Shutters for homes with dogs and cats: cords, claws, hair and the right layout

Updated October 22, 2026

The short version: shutters have no cords, which is the main thing a pet owner gains. They aren’t scratch-proof or chew-proof, and wood will show claw marks. Choose the layout around what your pet does at the window: a divider rail for a dog that barks, a bypass track for a door it uses, and wider louvers if hair is the problem.

How many homes this is about

The American Pet Products Association’s 2025 report puts the number of US households with at least one pet at 94 million. It counts 68 million households with a dog, 51% of US households, and 49 million with a cat, 37%^[1]. That makes a pet the normal case for a window covering, not the exception. We couldn’t find a free, citable Canadian figure, so we don’t give one.

Cords: the one problem shutters remove

Most of what goes wrong between pets and window coverings involves cords: lift cords, looped chains and wands that get chewed, batted or wrapped around a paw. VCA Animal Hospitals’ kitten-proofing advice is to “Secure the cords of your window blinds out of the reach of playful kittens. These present a strangling hazard for kittens.”^[2]

A shutter has nothing to secure. The louvers tilt with a rod on the panel or a mechanism hidden in its side, and the panels swing on hinges. There’s nothing hanging for a cat to play with. The same is true for children, which is why the cord rules in both countries don’t apply to shutters; our cord safety guide covers those rules.

Claws and wood: the straight answer

Our shutters are solid American poplar. Poplar is a hardwood by botany, but not a hard wood. Penn State Extension’s hardness table gives yellow poplar 2,400 newtons, against 5,700 for northern red oak, 4,200 for black cherry and 3,100 for loblolly pine, and says poplar is better suited to moulding than to flooring^[3]. A dog that jumps up at a lower panel will mark it, and a cat that climbs louvers will leave scratches.

We chose poplar because it’s straight, stable and takes paint well, which is what a shutter needs most. The trade-off is that marks are part of owning one with a pet. The good news is that it’s painted wood: a light sanding and a touch-up with the same colour usually hides a scratch, which a vinyl shutter can’t offer. How to paint shutters

The layout that suits your pet

The layout matters more than the material. Every one of these is a standard choice in the designer, priced as you add it.

Two practical points. A panel standing open is a lever on its hinges, so a large dog that jumps against an open panel puts more strain on it than on a closed one; close the panels in rooms where the dog is left alone. And if you’re choosing tilt, a hidden mechanism means any louver a nose pushes moves the rest with it, while a rod gives a paw something to catch. Neither is wrong; pick the one you’d rather live with.

Room by room

The living room window the dog guards

Most dogs pick one window: the one that looks at the sidewalk or the driveway. It’s usually the living room, and often a wide window with a seat or a sofa under it. That’s the window where a divider rail earns its keep. With the lower louvers closed, the dog loses the view at its own height and the reason to bark at every passer-by, while the upper louvers stay open and the room keeps its daylight. In the evening, close both halves for privacy.

A window seat changes the measurements, not the choice. Check that the panels can swing open over the seat cushion, or choose a layout that doesn’t need to: tier-on-tier lets you leave the lower pair closed and open only the top. A 48 × 60 in living room window is $540 – $660 in the US ($770 – $950 CAD in Canada) in the basic build (flat moulding, paint stage 1, 3½ in louvers), before tax and shipping. A divider rail and other options are priced in the designer as you choose them.

The patio door the dog uses

A door that a dog goes in and out of all day needs a covering that stays out of the way when it’s open. Hinged panels on a door swing into the room and stand open beside it, which is fine for a door used a few times a day and awkward for one used every hour. A bypass layout slides the panels along a track instead, so they stack beside the opening. Whichever you choose, the panels should clear the door handle and any pet door in the glass; measure where the handle sits before you order.

A 72 × 80 in sliding door is $1,080 – $1,320 in the US ($1,540 – $1,900 CAD in Canada) in the basic build, before tax and shipping. The patio door shutter page shows the bypass, bifold and hinged layouts side by side.

The bedroom where the cat sleeps on the sill

Cats like a warm sill in the sun, and a closed shutter puts the cat behind the panel, between the louvers and the glass. Some cats are happy there; others push at the louvers until they get out. Two layouts help. Tier-on-tier lets you leave the lower pair open during the day so the sill stays the cat’s. A café shutter covers only the lower part of the window and leaves the top open, which suits a room where you want privacy from the street but don’t need the room dark.

If the room needs to be dark at night, a full-height shutter with the louvers closed is still the darker choice. Close it after the cat has come in from the sill, not before. Our bedroom shutter page covers how dark shutters get.

Keeping hair off the louvers

• Dry before wet. Tilt the louvers flat and run a microfibre cloth or duster along each one, then a vacuum brush over the frame and the sill.
• Damp, not wet. For anything that sticks, a cloth that’s barely damp, then dry the louver. Water left standing on wood is what harms it.
• Little and often. Hair that’s been there a week brings dust with it. A quick pass when you vacuum the room is less work than a deep clean later.

Nose prints are the other mark pets leave, usually on the lower louvers and the glass behind them. On a painted louver, a barely damp microfibre cloth takes them off; dry the louver after. Skip solvent cleaners and abrasive pads on painted wood: they dull the finish and make the next print stick more. The cleaning and care guide has the full routine.

Claw marks: wear, not a defect

A scratch from a claw or a dent from a jumping dog is damage, not a fault in how the shutter was made. Damage from pets isn’t a defect, so it isn’t something we replace a part for. What we can do is help you fix it: a light sanding and a touch-up in the same colour hides most scratches on a painted panel. If a louver is cracked through, send us a photo before you replace the whole window.

The way to keep repairs rare is the layout. Keep the panels a dog can reach closed when you’re out, and keep the open ones out of its path. A panel standing open is the one that gets knocked.

Mud rooms, laundry rooms and the dog-washing sink

The rooms where a dog is dried off or fed are often the dampest in the house, and that’s where wood needs the most care. For those rooms, our aluminum interior shutters are coming in 2027. Made for bathrooms, laundry rooms and other rooms where wood has a hard time with moisture. Aluminum doesn’t rust the way steel does. A thin oxide film forms on its surface and reseals itself if it’s scratched. They have movable louvers and a wood finish, so they can sit beside the wood shutters in the rest of the house. We aren’t claiming they resist claws or chewing: that hasn’t been tested, and we’ll only say it once it has. Join the aluminum shutter waitlist

Before you order

• Measure the sill depth if a cat uses it. An inside-mount shutter needs room in the opening for its louvers to tilt. How to measure
• Start with one room. Prices are per window, so you can fit the room your pet uses most and see how it lives with it.
• Draw it first. The designer shows each layout on your window sizes, with the price.