Looking for a pet door you can open remotely in an emergency? We explore the options, from smart-unlock doors to DIY solutions for ultimate peace of mind.

I was thinking about a really specific pet safety question the other day. It started with a unique scenario: imagine you have an indoor-only cat, but you live on a boat. You’d want to keep her safely inside, of course. But what if there was an emergency—a fire, a sudden leak—and you weren’t there? How could you give her a way to escape?

You’d want a pet door you could open from your phone, from anywhere in the world. Just tap a button and give your pet a chance.

It sounds simple, right? We have smart thermostats, smart lights, and smart everything else. A remotely controlled pet door should be easy to find. But it turns out, it’s not.

The Search for a Truly Remote Pet Door

When you first start looking, you’ll find plenty of “smart” pet doors. They generally fall into two camps:

1. Microchip or RFID Doors: These are brilliant. They read your pet’s existing microchip or a special tag on their collar. The door only unlocks for your pet, keeping raccoons, strays, and your neighbor’s curious cat out of your kitchen.
2. Timer-Based Doors: These let you set a schedule. You can program the door to lock and unlock at certain times of the day, which is perfect for creating a routine for a dog that has a fenced-in yard.

But neither of these solves the emergency problem. They’re proactive, designed for daily routines. What we’re looking for is something reactive—a door that stays locked until you, the human, decide it needs to be open right now.

So, why is a simple “open on command” feature so hard to find? The most likely reasons are security and liability. A door that can be opened over Wi-Fi is, technically, a potential vulnerability for your home. Manufacturers are probably hesitant to create a product that could be exploited to let an intruder in, however unlikely. There’s also the risk of accidental opening, which could put a pet in danger in a non-emergency situation.

The Best Off-the-Shelf Solution: Remote Unlocking

After digging around, the closest thing to a solution is a door that offers remote unlocking.

Products like the SureFlap Microchip Pet Door Connect (and others in this category) are a great example. By itself, it’s a microchip-activated door. But when you add the “Hub” accessory, you connect it to your home Wi-Fi.

This doesn’t let you swing the door open from your phone. Instead, it lets you change the door’s permissions remotely.

Here’s how it works for our emergency scenario:
* Default State: You set the door to be completely locked 24/7. Your pet can’t get in or out.
* The App: Using the smartphone app, you can see the door’s status.
* Emergency Action: If you need to let your pet out, you open the app and change the setting from “Locked” to “Unlocked.”

The door is now unlocked, and your pet, sensing danger, can push through it to get to safety. Once the emergency has passed (or if you change your mind), you can remotely lock it again.

It’s not a magic, self-opening door, but it accomplishes the core mission: giving you remote control over your pet’s ability to exit in a crisis. You’re essentially flipping the deadbolt from miles away.

For the Tinkerers: The DIY Smart Home Route

If you’re comfortable with a bit of tech and want more direct control, you could build your own solution. This path offers the most flexibility but requires some know-how.

The idea is to connect a motorized, electronic pet door—the kind that slides up automatically—to a smart home relay.

1. Get a Motorized Door: Find a standard electronic pet door that opens with a motor. These are more common for larger dogs but come in various sizes.
2. Add a Smart Relay: Wire a smart relay switch (like those from Shelly, Sonoff, or Zooz) into the door’s motor control. This tiny device connects to your Wi-Fi.
3. Connect to a Hub: Using an app like SmartThings or a system like Home Assistant, you can now trigger that relay from your phone.

With this setup, you could create a button on your phone that says “Open Pet Door.” Tapping it would send a signal to the relay, which would activate the motor and physically open the door. You could even integrate it with smoke alarms, so if your smart smoke detector goes off, the pet door opens automatically.

This is a more complex setup, for sure. But it’s the only way to get a true “push a button, door opens” experience.

Peace of Mind Is the Goal

Whether it’s for a cat on a boat or a dog in a city apartment, the desire is the same. We want to keep our pets safe, even when we can’t be there.

While the perfect, one-click remote pet door isn’t quite a mainstream product yet, we have options. The “remote unlock” models offer a simple, reliable solution that works for most people. And for those who like a project, the DIY route provides ultimate control.

Either way, it’s good to know that with a little research and the right tech, we can add one more layer of safety for our furry family members.