The Best Dog Gates

Our guide to dog gates builds on the extensive research and testing we undertook for our guide to baby gates. For that guide, Doug Mahoney interviewed four veteran babyproofers and relied on his own experience, both as a parent of four children and as a 10-year veteran of construction trades. The writer of this guide, Kevin Purdy, has a dog and two cats, and deeply regrets the damage he has done to multiple walls with pressure-mounted gates. He has also written a number of guides about other items that take a lot of abuse, including standing desks, dog crates, and platform bed frames.

Gates limit where a dog can roam inside a home, preventing that dog from getting into trouble, or being injured, in places it should not be. They allow your dog much more freedom than a crate, saving you the worry over whether every square inch of your home is dogproof. Some people use their gates overnight, others while they’re out of the house during the day, and still others keep their dogs gated the majority of the time.

While our picks are sturdy, they are not meant to rein in a dog with severe anxiety or destructive-chewing issues. Dogs that want to get out will get out—they'll work their way through a wall if they have to, and they can certainly work past a few wall-mounted screws.

Some cats, notably heavier or older cats, can be contained by a gate. But most can jump over it, use another ledge to get around, or simply squeeze between the bars. And using a gate works only if you want to keep both cats and dogs out of the same space. While some gates offer a smaller cat door, we do not recommend them—see What about cats, and gates with cat doors? for more.

Although pets and children aren't the same thing—most toddlers can't jump 3 feet straight up—many of the factors that make a good baby gate also apply to pet gates. This time we didn't require certification by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, and we added a category, taller gates for tall or agile dogs. But most of Doug's other baby-gate criteria apply here too:

• Hardware mounting: Hardware mounts that screw into door frames or wall studs are safer for both humans and animals and do less damage to your home than pressure gates, which put rubberized pads against walls and railings. Pressure gates are common and inexpensive, but they’re less secure against pushing, shift out of alignment over time, damage the walls and banisters you place them against, and have bars along the bottom that are easy to trip over.
• Simple one-handed operation: You’ll open and close a gate multiple times per day, so an uncomplicated lock is worth seeking out.
• Durability: Gates that have a lot of plastic pieces won’t withstand much abuse from animals or people, so we looked for gates that were mostly or entirely made of metal.
• Placement versatility: Many gates work only if the hinge hardware and latch hardware are directly across from one another. That’s fine for doorways, but finding a wall stud that lines up perfectly with a stair post, or another wall stud, is not always an option.
• Easy setup with clear instructions: In our test group, the best models used the fewest screws while remaining secure, and took less time to set up.
• Good value: Most hardware-mounted gates cost between $40 and $100, while fabric retractable gates start at $60 and run up to $200. We focused on models in those ranges, and ignored those far above or below.
• Width coverage: We sought out gates that covered a wider gamut of stairwells, hallways, and doors, beyond the standard 32-inch door frame.
• Good color options: You don’t get a lot of color options with gates—one is the norm, and two is a lot. But the color or colors offered should be something that can work with most homes’ looks and won’t get grimy easily from contact with hands and paws.

Doug Mahoney tested 20 gates for our guide to baby gates, and we gave him two more to test that we thought would work better for pets. For testing, Doug framed out two standard-size, 32-inch-wide doorways and installed each gate. He opened and closed them, tried to push their doors out of locked position, sat on them, and squeezed each lock mechanism. Doug then took the gates that passed those initial tests and installed them in his home, to see how they would hold up over weeks of use. Doug’s kids, ages 3, 5, and 8 at the time of this writing, helped abuse each gate through a healthy amount of pushing, pulling, and slamming.

In addition, Kevin Purdy installed two gates, the top pick and an automatic-closing variant, at the top of the stairs in his household, to see how a dog and two cats fared with the best pick for babies. More than two months of testing bore out our assumption that a safe, sturdy, and convenient gate for babies was also the best pick for most pets.

The Cardinal Gates SS-30 Stairway Special is exceptionally sturdy and simple to install and use. Its latch is easy for humans to get used to but hard for a dog to open. It’s easier to set up than other gates, and unlike many competitors it can be installed at an angle, so you don’t have to find two wall studs that line up perfectly across from one another. The locking system is entirely metal, and the gate itself doesn’t bow under pressure. None of the abuse we visited on this gate—sitting on it, hip-checking it, twisting it against its mounts, and repeatedly removing and reinstalling it—had any impact, while many other gates strained or came loose. It fits openings from 27 inches wide up to 64 inches (with extensions, sold separately). It’s available in white or black, and if you want, the same manufacturer has a very similar wood version, with the same latch and hinge.

