Dog Gates for the House
By Howard Young Feb 17, 2011
Every pet owner should consider strategic locations to place one or more dog gates in the house to isolate their animals from visitors or simply to keep them from total access to the house. This is especially important training to keep your puppy or elderly dog in an area where it is easy to clean up in case they soil.
We kept our Dachshunds inside the kitchen during the day while crate training them; however, like most kitchens, the have an wide opening that needs to be blocked off. The six foot wide entry way required an extra wide pet gate which I custom made.
Two 8 foot long 2×2 cut into 2 and 6 foot lengths created a 6 foot wide by 27 inch high puppy gate when covered with chicken wire kept Molly, Odie and Chloe safe in our house during the day. Of course, you can find one online that looks professionally made and nice to have around the house, but I couldn’t locate one at any of the pet stores so I ended up building one for about $20.
Some of the baby gates can be used for dogs. These sturdy gates are latched so you can walk through them and close them leaving the toddler or pet behind in the other room. Once the dogs got out of the puppy stage, we bought an accordion one which expands to the size of the opening. It has rubber feet to keep it secure against the wall or door jam.
We keep it in the hallway and it expands to about 4 feet and is a nice barrier to keep the little Doxies from running to the front door when we know a guest or pizza is about to arrive. The gate locks in place against the wall when you press down and unlocks when you lift it up.
The 30 inch height clearly is an overkill for miniature dachshunds, but it is high enough to prevent most dogs from jumping over it. My wife would prefer a dog gate with a door, but I’m tall enough where I can step over it.