There are three measurements needed in order to choose the right size dog doors for your dogs. They are:
How To Measure Your Dog For A Doggie Door
- Height of the dog
- Width of the dog
- Height of the rise
You start by measuring your dog’s height at his shoulders while he is standing. I have used two methods successfully to measure my dogs. The first is by standing one of them by the wall and eyeballing his height and marking it on the wall. However, another method can be used if you don’t want to mark up your walls. I got a yardstick and a ruler, and got the dog to stand still in front of me and stood the yardstick up next to him at the shoulders. Then I simply put the ruler across his shoulders while holding it perpendicular to the yardstick and noted the height at which it crossed the yardstick.
For my dogs width, I stood next to him and bent down with my yardstick held at 90 degrees to his body and parallel to the floor, and noted his width that way.
To decide on the the height of the rise of the doggie door, you need some idea of his agility. The rise is the height of the bottom of the doggie from the floor, and it’s height is dependent upon the size of your dog, and his ability to step over something. Our dog is still young and can handle a higher rise than could an older dog who is feeling his years. Max is a bulldog, and he can’t handle the same rise that a German Shepherd can, just because he is so much shorter and has shorter legs.
One way to test for which rise height you want is to call your dog and get him to step over various sized objects. There is no scientific method to this. Just try to get an idea of what height he is comfortable with.
Determining the flap size of the doggie door
Now that you have these numbers, what do you do with them? To determine the vertical dimension of your dog door, take your dog’s height and add 1 inch. So, if he is 14″ tall, like Max, you have a flap which will be 15 inches. SO you know now that the flap should be 15 inches, and it will be installed 3 inches above the floor.
For the width, just add another inch to your dogs width. For Max, who is 13 inches wide, we needed a flap in the doggie door of 15 x 14 inches, and mounted 3 inches above the floor.
Choosing the right size dog door is important to your dog’s ease of access, and comfort, but it really isn’t hard to do once you know how.