Need a dog-proof door surface

[Brian Kent]

Multiple choice quiz.
This is a picture of…

1) the inside of our bedroom doors
2) the place where we keep the 2 big rowdy puppies when we are gone.
3) a place where we don't show our best friends but I am now posting on the internet.
4) a cry for help.
5) all of the above.

See how you do on the quiz, and then give me a suggestion about a tough surface for the door. (I am already planning on replacing the floor with stone tile.)

Humbly yours,
Brian

[Georg Zudoff]

Dear Brian!

Probably it would be enough stupide advise but you have only 3 choices:

1. Dog must live outside of your house.
2. Some kind of education - my friends live in an apartment on the 6 floor and his wife is passionate lover of zvergpinchers. So she spend a lot of time for education each new dog not to eat furniture, doors etc. But this not include sleepers (kind of home shoose) of her husband ;-))
3. Probably some kind of removable sheets - plywood, laminated boards with easy removing and installing.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Good luck with this...
When our huskey figured out he couldn't chew through the steel door, he went after the wall.
We put up sheet metal on the wall to stop that.
When he figured out he couldn't chew through the sheet metal, he went after the door jambs.
We came home to find the whole door laying on the floor.
He also chewed up at least 7 door knobs - busting all his teeth in the process. The vet bills for the teeth alone were a couple thousand.

Then he decided he wanted to go outside via the sliding door - w/out our help in opening it first of course.
He chewed the sliding door out of it's frame and that whole thing fell outside. Lucky no one (our "Little Peanut dog - specifically) was under it when it let go.

Plywood will work for a little while. Once they get their adult teeth in though, the plywood will only slow them down a little.
Sheet metal or some chain link fencing attached to the plywood will work. How well or for how long depends on the size of the dogs.

FWIW - our Huskey is only part huskey & only weighed about 50/55 pounds when he did all the damage.

[Peter Kelly]

Why not wait until the 2-3 year mark has passed with the puppies? Could make something you really like and not have to worry about dog-proofing it.

There's also the Scat-Mat. Zaps them when they get too close to the door, couch etc. http://www.petsafe.net/products/pet-proofing/pawz-away-24-x-48

[Van Huskey]

Crate the dogs...? We have always crated our dogs and they see the crate as their "den". All of our dogs are med/large so that isn't an issue either. You just have to make sure they have good exercise time when you are home.

[ray hampton]

Why not wait until the 2-3 year mark has passed with the puppies? Could make something you really like and not have to worry about dog-proofing it.

There's also the Scat-Mat. Zaps them when they get too close to the door, couch etc. http://www.petsafe.net/products/pet-proofing/pawz-away-24-x-48

this mat will work for humans too- sometime

[Sam Layton]

Brian,

Georg is on the right track. By the looks of your bedroom doors, your bedroom is not a good place for your dogs to live. I would recommend, OUTSIDE. Build a nice dog house, with an attached dog run. You and your dogs will have a better quality of life. Who, is in charge...

Sam

[John Gregory]

I have heard this suggestion from the pros a lot. With the right training the dogs enjoy it. Becomes routine and satisfies their "nesting" instinct.



Crate the dogs...? We have always crated our dogs and they see the crate as their "den". All of our dogs are med/large so that isn't an issue either. You just have to make sure they have good exercise time when you are home.

[Ryan Brucks]

this might not apply to you but here goes.

I had a bunch of extra melamine shelving available since I changed my plans and ended up not having enough space for them.

I used the extra melamine to make a dog section of my garage. Basically just cornered off a section and made a sliding door also using the malamine... and I used an old hole-saw scrap as a wheel to help the door slide. I have 5 dogs and they're way too much for the house, plus they'd get in the way while I'm woodworking (some are young and very hyper still)

you could always go super cheap and go the plywood/melamine route full knowing you will have to replace/rebuild it every so often. mine's still going a few months strong... the edges look kinda crappy already but on the whole its held up better than I would have thought.

