Security Options for Homes With a Dog Door

What police and RACV advise

There is little formal guidance written specifically about pet doors, but what exists points the same way.

• Distance from locks. The Aurora, Illinois police department's home security advice says locks on doors should be placed at least 40 inches from windows, glass panels and other openings "such as mail slots and pet doors," so a burglar cannot reach in and unlock the door.
• Wall rather than door. RACV, the Victorian motoring club that also sells home insurance, says a wall-mounted dog door is more secure than one fitted into a door, because a door-mounted flap can let a thief reach through and undo the door's locks even if they cannot fit through themselves.
• Smallest door that fits. RACV advises buying the smallest suitable dog door, measuring your dog from the ground to the top of its back and adding 2.5 cm (about 1 inch).
• Location and a buffer room. RACV suggests a spot that cannot be seen from the street and, where possible, a door that opens into a room with few valuables and a lockable door to the rest of the house, such as a laundry room.
• Lockable doors. RACV notes that a locked pet door may not stop a determined thief, but the effort and noise involved can deter one.
• Keys. London's Metropolitan Police warns that keys should never be kept near exterior doors and adds, "Consider cat flaps and dog flaps too."

On how often dog doors are actually used in burglaries: we could not find a published figure from the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a police department or an insurer. This guide gives no number for that reason.

Placement checklist before you cut the hole

The published advice above turns into a short checklist for install time:

1. Measure the dog, then buy the smallest size that fits. RACV warns that larger dog doors make it easier for thieves to get in.
2. Prefer a wall install where practical. If the door has to go in a door, check the reach from the flap opening to every lock, latch and thumb-turn on that door. Aurora police use 40 inches as the minimum.
3. Do not leave keys, garage remotes or car fobs within reach of the opening. The Met's warning about reaching through letterboxes applies equally to a flap.
4. Put the door where it is not visible from the street, ideally into a side yard or fenced area.
5. If you can, open it into a room you can close off, such as a mudroom or laundry, with a solid interior door to the rest of the house.

If the dog door goes into a sliding patio door as a panel insert, the panel itself needs locking into the track. Endura Flap says its sliding door inserts come with a C-clamp lock and recommends adding a Charley bar or wooden dowel. Our sliding glass door security guide covers the slider itself.

Lockable, microchip and smart dog doors compared

These are the products covered here, with specs from each maker's own page as of October 2026. Prices are list prices on the maker's site where shown.

A few readings of this table:

• Selective entry is about animals. SureFlap and PetSafe describe microchip and collar-key access as keeping out other animals and wildlife. Neither maker claims it stops a person, so do not treat an electronic flap as a barrier against people. The opening is still there.
• The lock is the security feature. For people, what matters is whether the opening can be closed off when you are away or asleep. Endura's steel Watchdog cover is the most substantial barrier of the products covered here by its published specs; the electronic doors offer convenience, schedules and remote locking.
• Big dogs mean big holes. Of the electronic doors here, only the PetSafe Large is rated for dogs above 25 lb, and its flap is 11.9 by 16.1 inches. A large opening makes the locking cover and the placement rules more important, not less.
• Batteries and Wi-Fi. SureFlap quotes up to 12 months on 4 C cells; PetSafe's Medium takes 4 C cells and the Large 4 D cells, with an optional power adaptor. Check how each behaves when batteries die before relying on a schedule lock.

How the alarm system fits around a dog door

A dog door creates two alarm problems: a standard door/window sensor does not cover the flap itself (smart doors like PetSafe's report their own status in an app), and the dog is moving around inside while the system is armed.

Cover the room the flap opens into. If the dog door opens into a mudroom or laundry, put an entry sensor on the interior door between that room and the rest of the house, and keep that door closed when the system is armed. That gives you a sensored boundary the dog never needs to cross. Picks are in best door and window sensors.

Motion sensors and the dog. Interior motion sensors have to tolerate the dog. By the makers' own figures, SimpliSafe's Motion Sensor Gen 2 Pet Mode covers pets under 60 lb (with a recommended 6 ft mounting height), and Ring's Alarm Motion Detector is designed for pets of 50 lb or less on Low sensitivity and 30 lb or less on Medium, with Ring warning that there may be no setting at which a given pet stops triggering it. A dog using the flap also brings outdoor movement into the house at any hour. The full weight-limit comparison is in pet-friendly motion sensors.

Watch the opening. A camera aimed at the dog door, inside or out, shows who or what came through. Smart doors add their own layer: PetSafe's SmartDoor Connected sends activity and door status notifications through the My PetSafe app.

Add glass-break where the dog door sits in a glass panel. If the flap is in a slider or a glass door, a glass-break detector covers the pane around it; see are glass-break sensors worth it.

Do not solve dog-triggered false alarms by turning interior detection off without replacing it. Lock the flap, sensor the interior boundary, or move to perimeter sensors plus a camera instead.

When you are away for longer

For trips, the simplest rule is that the dog door should be locked shut whenever no one is home to let the dog in and out. If the dog is boarded or traveling with you, a locked steel or rigid cover closes the opening completely. If a sitter is coming, a scheduled or app-controlled lock lets you open the door only when they are there.

For the rest of the house while you are away, our home security while traveling guide covers lights, mail, cameras and monitoring.