screen doors

Last summer, we discovered that our dogs can slide open the light-weight screen door of the sliding doors in the "new addition" part of our house. When they could not slide it open, they persistently scratched at the screen until they tore it and popped into the house through the hole. So, I replaced the torn plastic screen with heavy-duty metal screening.

That was fine, but the dogs persisted at clawing at the screen to the point that by pushing at the screen enough so that the rubbery "piping" that holds the screen in the track pops out, the screen lets go of the frame and the dogs sneak into the house again...plus the metal screen has little claw-made holes in it...

The dogs seem particularly eager to come in when a storm is approaching, or in the evening if the mosquitoes are very bad.

When I purchased new screening at our local Home Hardware, the salesperson told me he has a couple of large hunting dogs (I forget the breed now), who routinely charged right through the screen when they spotted some interesting prey in the yard, squirrels, chipmunks, etc, BAM! A big hole in his screen door, again and again. He ended up installing bars across the screen door. That seems like a good idea, but he could not tell me where I could obtain the kit he was talking about, and I have no idea if it would be compatible with the doors I have or if I'm prepared to actually drill holes into this door to install bars which I imagine obstruct the view! Besides, I rent this place, and drilling holes into doors might be going too far, eh?

Well, I guess I'm just resigned to having to replace the screen again eventually.