[Jacob Reverb]

Cold rolled steel, oh about 20 gauge?

[Tim Boger]

Multiple choice quiz.
This is a picture of…

1) the inside of our bedroom doors
2) the place where we keep the 2 big rowdy puppies when we are gone.
3) a place where we don't show our best friends but I am now posting on the internet.
4) a cry for help.
5) all of the above.

See how you do on the quiz, and then give me a suggestion about a tough surface for the door. (I am already planning on replacing the floor with stone tile.)

Humbly yours,
Brian

I had the same issue, after repairing the surface and repainting it I secured a 1/16 thick plexi-glass sheet to the door up as high as the dog can reach. Dang near invisable, problem solved.

Tim

[Stephen Cherry]

Sriracha sauce on the surface may help. I tried lots of things with my beagles, and now if I want to keep them off of something, I put a little hot sauce on it. I know, I'm not a nice guy.

[Peter Quinn]

They will chew through anything not made of steel, so I would either crate them, or cover every surface and all furniture in diamond plate. If you cover the doors, they will just move on to something else. My dog was crated as a pup on advice from the trainer, now when we go to bed she puts herself in her crate and stays there until its time to get up, when she jumps up and licks my face.

[Jim Heffner]

Why not try some sheets of Lexan or polycarbonate (clear) cut to fit on the door and glued on with an adhesive like liquid nails or the like? That stuff is pretty tough and will
probably outlast the dogs or at least till they give up and quit trying to destroy the doors.

[Gary Herrmann]

I've got inside puppies too. Giving them each a crate is the best option. It's a bit unsightly. Mine are in my office, but it gives them a den and dogs love their dens.

You could try plastic laminate on the lower half of door.

BUT

If the dog is determined, he/she will find an edge and then they won't stop. 18 years ago I had a great big goof of a yellow lab named Bear. We put him in a pen in the kitchen when we went to work. He found an edge on the vinyl floor and chewed through the sub-floor. I fixed the floor, only for him to do it all over again. It was like a canine version of the Great Escape.

Bear also gnawed my square balusters round. Hmmm. He also ate an outside corner of drywall.

When he was older, he also ate several indestructible Kong toys. These things have 1/2"+ thick rubber walls.

Where there's a tooth and a will, there's a way.


But oh my, was that dog sweet. He treated our then newborn son like he was the most important thing on the planet. You always had to step over Bear to get to him.

[Peter Aeschliman]

I'm no Caesar Milan here, but I agree with a few previous posters... You need to address the root cause or you'll end up having to replace all kinds of surfaces with steel/etc, or they'll end up purely as outdoor dogs. Train them now while they're at an impressionable age. One of the big reasons dogs freak out and chew stuff up is because of excess energy... so exercise them hard when you can, and train them while they're tired. Watch them like a hawk and correct their behavior in the moment, on the spot. Don't just leave them alone to act on their instincts. Dogs instinctively want to do what is right and please you, but you have to teach them what "right" is.

Crating made a massive difference for us. When our dogs were very young, they would cry when we first put them in their crates. After a week or two of that, they began to have no problem with it. Now they love their crates and put themselves to bed, or take naps in them during the day.

It's also a hugely helpful potty training aid, since they instinctively won't "go" in their beds unless they can't hold it any longer. So they'll cry when they need to go out.

As a short term fix, get the training spray stuff from your pet store. It tastes absolutely terrible, but it's odorless and won't stain any surfaces. Our dogs had a minor chewing problem when they were pups (chewed on our baseboard moldings in a few spots). We sprayed every chewable surface down and they never did it again.

Anyway, like I said I'm no dog trainer, and most of what I've learned is from screwing up!

[John Lifer]

Crate the dogs. I've 4 terriers and one dachshund and the terriers have always been crated. One stays there a lot with door open, it is her hidey hole. The rest go in with no problem.. I know these are larger, but either do this or move them outside. Otherwise, your going to be replacing a lot of furniture and doors, walls, etc.
Your choice. :D

[Brian Kent]

Responses to your responses:

1) Great idea on the crate training.