The SS-30 installs in about 20 minutes and mounts to your wall studs or doorframe with four screws. (You should always mount a gate to solid wood, not into drywall or sheetrock, no matter how good you think your drywall toggles are.) Unlike most gates we tested, the Cardinal SS-30 can be installed at an angle—so you can install the gate securely even if your wall studs don’t line up perfectly.

The installation instructions are clear, and an included printed ruler helps you measure the right distance off the ground. The gate can go in any opening between 27 inches and 42½ inches wide—and up to 64 inches wide using 10½-inch and 21¾-inch extensions, sold separately.

To latch the SS-30, you just lift it up, align the metal peg at its top with a hole in the mounting bracket, and drop it in: Metal tabs on each side of the peg catch around that hole and prevent the gate from lifting up again. The metal tabs require you to press two fingers down on opposite sides of the gate to open, so unless your dog has an accomplice, it’s unlikely to be able to open the gate. Gates that automatically swing shut and lock are more convenient, but the SS-30 is more secure, and you can immediately tell whether the SS-30 is locked.

The metal latch and hinges on the SS-30 are noisier than their plastic counterparts: There can be a thud when the gate drops into its latch, and a slight tinkling of metal if the locks are loose. If your pets paw at the gate, as ours did when we first installed it, you will hear metal-on-metal contacts at the latch, rather than the quieter plastic of other gates.

The SS-30’s lock is secure, but since you have to drop it into place, it won’t automatically shut behind you. That's not really a flaw, though; in our testing, automatic-locking gates could easily slip out of alignment with use and fail to latch. Because unlocking the gate involves lifting and squeezing two metal tabs and then lifting the entire gate slightly, it could be difficult for people with limited hand mobility or with grip issues.

If your baseboard is taller than 5½ inches, you’ll need to use a small piece of wood between the upper screw and the wall to make the gate line up. Such tall baseboards are uncommon, but it’s an obstacle you may have to consider.

The SS-30 is pricey for a hardware-mounted gate, especially if you're buying more than one. We believe this is a worthy investment because it’s so safe and so well-made. Such a durable model should have no issue lasting through multiple pets over the course of many years.

As we note in our baby gate guide, Cardinal Gates recalled the SS-30 in October 2016 in Canada because of a chemical in the black finish, as well as a potential choking hazard posed by plastic endcaps in the gate frame. The gate is now in compliance following the company’s changes to both elements; there were no reports of injuries, and the gate never violated US standards.

If you don't need a gate that installs at an angle, or if you'd prefer a self-latching option, consider the North States Easy Swing & Lock Gate. It costs a bit over half as much as the Cardinal Gates SS-30, and it has more plastic parts, so it's less suitable for large or boisterous dogs. It's not as easy to install as the Cardinal Gates model, though it's still not bad, and unlike the SS-30 it latches automatically when it swings shut. Opening it requires less effort than on our top pick, too: You press a button, lift the door slightly up and out, and then swing it behind you.

The Easy Swing & Lock fits passages between 28.68 and 47.85 inches wide. It requires eight screws total to set up (four on each side, two at each attachment point), twice as many as our top pick, and you need to use fussy paper templates to correctly place the screws on each side of the opening (the Cardinal Gates model needs no templates). Those extra screws don’t add extra security or stability to the mounted gate; our top pick is just as stable with four screws. While strong, the plastic hinges of this gate flexed some when we leaned our weight into it, unlike the metal hinges of our top pick. If your dog protests being locked up by hurling itself at the gate, or tends to sprint at the gate at full speed when it sees you come home from work, you may want the reassurance of our top pick.

The North States Tall Easy Swing & Lock Gate is almost exactly the same as our budget pick, except for a few key differences: It stands 36 inches tall, rather than 31 inches; it is available only in linen white; and it has “Tall” in its name. Besides that, it offers the same setup (fussier than our pick, but doable for most people), automatic push-shut latching, and the second-best sturdiness of our runner-up pick. If your dog can clear a 30-inch gate, adding another half-foot on the top may be enough to keep your pet in check.

