We don’t have electronic chip locks built into our cat doors or dog doors because those electronic systems (from Petsafe, Sureflap, Catmate, Ferplast, etc.) use chip readers, sensors, batteries, infrared, rfid, collars, timers, electronic magnets and delicate locking mechanisms that don’t achieve our durability and risk leaving you in the lurch.
Chip locks are designed to keep your animals in and the others out. How does Tomsgates solve that?
Dogs don’t understand a chip lock
Dogs do not understand that their door, without visible reason, is open one moment and closed the next. The result is that they become frustrated. A dog with some temperament will smash the door on the day it becomes too much for him. After all, the plastic parts of the chip lock are not resistant to the violence of dogs, they have been developed for cat flaps.
How do you go about it if you want the dog door closed at night, for example? Simple: make it a ritual to close the pet door together at night. Just a little while outside and when he comes back inside you visibly close the hatch with the closing door. And in the morning you open it together again. Make it a moment, a bed-ritual. That reassures your dog that you, the owner, are taking care of him.
As good as a chip lock to keep out strange cats
Strange cats in the house will not bother you any more with a Tomsgates pet door than with a type with a chip lock. Unlike other pet doors, ours are not transparent. A passing strange cat will not see the flap as an entrance but as a grid, decoration, … and pass by it.
There’s a chance a strange cat will follow yours and sneak in.That phenomenon is called “playing caravan”. You can’t stop that with a chip lock pet door either because the lock is still “open” for your own cat. The only way to get rid of this is to put the strange cat outside through a door and keep the pet door closed for a while. This will confuse the strange cat and make the interest disappear.Only open the pet door when she is gone.That phenomenon is called “playing caravan”. You can’t stop that with a chip lock either because the lock is still “open” for your own cat. The only way to get rid of this is to put the strange cat outside through a door and keep the pet door closed for a while. This will confuse the strange cat and make the interest disappear. Only open the pet door again when she is definitely gone.
Keeping your own cat inside
On Youtube there are a lot of movies of cats tinkering with chip locks. It looks like they are posting these videos themselves to help their friends ;-) Read the piece above about dogs getting frustrated. Is that also the case with those cats ? Probably so and the answer to the problem is the same: be clear with your cat and determine yourself when the door opens and closes.
Don’t forget the danger of “false safety”: you think your cat is safe inside and then it turns out she can get the lock open after all !
The conclusion is that a chip slot is not necessary.
Strange cats stay outside, just like a pet door with a chip lock. For your own dog or cat you can use the locking door and take matters into your own hands. Our locking doors click easily on the frame and cannot be tinkered open by smart cats or dogs with perseverance.
So with a Tomsgates pet door you can rest assured.
