# Gates



## stephsu (Apr 27, 2020)

Hi, I have a question about gates and was hoping you all had some good advice. Not sure when we will need them as the puppy will have an ex-pen for the time being, but at some point, when he can come out and play somewhere, how do I figure out what to do about gates? How many do I really need? 

Our house is a crazy contemporary and on the main level, I have 6 doorways without doors and two sets of stairs. Do I need gates for all of these doors?? If I am in the kitchen for example, there are 3 doorways. The dining room also has 3, although I don't expect him to be in there, I'd like to block it off with him on the other side. Is there some other option that I am not thinking of? 

We have a retractable gate on one set of stairs outside my 9-year-old daughter's room left from when she was little that my husband insists on using still. There is a 4-5" gap where the molding is so I imagine the puppy would slip right through that as my daughter does when she is the first to wake up on the weekends! :wink2: We have 5 staircases without doors or gates as well. Do I need to gate all of those?? This sounds crazy! 

At what point do I not need gates at all? Assuming he will always have an ex-pen or similar area for when we are all out of the house. How do you pick and choose what to gate off? I guess I could get the pressure mount gates and then move them from room to room, but that seems like it would be more of a hassle. Any advice would be welcome! 

My youngest was 3 when we moved here so we never gated anything except the one staircase outside her room. Thanks!


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## Wulfin (May 3, 2019)

Depending on how far apart the doorways are, could you just open the expen up and use that across all of them?

Our house doesn't have doorways except into the bedrooms so we just have expens blocking things. We have one blocking the kitchen into one space. Another blocking the living room. Since those are the 2 rooms we are in the most. With bedrooms, doors can be closed


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

It’s really up to you and how you live, and what kind of freedom he has, and his personality, once he’s an adult. 

I took apart an extra wire ex pen to make 2 gates and did trials of them in different places before I decided where to install real gates. I knew I would need them in part because we have a pretty open floor plan and because my kids are in and out so much. You can always use an ex-pen to get ideas since they’re adjustable. Both of our downstairs gates act as vestibules to prevent him from getting outside if we’re answering the door or bringing in groceries. I also have one on my bedroom door that I intended to take down eventually but I still like to use (he sleeps in our room). I also still occasionally use the 2-section “gate” I made from the extra ex-pen and because it’s easy to carry around.

If I were in a house like what you have described, I would get an extra ex-pen and use that as gates, because it’s light and easy to move around, easy to adapt to different doorways and rooms. Then re-evaluate when the puppy is closer to potty trained, maybe when he’s around 8-12 months old, and consider what has worked best. 

You could also get an adjustable doorway type gate, but keep in mind they take like 10 minutes to adjust each time you move it to a different room. 

Personally, I would also want as few as possible. By blocking off the bottom of the stairs, I have all of the upstairs doorways covered. They can be kind of obstructive, so I would only want them where I really need them the most. I feel like the right amount of freedom for my potty trained, adult Havanese is to be on the same floor as me if he’s not in an expen. He doesn’t need to be wandering around by himself upstairs when I’m downstairs, mostly because I don’t know what makeup DD left on the floor in her room. How much freedom yours has is really dependent on what you want.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

stephsu said:


> Hi, I have a question about gates and was hoping you all had some good advice. Not sure when we will need them as the puppy will have an ex-pen for the time being, but at some point, when he can come out and play somewhere, how do I figure out what to do about gates? How many do I really need?
> 
> Our house is a crazy contemporary and on the main level, I have 6 doorways without doors and two sets of stairs. Do I need gates for all of these doors?? If I am in the kitchen for example, there are 3 doorways. The dining room also has 3, although I don't expect him to be in there, I'd like to block it off with him on the other side. Is there some other option that I am not thinking of?
> 
> ...


We expanded the rooms our puppies were allowed in slowly, starting with easy-clean floors. First, just the kitchen. (we have 3 doorways too, and two of them are very wide) Then we took up the family room rug, and added the family room, but ONLY with a LOT of supervision. Then my office. EVENTUALLY the whole downstairs.

