I have two young children also; in the afternoon (and weekends) I put up a gate that the children can open, but the dogs can't jump. Tiger kept sneaking out with the kids, he wouldn't run off, but sometimes he'd be out a couple minutes before anyone noticed that he was following them. We knew it was disaster waiting to happen, so now if the kids are headed out to play with friends/ or just in the front yard we have a routine that the gate must be up in the entrance way! It always open in the evenings when everyone is in for the day, and it works -- Tiger hasn't gone out to play with the kids since.
Also I got this gate with a latch at Babies-R-Us -- the base and latch are permantly attached to the door frames, so the gate is aways there -- just it's only closed and latched when the kids are going in and out. |