2) The fresh damage has been over for a year. Training has worked well. But when we get home the Ridgeback jumps on the door, so I am mainly looking to limit the scratch damage from jumping now. The Min Pin stopped trying to each his way out from under the door.

3) They are inside dogs because of the massive amounts of Coyotes in my area. The Min Pin barely survived an attack, which is why we added the Shepherd (dogs #1 & #2 - the number of dogs we intended to have).

4) I think I'll try the plexiglass or the hardwood ply for the temporary solution.

5) We have our two dogs which can lie around the house just fine without trouble. My daughter in Cairo added the Ridgeback and my son is keeping the Border Collie at our house for a few weeks (which began in October). Each dog multiplied the issues instead of adding to them.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Ah. So if the problem is only caused by them jumping up on the door and scratching it with their nails, only when they're excited because you're home (and not because they're going crazy being locked up) then you have a much smaller problem than I thought.

Plexiglass it is!

[Brian Kent]

Peter, it is a smaller problem NOW. A year ago we were going nuts!

[Mark W Pugh]

We crated our lab puppy, now over 100#, and the problem never occurred. Now he waits by his crate at night to go to bed.

[johnny means]

Dogs scratching at the point of greeting and goodbye is a sign of separation anxiety. The more important question here is what's going on with the dogs. Imagine how a three year old feels if left alone not knowing if or when mommy or daddy wil return. This is very stressful for dogs that haven't been taught how to deal with it. Rectify this and just get new doors.

[Lee Schierer]

Buy one of these and put your puppies in it238318 when ever you leave the house.

[Brian Brightwell]

Crate the dogs...? We have always crated our dogs and they see the crate as their "den". All of our dogs are med/large so that isn't an issue either. You just have to make sure they have good exercise time when you are home.

I agree with Van's advice. Dogs need three things Exercise Discipline and Affection. If they don't get enough they are not balanced and cause trouble. Discipline=Training

[Matt Day]

We use a product in hospital construction called Acrovyn, which is a wall protection sheet good that is glued on the wall. Think thick melamine. We install it wherever there are carts against the wall, in hallways, at sinks, etc. It's strong stuff and might do the job. If you were closer I'd snag you a few scraps to try.

[Brian Kent]

Thank you for the dog advice. However, I want you to know that they do get exercise multiple times per day in a large yard with me walking the track and throwing balls, giving great affection, active training etc. They do not show any anxiety when we leave and are no longer chewing the door as they did in puppy teething days. Yes, they are excited to see us when we get home. One barks and another jumps on the door. That's all. The jumper is also our most mellow and happy dog (my daughter's to be specific) whose nickname is "Kangaroo". We have trained him not to touch people while jumping. It is very interesting to see him jump in excitement, then twist away so he won't touch us in mid air.

Cesar Milan is a good friend, as is the inventor of the "Gentle Leader" for Kangaroo (AKA Dudley Roo, the Ridgeback).

[David Weaver]

Sheet metal. I'd go for brass. It's expensive, but you're paying, so I'm OK with the cost!

[Brian Kent]

My wife and I were imagining patterns that would compliment the travertine medallions that will go on the floor in front of them. There are woods like Ipe and Padauk and Brazilian Cherry that are extremely hard. If we cover the current scratch pattern by a large margin, we might come up with an interesting feature. The Padauk would go on orange but then turns the rich reddish brown of our fake brazilian cherry flooring in the hallway. I know this because my Maloof-style rocker is Padauk, and now almost duplicates the color of the floor.
I could finish it with a very hard varnish like Waterlox. No dirty boot has ever scratched my Waterlox-covered cofee table.

[Carl Beckett]

You can make a disposable piece and apply it where the damage is occuring. Works as long as they dont just move to a new spot.

