How to Install a Doggy Door
Last updated on October 10th, 2025 at 10:56 am
Looking for tips on how to install a doggy door in your home? I just finished installing one in my house and I’m sharing the details today.
Doggy doors might not be the most aesthetically-pleasing addition to your home. But, they can be one of the most convenient ones if you’ve got pets. We had a doggy door in our first house and haven’t had one since – and we regularly lament that fact! If you have dogs who love to go outside (but also love to immediately come inside afterwards), you’ll know that it feel like it takes up half your day to let them in and out constantly.
Maybe it’s just me, but I do not have the patience for it. Especially since my dog always seems to ask to go outside right as I’m settling in to read a book or get some work done.
So, when we moved into our new home, my husband and I both agreed that adding a pet door was going to be a must. I got it installed over the weekend, and we’re still working on training both dogs to use it but I can already tell it’s going to be so nice!
How to Install a Doggy Door
A note: The intention of this post is to give you some confidence to try this project out if you’re feeling nervous. It’s an overview of the process that should give you an idea of what to expect if you want to try it. That being said, these instructions shouldn’t take the place of what comes with your pet door! Be sure to thoroughly read all directions and follow them over anything you read here!
Video Tutorial
Tools + Materials Needed
- Pet Door
- Jigsaw
- Drill
- Caulk
- Expanding Foam (optional – see below)
Step One: Remove Door + Mark for Pet Door
Your first step will be to remove the door from the hinges. You could probably do this with the door still installed but I promise it’s going to be a lot easier this way.
Prop the door up on some sawhorses, and use the template provided with your pet door to draw an outline of the door you need to cut out. Be sure to tape it down while you’re drawing and measure multiple times to ensure it’s placed where you want it. Once you start making those cuts, there’s no turning back!
Step Two: Cut Out Hole for Doggy Door
This is the hardest part of the process, if you ask me. You’ll want to use your drill to create a hole in the door (be sure to use an appropriate bit for the material your door is made of), then use a jigsaw to follow the marks you’ve made on the door.
We ran into some challenges with this part, because our door isn’t flat. The design in the door made cutting it pretty difficult – I kept breaking jigsaw blades! We ended up switching to this tool and it was a little easier, but this was a challenging part of the project overall. If you have a flat paneled door (or if your pet door will only touch flat parts), it’s much easier.
Step Three: Insert Pet Door
The next few steps will vary based on the exact pet door that you’re using. For me, I had to add some weather strips to one side of my pet door and then fit the two sides into place on either side of the door. The pet door came with plastic screws and metal nuts that I used to secure the two sides of the pet door together.
After you’ve painstakingly cut out a large hole in your door, I promise this part will feel like a breeze, no matter what the directions are!
Step Four: Seal the Doggy Door!
Once it’s all installed, it’s time to seal it! With a flat-paneled door, you can just use a silicone caulk to seal all around the pet door on both sides. With our door, however, that wasn’t possible. I needed to first use a bit of expanding foam to help seal the gaps created from the panels in the doors.
Once that dried, I cut off the excess and then I used a clear silicone caulk to seal the door. It’s a little extra work, but it’s very worth it! You don’t want to be letting in a ton of hot (or cold) air through a poorly-sealed doggy door.
And that’s it! You now know exactly how to install a doggy door – and, as promised, it’s pretty simple! This is a project you can easily knock out in an afternoon, and it’s going to save you a little sanity and hopefully bring your pets lots of joy.
Now to figure out what color I want to paint the door. Any suggestions?!