Sanctuary Gate
Overview
Pet gates are typically unstable, unsightly trip hazards at best, and few can stand up to a determined large dog. Worse, virtually all pet gates are useless for cats, since they can climb or jump right over them.
However, a sanctuary gate is strong enough to contain any dog, and it stretches all the way to the ceiling, making it impossible for even the most athletic cat to get over it. Easily opened by people but not by animals, with proper placement a sanctuary gate keeps all dangers on one side and a pet-safe environment on the other.
Benefits of a Sanctuary Gate
For pets
The primary benefit of a sanctuary gate to pets is that it will help keep them safe at home, rather than being lost, injured, or even killed should they escape to the outside world. By giving their owners a quick and easy way to confine them safely, the chances are much greater these dangers will be avoided.
Furthermore, a sanctuary gate gives animals a larger living space, rather than confining them to a single room when they need to be kept safe. Instead, pets have access to the entire portion of the home that is safe for them, a virtual home-within-a-home that can span several rooms and hallways. Spending time in a larger environment can result in more sensory enrichment, less boredom, and less anxiety.
For people with pets
For people with pets, the improvements a sanctuary gate makes amount to a different lifestyle.
People who live with multiple cats or dogs know the frustration of frantically herding them all up when they need to be corralled, such as when the front door must be kept open or when visitors drop by. More than just a nuisance, this can be a matter of life and death if a pet escapes the home, but it is not practical or even always possible to confine multiple animals on a moment’s notice. However, with a sanctuary gate, animals can easily be kept safe all the time, because keeping them safe doesn’t mean confining them to a single room.
On the other hand, people with a sanctuary gate can leave the house on a whim for long periods of time without guilt or stress, knowing their pets are safe and that their basic needs are taken care of. Their animals will be happier and calmer when they return, having not been confined in a small space. While at home, they can also use the gate to easily create pet-free areas while still providing a larger living space for their animals.
For people without pets
Depending on the design of the home, a sanctuary gate may also be used as a child gate simply by adding a child-resistant latch.
For rental property owners
For some tenants, the sanctuary gate will add more value than all other pet-friendly features, as it enables tangible lifestyle improvements—changes they won’t want to live without, leading to lower average turnover.
Furthermore, a sanctuary gate can reduce property damage by limiting animal activity to certain regions of the home as well as by providing a larger living area for pets, which leads to animals being less anxious and destructive.
How to Build a Sanctuary Gate
The gate itself is simple: Build a floor-to-ceiling gate that blocks an entire passageway. Use a strong, durable material, such as powder-coated steel. Since gates are atypical inside a home, care should be taken to integrate it with the surrounding décor. The gate design should be as open as possible so that neither people nor animals feel isolated from each other when the gate is closed. Ideally the gate should operate easily without a knob and lay flat against the wall, completely out of the way when not in use.
The gate is the most visible and necessary component of this concept, but it is only a small part of the whole. Building a gate is easy; the difficult part is designing a home around it. A sanctuary gate is a major architectural program element: It drives the design of the entire home and affects where virtually everything else goes.
A sanctuary gate creates a primary division in the home, with all dangers to animals on one side and the means for pets to take care of their basic needs on the other.
Design Considerations
When designing a sanctuary gate, it is important to consider the following:
- The sanctuary gate is only as good as the design of the sanctuary beyond it.
- All dangers must be on the unsafe side of the gate.
- All doors that lead outside or to an otherwise dangerous environment must be on the unsafe side. It must be impossible to get outside the home through a door or series of doors from behind the gate. Otherwise, the wrong door might be open at the wrong time, defeating the purpose of the gate.
- A typical sanctuary can be designed around the safety of cats, dogs, or both.
- Pets must be able to take care of their basic needs on the sanctuary side of the gate. This means access to a reliable source of water and, for cats, to a litter box, and for dogs, to a dog run or alternative. Automated feeders can extend the amount of time people with a sanctuary gate can be away from home, but are not required elements.
- If the sanctuary is meant to protect both cats and dogs simultaneously, then the dog run must be fully enclosed or otherwise safe for cats.
- Multiple gates are possible, but not advised unless there is a clear line of sight between them. More complicated sets of gates could be made safer with indicators or alarms that signal when one gate is closed while another is open.
- The sanctuary gate and gated sanctuary are mutually dependent; without the sanctuary beyond it, a sanctuary gate would just be a gate, and without the gate, there would be no sanctuary.