They are STILL gated out of the upstairs, but that's for a different reason. "Goldilocks" (AKA Panda) goes up and UNMAKES every bed if she is allowed up there unsupervised.  They are also gated out of the front hallway, because they yell at squirrels under the oak tree across the driveway, and drive me NUTS! So THOSE gates are permanent.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

EvaE1izabeth said:


> It's really up to you and how you live, and what kind of freedom he has, and his personality, once he's an adult.
> 
> I took apart an extra wire ex pen to make 2 gates and did trials of them in different places before I decided where to install real gates. I knew I would need them in part because we have a pretty open floor plan and because my kids are in and out so much. You can always use an ex-pen to get ideas since they're adjustable. Both of our downstairs gates act as vestibules to prevent him from getting outside if we're answering the door or bringing in groceries. I also have one on my bedroom door that I intended to take down eventually but I still like to use (he sleeps in our room). I also still occasionally use the 2-section "gate" I made from the extra ex-pen and because it's easy to carry around.
> 
> ...


The flip side of that is that we use more expensive tension gates with "people gates" in them. So we can easily walk through the gates any time we want without moving them. They were also really convenient while my granddaughter was living here!


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

krandall said:


> The flip side of that is that we use more expensive tension gates with "people gates" in them. So we can easily walk through the gates any time we want without moving them. They were also really convenient while my granddaughter was living here!


They're also nice to avoid drilling woodwork until you know where you want gates long term.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

EvaE1izabeth said:


> They're also nice to avoid drilling woodwork until you know where you want gates long term.


Yes, the ONLY place we have anything that is drilled into the wall os in our upstairs hallway, and that was to keep my granddaughter away from the top of the stair. There was no place where we could place a tension gate there. (I can't remember why)


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## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

This is the only gate we have left. It leads to the area by the front door adjacent to my DH’s office. It’s basically a little room for him when we leave or he’s getting in trouble. He otherwise doesn’t go in there lol. Now, I’ll be setting up the ex pens again! I like this kind of gate for long term because it’s pretty but easy to set up without doing anything to the wall.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Melissa Woods said:


> This is the only gate we have left. It leads to the area by the front door adjacent to my DH's office. It's basically a little room for him when we leave or he's getting in trouble. He otherwise doesn't go in there lol. Now, I'll be setting up the ex pens again! I like this kind of gate for long term because it's pretty but easy to set up without doing anything to the wall.


Yes, ours are white, but that's the kind we have too. The only thing is, Pixel was so small, she could walk through them! So we had to put plexiglass panels on them to keep our little hamster-sized cutie in! LOL!


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## Wulfin (May 3, 2019)

We used pressure gates like that when we had Appa. We must have had them too tight because paint came off the walls when we removed them. Lol.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Wulfin said:


> We used pressure gates like that when we had Appa. We must have had them too tight because paint came off the walls when we removed them. Lol.


You can get these big round disks with rubber on the back that spread the pressure out so that they don't hurt the paint.


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## Wulfin (May 3, 2019)

That would have been excellent info 10 years ago :grin2:


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## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

krandall said:


> Yes, ours are white, but that's the kind we have too. The only thing is, Pixel was so small, she could walk through them! So we had to put plexiglass panels on them to keep our little hamster-sized cutie in! LOL!


that's a consideration for the new puppy! though I think she'll be in an expen when I can't watch. This area is a bit away from the rest of the downstairs. These dogs are funny. Oliver can still slip through any rod iron gate outside. My husband didn't think he could fit through the patio gate (the fence is wood so there's nowhere to get OUT out). I told him, oh yes he can! That's fluff!

I would probably need more gates, because Oliver still cannot be trusted not to chew things, but he follows me everywhere. so he wouldn't likely be playing by himself in some other area of the house. he's always right beside you, getting in trouble right in front of your eyes LOL


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## Dexter and Reia’s mom (Feb 20, 2020)

We made gates out of tension rods and pvc pipe. We have unusual opening sizes and we didn’t want to spend a ton on gates that could fit since I’m not planning on it being permanently used. I’ll try to attach a photo here but I’m not sure how to do that yet😜. They were relatively easy to make and depending on where you get the parts, inexpensive too. Good luck!


