[Tiger's Mom]

Tiger does not roam freely. . . .he is confined to his domain (the laundry room) unless I am around to supervise, then I let him roam free. Right now though he is being crate trained during the day while I am at work . . .

On doggie doors, I plan to get one too and I have looked through Petsmart and they have quite a selection in sizes, even quite small. Being that it is in the dog section, my guess is that they are all designed for dogs use. So for yorkies size, they do have a really tiny one. Have you checked them out?

I don't want to ruin the existing door (in case I need to sell the house one day ) so I am going to have my hubby put in a plywood to where the doggie door will go. Don't worry, it will be aesthetically pleasing and painted like a door, except it will have the same height as the baby gate . . this is all going to happen when Tiger is fully housetrained.

I don't quite understand your question abour it being electric or regular? Is there such a thing?

Congratulations on your home building. . . . hope all is well during the construction. I too had my house custom built and although there were a few minor frustrations, I won't mind going through it again . . . of course my dear husband thinks differently and would NOT want to do it all over again . . . I wish I had plans for having a dog then so I would have included him in the design of the house . . . good thing my laundry room really worked out well for him though as it is very spacious (unusually large) and because it has a door, I just used a baby gate and so there is plenty of him to roam . . . it came with a deep sink too so that is his bathing area as well (although I never really used it for anything before) and we have 12 X 12 tile flooring installed. Originally, it was supposed to be my laundry/sewing room as I have so much sewing stuff. My husband built me a huge counter and shelving but now I used it when I am brushing Tiger and all the shelving are occupied by Tiger's stuff

I would love to paint it someday soon and wallpaper one wall with a theme designed for dogs but I have yet to find the right mood to convince my husband that is what I want . . .

ooppps, sorry to deviate from your question . . . .