Keeping Out Raccoons

Smart Guy!

But Messy!

Electronic pet door companies typically talk about keeping out stray cats, not wild animals. We think that small rodents, insects, snakes, skunks, possums and most other critters must be kept out as well. The hardest to keep out is the wily raccoon.

There are some electronic pet doors that really will keep a raccoon out. Here's the list:

For patio panel pet doors we'd recommend the Power Pet Automatic Patio Doors.

If you're getting a first dog door, it might be wise to go ahead and spend the money on one of these. But if you're thinking of replacing a manual pet door, you might want to check out these customer suggestions first:

I did poke around on the internet, and found a potential solution--someone had put their cat door several feet off the ground, so that the cat had to jump up to a platform before entering. Since raccoons don't jump like cats, this should be an effective deterrent.
Installing a small radio tuned to a talk show to suggest human presence.
"...spraying an orange terpine spray on the door area"
"A friend told us about a solution someone had recommended to keep coons off his dock at the lake. He began to use the deterrent a couple of years ago and has had no coons on the dock since. I can't verify it completely because I'm having problems with an erratic cat door, but I did employ the solution about six months ago and have had no coons attempt to enter the garage as they did many times in the past. The solution is to place a bar of Irish Spring soap in the problem area. Apparently the coons are repelled by the smell??? My friend just put a bar on the floor of his dock. I bought a cheap soap dish, placed the bar of soap on it and placed it on the driveway beside the cat door. I doesn't seem to bother the cat, but no coons."
I found a site "guaranteeing" a critter repellent specially suited for 'coons called "Shake-Away". It is said to make the 'coons avoid the area and contains powdered fox urine. They say the 'coon fears trespassing larger animal territories and will not frequent the location once you treat it as directed. It also claims it will NOT to spook your pets." Unfortunately, we have some indication that this may not be as successful as we had hoped.
Not every report has been of a success:
"An update on the raccoon repellants of Irish Spring and a radio. Sad to say, after a couple of weeks of success, they are no longer working. :- First, one night I forgot to turn the radio on—that caused the first breach. I put out new bars of Irish Spring, thinking it had gone stale or at least less potent, but to no avail. Even with the new soap and the radio back on, the raccoon(s?) have called my bluff, so now I will be locking the cat doors—which the cats will not like, but we’re out of choices.

So, although there was initial success, it didn’t hold up over the longer term.."

We'd like to solicit feedback from anyone trying these or other solutions. Contact Alan at alan@petdoors.com.