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## Ditto's Mom (Apr 29, 2007)

Great setup!:smile2:


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Melissa Woods said:


> that's a consideration for the new puppy! though I think she'll be in an expen when I can't watch. This area is a bit away from the rest of the downstairs. These dogs are funny. Oliver can still slip through any rod iron gate outside. My husband didn't think he could fit through the patio gate (the fence is wood so there's nowhere to get OUT out). I told him, oh yes he can! That's fluff!
> 
> I would probably need more gates, because Oliver still cannot be trusted not to chew things, but he follows me everywhere. so he wouldn't likely be playing by himself in some other area of the house. he's always right beside you, getting in trouble right in front of your eyes LOL


When Pixel was full grown, she was STILL able to get out of the backyard under our VERY expensive vinyl picket backyard dog fence. She's just very little. We had to buy pressure treated 4x4's and put them along the bottom rail on the ground, to fill the microscopic gap that opened up just from frost heaves after the first winter. These ride up and down, even as the ground moves and fill that gap, so she can't get through.

She never "ran away"... she was VERY proud of herself when she showed up up on the front porch, all full of wiggles from her "walk about". The trouble is how easy it would be for coyotes to snatch her outside the safety of the fenced backyard.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

kshpenn said:


> We made gates out of tension rods and pvc pipe. We have unusual opening sizes and we didn't want to spend a ton on gates that could fit since I'm not planning on it being permanently used. I'll try to attach a photo here but I'm not sure how to do that yet&#128540;. They were relatively easy to make and depending on where you get the parts, inexpensive too. Good luck!


Very cool! And very professional looking too!


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## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

krandall said:


> Melissa Woods said:
> 
> 
> > that's a consideration for the new puppy! though I think she'll be in an expen when I can't watch. This area is a bit away from the rest of the downstairs. These dogs are funny. Oliver can still slip through any rod iron gate outside. My husband didn't think he could fit through the patio gate (the fence is wood so there's nowhere to get OUT out). I told him, oh yes he can! That's fluff!
> ...


Yep. Coyotes scare me! He can't get through that gate inside, but he CAN get through most rod iron gates. He's tall, but fine-boned. Not as small as many Havs, in fact I think Roxie will be smaller than him. But he's 11 inches tall and filled out to 11.5-12 lbs now. I really don't leave him alone in the backyard without watching, and he really only likes to play there with the kids. I'm afraid he could find SOME way out front. We have a wood fence with no spacing though. We live on a cul de sac and he's not a runner, but the thought of him getting hit by a car freaks me out. My house was advertised as having a "dog run". Yeah no. He slips right through the rod iron.


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## RIstream (Aug 21, 2008)

We use these. They are adjustable, easy to move around and look great too. Also no potential damage to the walls.

https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...MI5IKfnLPI6gIVFqSzCh10xAtQEAQYAiABEgKdLvD_BwE


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Melissa Woods said:


> Yep. Coyotes scare me! He can't get through that gate inside, but he CAN get through most rod iron gates. He's tall, but fine-boned. Not as small as many Havs, in fact I think Roxie will be smaller than him. But he's 11 inches tall and filled out to 11.5-12 lbs now. I really don't leave him alone in the backyard without watching, and he really only likes to play there with the kids. I'm afraid he could find SOME way out front. We have a wood fence with no spacing though. We live on a cul de sac and he's not a runner, but the thought of him getting hit by a car freaks me out. My house was advertised as having a "dog run". Yeah no. He slips right through the rod iron.


Well, I RARELY leave them alone outside, and never more than a moment or two... to answer the door or whatever...but she's a little imp! Fortunately, traffic is NOT an issue. Our STREET is actually VERY busy, but we are FAR away from it at the end of a VERY long driveway. The down-side of THAT is that we are against the woods, which allows coyotes to get pretty close without being seen.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

RIstream said:


> We use these. They are adjustable, easy to move around and look great too. Also no potential damage to the walls.
> 
> https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...MI5IKfnLPI6gIVFqSzCh10xAtQEAQYAiABEgKdLvD_BwE


It took Pixel and Panda 15 seconds to figure out how to hook a paw around those and shift them enough to get by at a friend's house. Resourceful girls.  They would work for Kodi, though... If his crate door gets mistakenly swung shut (not latched, just swung shut) with him inside, he will moan and groan, but will not push it open until someone comes to rescue him. :drama:


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## RIstream (Aug 21, 2008)

krandall said:


> It took Pixel and Panda 15 seconds to figure out how to hook a paw around those and shift them enough to get by at a friend's house. Resourceful girls.  They would work for Kodi, though... If his crate door gets mistakenly swung shut (not latched, just swung shut) with him inside, he will moan and groan, but will not push it open until someone comes to rescue him. :drama:


Lol! Ol hasn't tried to move these yet. Pretty soon we won't need them...


