Pet gates are a modern staple when it comes to managing your dogs, and CIAYS have brought one to the market that may be my favourite to date.
I love gates. As a trainer? A good dividing gate is something I use really quite often in my training plans, and as a dog mum of three, they’re something I love to take advantage of in my own home.
So, naturally, when CIAYS reached out to test the pet gate that they were bringing to market to test it? I was certainly keen!
Before we get too far into it, let’s start with …
Why You May Need a Dog Gate
A pet gate is primarily management, which means that it’s a containment method you can use to stop or prevent an array of issues.
A good dog gate can represent containment, safety and learning, all in one device.
Historically I’ve helped implement these for:
- Resource guarding
- Door dashing
- Toilet training
- Baby/dog separation
- Aggression
- Multi-dog households
- Excited greeters
- Scavengers
- Puppies
- General household division
- Cat chasing
- Multi-dog households
And there’s probably a whole host more too, so hopefully you can see how useful a good gate can be.
So let’s look at the CIAYS!
Please note that this reflect my honest opinions about this product. This review has been sponsored.
About the CIAYS Pet Gate
The CIAYS pet gate comes in a range of widths, and comes with vertical bars (meaning no climbing!) it also comes with an easy open/close system that’s easy enough to operate one handed- which is great.
There’s x distance between the upright struts and comes in a variety of sizes that span 29-57.1 inches.
This is done with the addition of side panels that make the gate easy to adjust up and down whilst not compromising its core strength.
What I love about the CIAYS pet gate
I love the width this offers and how it’s constructed. The large gate (29-57 inch gate that I received) is the ultimate in flexibility.
It’s sturdy. We installed as intelligently as possible. Grabbed a stud finder (It finds the wooden supports within your walls, it’s not a new alternative to tinder, sorry!) and placed the gate in line with these for added rigidity, and installed it in tension only (not the wall anchors, we’ve just decorated) in this location. And it did it’s job exactly as designed.
I love the latch and lift system, do you know how many times I’ve seen “cheap” pet gates fail because of a crafty dog? If I had a quarter – I’d probably have about $10. It’s really not that uncommon.
Dogs are intelligent and can learn via the “monkey see monkey do” method, meaning they can watch you do things and learn to imitate.
Whilst some may well be inclined to open doors and raid kitchen cabinets for a midnight treato, a baby gate is no exception – often times baby gates rely on just a secure latch.
Not so with the CIAYS gate. As it has got the lift added in, keeping it simple enough to open with one hand, but complex enough that my dogs have yet to figure it out – and I’ve actively encouraged them to.
A note about jumping the gate – now I know that a lot of dog parents worry about this one, it’s something Mr Rebarkable as I discussed when looking at this gate and seeing that was “only 30 inches tall” and we’ve seen Lucy and Indie both clear 4ft with ease. Dogs don’t tend to leap things unless instructed or really motivated.
Ease of use when installed – I mentioned it above briefly, but this is a one-hand gate. Whether it’s your dinner in one hand, latest enrichment toy or your child, the gate needs only one hand to open and close.
You can switch off the alarm. This made me laugh because I forgot it has an alarm when we installed it and Lucy put her butt right up against it and set it off, scared the bleepers out of her and me! Luckily Lucy is a very emotionally robust dog and it didn’t affect her in any way, but for more sensitive dogs and certainly puppies, I would recommend this being switched off before you make my error!
Safe to say mine’s now turned it off too.
I love seeing that they have a 30-day no question return policy. It states clearly and openly on products. It gives me faith that they have faith that their product is something you don’t want to give back. I certainly haven’t!
It comes with wall anchors – it’s a simple thing, but having the option to make it super extra safe (for things like stairs) is wonderful. Personally? I love the flexibility that this gate offers me as a dog parent to contain or restrict access is what I need the most. So we’ve not used the wall anchors just yet.
What I don’t love
I cut the zip tie that I wasn’t meant to cut which definitely would made it slightly more difficult to install. But, it wasn’t impossible! It was pretty simple, and just needed a little bit of strength applied to ensure that it didn’t rock or roll
I looked post-event and it says it clearly both on the box and in the manual – so definitely my error. However, I feel like a “don’t cut this one” tag may have helped because there were a lot of zip ties on the unpacking and I just went around the whole thing snip-snip-snip. Maybe even just a different colour of zip tie to make me pause?
Still I totally confess it was totally human error, but could definitely have been made clearer.
Wasn’t an issue with my dogs, but depending on paw sizes? It may represent a snag risk. The bars are 2 inches apart in most of the sections, but they do narrow in places.
The reviews on amazon… should I have been purchasing this, it would have been a bit daunting to read a couple of the reviews on Amazon – which frankly I read to be more “user error” than anything else. Such as one used for the stairs – where it sounds like the tension the gate needs cannot be provided by their stairway.
Would I Recommend the CIAYS Pet Gate?
Yes! It works really well for it’s design purpose, it’s strong, easy to install and it contains my dogs. It’s a great training aid.
This is definitely designed for smaller dogs and puppies than mine, and was tested well. There was no sign of bending or breaking or wear and tear, really (other than a couple of claw marks.
Whilst I would feel more secure with a taller gate for more flight risk dogs, this definitely does the job and it is a well considered product.
The CIAYS gate is tense enough that it doesn’t come down, but they’ve yet to damage my walls, and my dogs (even my sneaky clever Lucy!) has yet to figure out how to get through.
For me? That’s enough that we’ll continue to use the gate far beyond now and move it around as needed.
Want to grab a CIAYS pet gate? Head over to Amazon. I’d strongly recommend going for the widest option to give you total flexibility now and in the future!
Author, Ali Smith
Ali Smith is a professional, qualified, and multi-award winning trainer is the founder of rebarkable. She has always believed animals deserve kindness and champions force free methods. Believing that dog guardians will all choose the kindest options if proper information is provided, she aims to help all dog guardians who need it and make dog training as accessible as possible
Ali lives win Maryland, US with her husband and her three dogs.
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