't think our dogflap puts us at any more risk that anyone else on our street as far as burgulary goes, and the flap isn't visable from outside our garden anyway, so how would they know?

Cheers Lyn

I was thinking more to allow the dog to come in and out as it please no matter if someone is home or not.

For small breed I allow the dog to do just that with a doggie door so it doesn't affect how she would get into the yard and back into the house as she can do so by herself as she please.

There must be a way for extra large breed to do the same and ensure the security of the house as well?

We used to have a large dog flap before we changed our door and our other gsd who was a very big dog got in easily even running in through it sometimes if he heard his food bowl tinkling I used to think he would take the door off sometimes. I remember an incident though when I had looked myself out and my son who was 23 at the time and over 6'ft tried to get in through the dogflap for me and it took him over half an hour to persuade my gsd it was ok when I shouted to the dog to let him through it only took my son a few seconds to squeeze through. So it made me a little wary about getting another when we had a new door fitted. I don't think my gsd would have let a stranger in but you do have to be careful if you have a friendly dog.

Thanks for the information So it seems a doggie door is still the only way to accomplish that no mater how big the dogs are...I am planning ahead for an Irish wolfhound in the future

I am worried about the security as climbing into the yard where a doggie door that big which leads into the house isn't hard at all with wooden fence.

I'm not even sure Ollie would get in the largest dog flap weighing 91/2 stone and being a big hefty boy.I am home most of the time so don't have to worry.If we go out we are normally only away for up to 5hrs and he is capable of waiting that long as long as he has done his busisness before we leave.Irish woldhounds are tall but lean so you may not have as much trouble as say someone with a Newfie or as we have a BMD.

Teagan has a 'large' dog flap, theres an even larger one, but she fits through this one just fine (She's a Bullmastiff, weighing about 8 stone)

But as stupid as they are, surely most burglars would take one look at the size of the dog door and have to wonder ....

A) If the door is that size, so must be the dog !!

B) If it's open to just anyone and it's still there, the dog must be doing something right !!

We used to have one for ours, and never had a security issue, just an issue getting my boy to go through it

Mine are never left for more than a few Hours so there's no need for them to go out really.
I'm happier knowing that they are all asleep in the House