My brother had a bunch of Jack Russel terriers he was raising. These things are hyper, and all over the house. The would jump right up onto the dining room table whenever they wanted.

He got one of those underground fences with the shock collar - where if you cross the line they get a jolt - and he tacked the wire fence part to the ceiling around the table.

SOLVED! The dogs would no longer go anywhere near the table..... (it was very accurate within about a foot, and he just tweaked the location until it covered the perimeter he wanted. He then adjusted it to certain rooms. No longer had to leave doors closed - the dogs knew exactly where they could roam. Eventually he just took it all down but by then the dogs had been trained.

[Lee Schierer]

You can make a disposable piece and apply it where the damage is occuring. Works as long as they dont just move to a new spot.

My brother had a bunch of Jack Russel terriers he was raising. These things are hyper, and all over the house. The would jump right up onto the dining room table whenever they wanted.

He got one of those underground fences with the shock collar - where if you cross the line they get a jolt - and he tacked the wire fence part to the ceiling around the table.

SOLVED! The dogs would no longer go anywhere near the table..... (it was very accurate within about a foot, and he just tweaked the location until it covered the perimeter he wanted. He then adjusted it to certain rooms. No longer had to leave doors closed - the dogs knew exactly where they could roam. Eventually he just took it all down but by then the dogs had been trained.

Even easier, they make a portable transmitter called a "Zone" that you can use in the house to keep dogs out of rooms, off furniture, etc. We have two and they keep the dog off the couches when we are not home.

[Brian Kent]

Is acrylic scratch resistant or should I go for a polycarbonate like lexan if I go for a clear cover? Lexan claims a Rockwell hardness of 118. Is that the same rockwell scale we use for plane blades and chisels?

[ray hampton]

I not sure but a Rockwell hardness of 118 sounds that someone are talking about a different hardness scale, the steel that I tested were about 60 +or -

[Craig Michael]

I'm no Caesar Milan here, but I agree with a few previous posters... You need to address the root cause or you'll end up having to replace all kinds of surfaces with steel/etc, or they'll end up purely as outdoor dogs. Train them now while they're at an impressionable age. One of the big reasons dogs freak out and chew stuff up is because of excess energy... so exercise them hard when you can, and train them while they're tired. Watch them like a hawk and correct their behavior in the moment, on the spot. Don't just leave them alone to act on their instincts. Dogs instinctively want to do what is right and please you, but you have to teach them what "right" is.

Crating made a massive difference for us. When our dogs were very young, they would cry when we first put them in their crates. After a week or two of that, they began to have no problem with it. Now they love their crates and put themselves to bed, or take naps in them during the day.

It's also a hugely helpful potty training aid, since they instinctively won't "go" in their beds unless they can't hold it any longer. So they'll cry when they need to go out.

As a short term fix, get the training spray stuff from your pet store. It tastes absolutely terrible, but it's odorless and won't stain any surfaces. Our dogs had a minor chewing problem when they were pups (chewed on our baseboard moldings in a few spots). We sprayed every chewable surface down and they never did it again.

Anyway, like I said I'm no dog trainer, and most of what I've learned is from screwing up!

+1 My sister's dog loved his crate when he was a puppy. You'd say "go to bed" and he'd sprint up the stairs and try to open the crate door himself if it were not already open. It was his own space and he loved it. And as you said, it really helps a lot with house training them.

[Brian Kent]

I've been looking around and there are several different Rockwell scales.

[ray hampton]

I've been looking around and there are several different Rockwell scales.

Yes , there are a number of other scales to confuse me, Brinell [spell check]are only one, I only use one machine to test the hardness of steel , other machines could show a different reading even if they are the same model

[Rich Engelhardt]

Is acrylic scratch resistant or should I go for a polycarbonate like lexan if I go for a clear cover?
Whatever way you go with that, make sure what you use doesn't shatter or break into sharp slivers.

[Jacob Reverb]

I still like diamond plate or galvanized steel ... classy!