The North States Deluxe Decor Gate covers openings up to 6 feet wide on its own, and up to 87 inches with an added extension. Of the three wide gates we tested, this North States model had the widest opening, plus a lock that was easy to use (and very similar to the locks on our other North States picks).

The Deluxe Decor has three panels, with the center panel being the gate door. If you install it across an opening smaller than 72 inches, the panels arc, like a bay window, and add a bit of stability. In a 72-inch opening that three-panel construction makes it a bit more wobbly than a single-pane gate.

While the lock is similar to that of the North States Easy Swing & Lock—press a button, lift the door, swing it back to latch it—the gate door and its lock are not as resistant to stress and tampering as those of our top pick or budget pick. The extra width and multiple panels of larger gates make them inherently more flexible, and with some aggressive pulling, they can sometimes yank open. This isn’t a problem for smaller pets, but a larger or heavier dog may be able to ram through the gate. The Deluxe Decor also has a bottom rail, which could cause a tripping hazard for humans; if you're using it at the top of the stairs, you should place it at least 2 feet away from the first step, so humans who trip have a chance to recover their balance.

We don’t recommend pressure-fit gates for most people. They’re less secure, their bottom brackets are a tripping hazard, they often do more damage to walls than screwed-in hardware-mounted gates, and they can also damage stair posts and railings if mounted tightly enough to be secure. Pressure-mounted gates might seem tempting for dog owners who are bringing their pets to other people's houses, but given the potential for damage or gate failure, you're better off bringing a crate and a solid leash if you want to restrict your dog’s movement. (Doug Mahoney goes into more details about the problems with pressure-mounted gates in our guide to baby gates.)

Reasonably spry and thin cats will be able to leap over, squeeze under or through, or parkour their way around any gate you install. Some less-mobile or less-motivated cats may still be corralled by one of our gate picks, but a gate won’t do much to stop most felines.

We tested a wide, hardware-mounted gate with a cat door, but found it clunky to use and oddly sized, so we can’t recommend it (more in the Competition section, just below). Most other gates with a cat door are also pressure-mounted, which we don’t recommend. And while in theory the cat door is for cats only, your golden lab may decide one day to try to figure out if it actually could wriggle through the cat door.

You can see what Doug thought of most of the gates he installed and tested in the Competition section of our baby gate guide. Here, we note the gates that we tested for this guide but do not recommend.

Cardinal Gates makes an automatic-locking version (model MG-15) of our top pick, with the same all-metal build. It locks differently than either our top pick or our auto-locking budget pick: You pull up on a spring-loaded hook and push out to let the door swing outward, and the gate closes shut behind you when you push it back toward the latch. It’s trickier to install than our top pick or budget pick because it requires two screws on the hinge side of the gate plus four screws in a box pattern on the latch side, and if you miss a wall stud on either side of the latch, it wiggles loose and can easily misalign. It also can’t be installed at an angle, limiting its placement. These are issues that you can overcome if you truly value automatic closure over stability and ease of installation, but we believe the SS-30 is more likely to work for most homes.

The Storkcraft Easy Walk-Thru Tall Metal Safety Gate is not that different from our North States tall-gate pick. It's a good choice if you want a black gate, since the North States model comes only in white, but overall we prefered the cleaner aesthetics of the North States gate, as this Storkcraft model has a series of screw holes along the top and bottom rails.

The Carlson Maxi Extra Tall Walk-Thru Pet Gate is a wide, hardware-mounted gate with a small pet door, a rarity in our search, but it has too many problems for us to recommend it. The latch for the main door is clunky, and tedious to open and close. The sizing allows for widths of 34½ to 38 inches and 50 to 59 inches, but no widths in between, due to how the extension pieces fit onto the main frame. A 4-foot (48-inch) opening is not an uncommon size. The gaps in the sizing make this gate oddly inconvenient to measure for, and more than a little annoying to set up. The main gate opening is a narrow 16 inches, and in our experience, even relatively thin testers found their legs brushing on the sides while passing through. The cat door has no mechanism to keep it closed, so it swings open or slams shut while you’re opening the main door. This gate might create more problems than it solves.