Thoughts on baby gates

I forgot to post all this whilst in the middle of it, but we went through a lot of trial and error before eventually settling on a suitable baby gate.  The first one lasted a little while, but because apparently it's better suited for an angled hardwood mount, it eventually pulled out of the drywall.  Twice.  Even if it was angle mounted on hard wood, it's kind of a difficult gate to use - the mount is not very secure given the type of torque you need to apply to open and close the thing.

Then we tried this one.  We thought it was broken because the latch came no where near closing.  And the instructions made it look like it must latch first before installing (the instructions were all photos, no words).

Then we bought this one.  When we opened it, the same deal.  The latch didn't come close to latching.  However, since these instructions were more helpful, it turns out that's how gates are supposed to be.  Because when you mount them, the pressure from the mount remarkable closes the gap.  We also struggled to find a gate that offered both hardware and pressure mounting, which is part of why we bought this one.  Right now, it's only pressure mounted and is very secure.

I don't love the auto-close feature, because if we open the gate, it's because we're going downstairs and will eventually be coming back up, and I don't necessarily want to have to open and close again.  Also, if it closes behind us before the dog has a chance to get off the couch, then he sits by the gate and whines to get downstairs.   But I suppose not everyone has this problem.