I use a child gate at home for my lab... just to keep her contained in areas of the house less likely to get destroyed while she's unsupervised and they work great. She is very hyper, yet just obiedient enough to realize they mean "stay." I know she can knock them over because we couldn't keep her from doing it when she was only 5 weeks old. If the E doesn't shake the gate loose, then I think it is a fine idea!