3 Reasons Why You Need a Pet Gate

With the holiday season wrapping up, I recognize how hectic this time of year can and has been for our pets. I always worry about how our crazy antics around the holidays are affecting our pets, and I try to think of ways to reduce unnecessary anxiety. I am thankful for companies who have created products that help me in my pursuit of reduced pet (and human) stress during the holidays and any time of year, including Carlson Pet Products.

We’ve had a chance to share our experiences with a variety of Carlson Pet Products over the past year including some fun Portable Pet Cots that Bean and Yoda love to lounge on along with their Portable Pet Pen. The Pet Pen was key in the warmer months when we traveled with the dogs and wanted to enjoy outdoor activities with them but didn’t want to have the dogs on their leashes the whole time.

We received a Pet Gate and Compensation from Carlson Pet Products in exchange for an honest assessment of our views. We only share products that we've tried and love and our opinions are our own. This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. If you make a purchase using the links, we make a small commission.

Bean, trying to mess with the wrapping paper and having her plan foiled because of the Carlson Pet Gate....muahahaha.

This time around, we’re going to talk about the three reasons why you need a pet gate, especially when you are experiencing a higher volume of guests or introducing new pets into your home.

First, let’s talk about the obvious reason why a pet gate is so helpful: preventing escape. When there are tons of people coming and going, especially new people who may not be aware to be checking for where your dogs (or other pets) may be, a pet gate can be an amazing tool. It allows your pets to see who’s coming through the door, which may reduce the freak out factor (it depends on the dog, for us Bean and Yoda get more excited because they recognize people). It also helps your human guests to know where your dogs are being kept and that they are in a safe place in the event the guest needs to take more than one trip and possibly leave a door ajar.

Fair warning, please do a test run before trusting ANYONE from keeping a door open. It’s shocking, sometimes, to learn how high some of our pets can jump. Do not trust that your dog won’t jump over the top of a gate without a test run of putting something that may excite them on the other side of the gate to see if they decide to prison break their way on over to the other side. Along those lines, make sure your gate is secure. We have tried using the baby gates you find in places like Walmart which have the grooved lever to secure it against the door jam. Invariably, it winds up toppling over, allowing the dogs to break free.

The Extra Wide Pet Gate from Carlson Pet that we had a chance to try has a few great features to prevent the gate from falling. First, instead of the lever that doesn't quite fit the dimensions of our door (or it's user error, but I'm going to blame the "shoddy" gate instead), the gate we got from Carlson Pet includes four knobs on each corner that are expanded to fit snugly against the sides. It also comes with screws that are optional but vital should you elect to use the gate near stairs. Additionally, instead of having to step over the gate, which usually results in silent movie slapstick hilarity, there's a convenient handle that you simply lift (with a single finger) and step through.

Second, preventing your pets from entering a sacred space. We have a lot of rooms in our house that don’t have doors so we can’t just, close the door to prevent the dogs from getting into mischief. Have you ever tried to sit on the floor (after vacuuming ALL OF THE DOG HAIR) to wrap presents only to have your pets sit right, smack in the middle of your face on top of your newly unfurled wrapping paper? Just me, then? Nope, I think I’m not alone. This year, I wrapped all my presents with Bean and Yoda looking at me pleadingly but not able to be in my grill thanks to my Carlson Pet Products Pet Gate.

After my presents were all wrapped, I normally tuck them away in our dining room. It’s an example of one the rooms in our house that has zero doors to close behind me. While none of the presents are intended for Bean and Yoda (they have their own stockings but I don’t wrap their stuff because it’s a waste of tape), they will absolutely rip their way through the gifts if given the opportunity. Thus, our handy dandy pet gate was put into play to prevent my two monsters from ruining Christmas by opening everything before the big day.

Lastly, separation is key! Have you ever had friends visit your home and bring their dogs with them? In a perfect world, you would allow your own dogs to greet each other in a “neutral” space like a park and go do something, like go for a walk together. This may not be possible during the holidays because of things like: snow, you being busy getting drunk and socializing, even more snow, and just a tad more snow. You really can’t expect new dogs to suddenly love each other when they first meet and hang out. Heck, it took over a year for Bean and Yoda to like each other. Having a safe way to keep dogs who may not know and be comfortable with each other to be separated is really amazing. I highly recommend utilizing a pet gate that can help you keep each dog in their own respective space, this is especially true if you know you’ll be distracted and unable to keep a close eye on your dog to make sure your reading them for signs of stress.

So there you have it...there are tons of reasons why putting a pet gate to good use during the holiday season can be a life saver. There are TONS of different models and sizes available through Carlson Pet Products that I recommend you check out when you get a chance.