Of all the dog doors we sell at PetDoorStore.com, dog doors for Great Danes are the ones that shoppers seem to have the most questions about.
It’s no surprise; buying and fitting a dog door for Great Danes and other large breeds of dogs takes some thinking about. Their height is one thing; the AKC standard still says 32 inches when measured at shoulder height, but the breeders have gone well past that and it's not uncommon for us to hear that a customer's Dane is 37" tall to the top of the back at the front shoulder (the withers).
The size of the door means that choosing where to put it takes a lot more consideration than with smaller breeds. I wrote some advice and information regarding fitting a dog door for Great Danes here. This article looks at fitting the dog door into either a wall or a door.
Another alternative is, surprisingly to some, fitting a dog door for a Great Dane into a sliding-glass door. Now you may think that making a hole up to 36 inches tall in a glass door isn’t the smartest move. There is a trick though, and this applies to all sizes of dog doors and all applications. What we can do is make the hole smaller but raise it up; in the case of a dog door for a Great Dane, it can be raised about ten inches so that they can step through it. We also have the Autoslide, which opens and closes the slider partway for the dogs, and all the way for people.
We can always give advice on this for all sizes of dogs. The main thing is to get a door large enough to fit their torso through, dogs always duck their heads down and lift the flap up with their noses. They can also step over some framing at the bottom, thereby reducing the size of the hole and the door. If you are considering fitting a dog door for a Great Dane – or any of the other large breeds – into a sliding glass door then you can find detailed information here.
As these doors are big enough for a man to fit through they come with locking covers. As always, I am here to advise on the best and most secure options.