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

kshpenn said:


> We made gates out of tension rods and pvc pipe. We have unusual opening sizes and we didn't want to spend a ton on gates that could fit since I'm not planning on it being permanently used. I'll try to attach a photo here but I'm not sure how to do that yet&#128540;. They were relatively easy to make and depending on where you get the parts, inexpensive too. Good luck!


This is giving me ideas! I have been wanting to experiment with PVC decorative fretwork panels to replace the gate on my bedroom door. I wasn't planning for the bedroom gate to be permanent but it turns out I still use it fairly often. I really like the idea of the tension rods threaded through something so you can't see the framework and springs and everything around the tension gate. The trade off is there isn't the human pass through gate, but I could make it lower than I normally would since it's more for convenience, not safety. Most of the time everyone steps over the gates anyway.


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## stephsu (Apr 27, 2020)

krandall said:


> Yes, ours are white, but that's the kind we have too. The only thing is, Pixel was so small, she could walk through them! So we had to put plexiglass panels on them to keep our little hamster-sized cutie in! LOL!


Do you know approximately what she weighed at that time? I have gotten a couple of gates like those that you used from a friend and I wonder if they will work or if I'll have to modify them??


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

stephsu said:


> Do you know approximately what she weighed at that time? I have gotten a couple of gates like those that you used from a friend and I wonder if they will work or if I'll have to modify them??


8 weeks 3 lbs 7 oz
11 weeks 4 lbs 7 oz
14 weeks 5 lbs 8 oz

Don't know when she would have stopped being able to get through, of course, because we had already blocked the way with the plexiglass.


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## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

krandall said:


> stephsu said:
> 
> 
> > Do you know approximately what she weighed at that time? I have gotten a couple of gates like those that you used from a friend and I wonder if they will work or if I'll have to modify them??
> ...


Wow! Pixel's early weights are nearly identical to Oliver's, though he ended up at 11-12 lbs once he filled out over the last six months, so MUCH bigger than Pixel. He's tall too. 11 inches, but fine-boned. I don't have an 8 week weight, but his were

11 weeks 4 lbs even 
16 weeks 6 lbs 2 oz 
8 months about 8 lbs
12 months 10 lbs 
18 months 11.5-12 depending on the scale


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## ShamaMama (Jul 27, 2015)

(This may not be helpful for the OP, but I'm putting it here for anyone doing research in the future ...)

When we bought Shama's 2x6-foot Pupperton ex pen, we didn't know if she'd be able to jump out, so we got the cover for it too. As it turns out, we've never used it as a cover, but we've used it to block the hallway (notably during emergency remote learning this spring when she wanted to go down the hall to the office to pester DH while he was teaching; I was teaching from the lower level with the door at the bottom of the stairs closed). We've also attached it to her wire crate as a modified ex pen while on day trips. (Zip ties are handy for attaching gates to crates ...)

The Best Wooden Dog Crates | Pupperton - Home

Just noticed our cover isn't listed on the website, but I would guess they could still make it for anyone who asked.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Melissa Woods said:


> Wow! Pixel's early weights are nearly identical to Oliver's, though he ended up at 11-12 lbs once he filled out over the last six months, so MUCH bigger than Pixel. He's tall too. 11 inches, but fine-boned. I don't have an 8 week weight, but his were
> 
> 11 weeks 4 lbs even
> 16 weeks 6 lbs 2 oz
> ...


