Should I lock my backyard gate?
An unlocked gate invites theft from your property and risks your dog escaping if a careless visitor leaves it open. Keeping the yard locked also prevents wandering neighborhood children from accessing dangerous areas like pools. The main drawback to locking up is the logistical hassle of granting access to pet sitters or others when you are not home.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- People have been saying this in most months since September 2026.
- This comes up 39.8× more often in r/homeowners than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Should I lock my backyard gate?
- 1Put up a picket fence instead of a chain link fenceDid this help you?
- 2Install a sliding gate or manually open/close a gate across the drivewayDid this help you?
- 3Using a carabiner on the latch so gates don't open easily from the outside but egress remains simple.Did this help you?
- 4Locking sheds with multiple padlocks.Did this help you?
- 5Installing security cameras and privacy fences.Did this help you?
- 6Leaving gates unlocked but relying on large, friendly dogs for deterrence.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“The negative side to this is essentially that if I'm not home and want to let someone else back there or have someone pet sitting it's a whole process.”source ↗
“ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS lock the yard gate or some careless kid / neighbor / contractor / salesperson / property inspector / etc. leaves it open and your dog(s) get out.”source ↗
“One of the very few times we failed to lock it, we had a guy steal a bicycle from our backyard.”source ↗
“We didn't for many years, and then with the explosion of homelessness during Covid we started to get people regularly trolling through the neighborhood looking for backyards and garages that they could break into and steal from.”source ↗
“Yes. We have a pool and our next-door neighbors have 3 adventurous autistic children who are fascinated by our pool. I don’t want to risk them wandering into our yard.”source ↗
“After getting about. $5k of things stolen from the back yard of my “nice Scottsdale neighborhood home”, yeah it’s locked up all of the time now.”source ↗
“I am used to having land and am debating just putting a fence around my front yard so I can play with my dog.”source ↗