Pet Doors Overview

Electronic Pet Doors

First, a point of clarification: it's the doors that are electronic, not the pets, unless you're from the future or some Mary Shelley/Philip K. Dick-inspired inventor. That aside, an electronic pet door is a very nifty device. It works by sensing a "collar key" that prompts the door to unlock or open. Also known as automatic pet doors, these doors operate via infra-red or ultrasonic transmitters (which require batteries) or via radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips (which don't require batteries). A super-advanced (i.e. more expensive) automatic pet door will even open and close electronically, which can be helpful for older or disabled pets.

Magnetic Pet Doors

Magnetic pet doors work in a similar fashion as electronic doors, except it's the strength of the magnet in the collar key that causes the door to unlock. This bypasses the need for batteries or electricity, but you may have to pay for therapy when your cat develops paranoia because pens, keys, and other metallic objects keep flying at her head. Kidding, of course. It's more likely that the magnetic collar key will mutate your cat into a feline Magneto from X-Men and she'll turn the Statue of Liberty's head into a Meow Mix Pez-dispenser.

Sliding Glass Pet Doors

"Sliding glass pet door" is a bit of a misnomer, because the pet door itself is actually a flap. However, it's embedded at the bottom of a glass panel that can be placed within the frame on either end of a sliding glass door. The slight downside of sliding glass pet doors is that the sliding glass human doors won't open as widely, but this is amply compensated for by increased autonomy for the pets, i.e. no more need for the pet owner to let them in and out whenever the whim takes them.