Yeah, when I brought Pixel home, a friend had a litter that had been born the day before or the day after her. And we often had "puppy parties" with all the puppies together, and we would weigh the puppies. I the first few months, Pixel often would weigh the same or slightly more than my friend's puppies, and she would opine that "Pixel was going to be big." I just was quiet about it, because I trusted Pam's judgment on it, and she had said she thought she'd be about 10 lbs... and honestly, it didn't matter to me that much.

Some puppies grow early, some puppies grow late. Pixel was 9 lbs 8 oz at 9 months, 10 lbs at a year, and hasn't budged more than a couple of ounces in either direction since then of tight, hard muscle. The funny thing is, of those other puppies only ONE ended up smaller than her at adult size. None is "giant", but with all the predictions my friend was making, Pixel was the next to smallest of the group, even though weight-wise, she was the heaviest (by a bit... again, we're not talking pounds here) as a little puppy.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

ShamaMama said:


> (This may not be helpful for the OP, but I'm putting it here for anyone doing research in the future ...)
> 
> When we bought Shama's 2x6-foot Pupperton ex pen, we didn't know if she'd be able to jump out, so we got the cover for it too. As it turns out, we've never used it as a cover, but we've used it to block the hallway (notably during emergency remote learning this spring when she wanted to go down the hall to the office to pester DH while he was teaching; I was teaching from the lower level with the door at the bottom of the stairs closed).  We've also attached it to her wire crate as a modified ex pen while on day trips. (Zip ties are handy for attaching gates to crates ...)
> 
> ...


I think many dogs just recognize and respect the ex-pen as something they should not pass. We use 24" ex-pens even while we are camping. Obviously, we wouldn't leave our campsite unattended with the dogs out there in the pen, because not only could they all easily jump out, but any bigger dog could jump in and harm them. HOWEVER, ALL of them are quite capable of jumping on our bed, so there is NO WAY that a 24" ex-pen is actually "containing" them. Yet never ONCE has one of them challenged it.

The ONLY time one of them has gotten out of an ex-pen in the house was after Pixel's spay. She was AWFULLY miserable, and I had to go pick up more heavy-duty pain meds for her. I had been staying RIGHT with her 24/7 until then. I think she was just so upset about being alone, that she either jumped or climbed out of the ex-pen. I was horrified and finally tracked her down, huddled miserably in the back of Kodi's sleeping crate in our bedroom upstairs. Fortunately, she did NOT rip her stitches out, and she was fine, but she just about gave me a heart attack!


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## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

Oliver could jump the 24 inch. Or climb. He thought he was hilarious. He can't climb the gate because of the vertical bars. I think. Or maybe he hasn't tried


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

Sundance respects the expen but it’s partly because he’s a little afraid of it. We don’t even secure any of them unless we’re leaving the house because the only time he tries to pass is in our bedroom in the morning, when he can hear one of the kids is awake. It’s so funny to watch him test it. His tail starts wagging. He usually lays near the door for a few minutes, waiting. Then he approaches it slowly, ready to jump back. Keep in mind this is a very lightweight, two piece panel. If it did fall over on him, it would be equivalent to a sofa pillow, AND it’s on the other side of the door frame so it would actually fall into the hall. He doesn’t know this because it’s never actually happened. Once he decides it’s safe to get close, he starts searching for gaps. He pushes it open a bit at a time, very strategically: a tiny push and pause, ready to jump back, then another tiny push and pause. I don’t think he sees it as breaking a rule or boundary. In his mind, he needs to find the awake kid and say, “Here I am!” 

DD plays jumping games with him in the hallway and he can jump so high. He could easily clear every gate we have. Just the other day I laid down the broom at the bottom of the stairs so it was flat on the floor (newish paint and I didn’t want the broom to fall over and bump the wall) and in order to follow me he just needed to step over it. He waited right there. 

In our house gates are a bit different from an ex pen wi to retard to our adult Havanese. We live near a really busy road and don’t want to take any chances. The gate keeps him on the same level as whoever is home. If he needs to be contained, he goes in the expen. 

Although, DH was in and out fixing a sprinkler today and he’s the worst at leaving doors open. He left the glass door open twice, and both times Sundance just walked over to the door and stood there to watch him. He also left the front door and gate open bringing stuff inside the other day and Sundance waited at the door. It might be the hot temperature outside, but I prefer to think he ‘s being such a good dog!


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