Why You Should Use Baby Gates for Your Puppy
Puppies are much like human babies in a lot of ways. They need to be kept out of certain areas for safety reasons. One of the best ways to set healthy barriers is the use of baby gates. Here are some reasons that you should consider using baby gates to keep your puppy safe.
Keep your puppy in a specific area without the use of a kennel
Especially when you’re not around to watch your puppy, baby gates are an effective way to set boundaries to keep your dog in a specific area. Otherwise, puppies will wander around and get into trouble. When you’re actually able to watch your puppy, you can easily move the baby gates around to give your puppy more room. As your puppy learns more and becomes better behaved, you can expand on his or her designated area.
To begin housetraining
Ninety-nine percent of the time, your puppy is going to have a bunch of accidents before he or she catches on to housetraining. By setting up baby gates, you can limit the area where your puppy can have an accident. This is better for both you and your puppy since there may otherwise be an accident that isn’t as easy to clean up. This will help reduce frustration for both you and your puppy.
Redirection from problem areas
Is your puppy chewing on furniture and won’t stop? One way to stop this is to use a baby gate to cut off areas to the house where the puppy can cause a problem when you’re not around to redirect your puppy yourself. Also, if you’re at home and your puppy keeps going somewhere where he or she is told not to go, the baby gate can solve that problem by putting up a safe barrier. The gate reinforces a boundary without having to continually scold your puppy, teaching a lesson in a much more positive way.
To encourage freedom and avoid crate training
While it sounds counter-intuitive, baby gates can actually help encourage freedom. Some people will use kennels or crates for their puppy when they’re not around. But with strategically placed baby gates, you allow your puppy to roam around in a safe environment without the need for such an enclosed space. This is better for him or her, as when your puppy gets bigger, you can allow your puppy more and more room to roam. Baby gates allow your puppy to be freer and avoid crate training.
As with human babies, baby gates set safe boundaries that can be expanded with time as the puppy grows. Eventually, the baby gates will only be necessary for blocking off certain areas that could actually prove harmful for an adult dog. In the meantime, they are a very useful tool for positively training your puppy to become a happy member of your family.
