Border Terrier keeps climbing gates? Try this fix

Three gates down — you've got a proper escape artist on your hands. Border Terriers were bred to follow quarry over rough terrain, so climbing is genuinely instinctive for them, not just cheekiness. The fix isn't a taller gate — it's one with an angled or curved top that gives them nothing to grip or hook a leg over. Before I point you to the right one: where are you installing this — top of stairs, a doorway, or blocking off a room — and is drilling into the wall an option for you?

Ha — completely understandable at gate number three. Good news: a doorway with wall-mounting available is the easiest scenario to solve properly. What's the width of the opening, roughly? And has she been climbing the bars themselves, or getting a purchase on the top rail and hauling herself over?

That's really useful — bar-climbing with a leg-over finish is exactly what angled tops are designed to defeat. The bar angle means there's no flat surface to lever against, so even if she gets halfway up she slides back rather than clearing the top. At 80cm you've got a standard-width opening, which gives you the full range of options. My clear recommendation is the Safetots Extra Tall Walk-Through Baby Gate. It's 104cm high — nearly 20cm taller than most standard gates — and crucially the top bar is angled outward, which is specifically what stops climbers. It's wall-mounted with a one-hand walk-through latch, fits your 80cm opening comfortably, and it's well-built enough that a 7kg terrier isn't going to rattle it loose. It's around £55–65 on Amazon UK and consistently well-reviewed by people dealing with exactly this kind of dog.

It's a fair concern, and honestly some very determined dogs do keep trying. But the angled top works because the moment she shifts her weight to get a leg over, the angle pushes her back rather than giving her a ledge to balance on — there's no 'flat top' moment where she can pause and commit. Border Terriers are clever but they're also practical; if the move stops working, they usually abandon it fairly quickly. The height also means she'd need to climb nearly the full 104cm before even reaching the angled section, which is a long way up for a 7kg dog. Most owners dealing with climbers find this combination does the job.

A couple of things worth knowing: fit the wall cups at the height specified in the instructions rather than guessing — the gate's weight distribution assumes they're positioned correctly. Use wall plugs even if you're going into what feels like solid plaster, and if you're mounting into a stud wall, try to hit the stud on at least one side. The walk-through latch needs a firm click to be properly closed, so make sure everyone in the house knows to check for that rather than just pushing the gate shut. Once it's up properly it's genuinely solid — and considerably harder to climb than whatever she's been defeating so far.