Customer Reviews

Highland 20045 Black Universal Pet Barrier

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(36)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

This is not a terribly expensive product and for the price, it works ok. It easily fit my Jeep Cherokee--no need for the extensions which was nice. However, it required modifications for it to stay in place. The screws which are supposed to hold the cross pieces in place do not tighten enough and my dog was able to push between the cross pieces and slide them apart! My husband used clamps to secure the cross pieces and they now work fine. The device could use some spring tension to tighten it between floor and ceiling as well because it can get knocked out of place (without even loosening). All that being said, if you are handy with a few tools, this barrier works well and is rather streamlined and unobtrusive.

Cheap, cheap, cheap.
The screws don't tighten-up enough to secure the bars from moving, so the dog can slide them up and down and from side to side. Sometime they even went from side to side when I was turning a corner. The top and bottom "feet" slide out of place no matter how much you tighten the wing nut. Twice, while driving down the road, the thing just fell on top of the dog!!!After securing all the moving parts with duct tape and gluing rubber on the feet in an attempt to keep them from moving, which they still do...( & I'm still trying to replace the seatbelt that the dog ate before I found out the bars slide,I am using it, but I wish I had bought a better brand. Don't buy this product. Spend a little more and get a better barrier.

Easy to install, provides sufficent barrier for pet in rear cargo area of my Subaru Forester. If you want to use it with rear seat-back folded down you will need extra bar sold seperately.

We wanted a barrier to keep our German Shepherd from nosing our backseat passengers in our Ford Escort wagon. Petco and Petsmart had versions of this for $60-$70. I was a little hesistant to order online because there weren't any MINIMUM dimensions (lots of maximum heights for SUVs). However, this works great (it would fit even in a smaller space, if there are any smaller cars out there) and was less than half the cost of buying from a pet supply company.

The Good:
- Great price.
- Attractive.
- Doesn't effect visibility while driving.
- Very adjustable for any vehicle, especially with optional extension.
- Easily movable.
- Keeps my 60 lb. dog where I want him. My dog hasn't tried to wreck the barrier. NOT TRUE. HE DESTROYED IT IN ABOUT 1 MINUTES THE FIRST TIME HE TRIED WHILE I WAS DRIVING ON THE FREEWAY!
- Easy setup with good instructions. NOT TRUE. FIRST INSTALL WAS EASY, BUT CONSTANTLY NEEDED ADJUSTMENT
- Light weight.

The Bad:
- As somebody else mentioned, could use a spring to maintain tension. Not a problem with my vehicle. I HAD TO GLUE IN THE BASE AND LUBRICATE THE THREADED ROD TO EASILY TIGHTEN WHEN THE UNIT WAS ON THE VEHICLE. YOU DON'T WANT THIS UNIT UNLESS YOU HAVE GOOD HANDYMAN KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL.
- If your dog is medium or big and tries to get through this barrier, it will not hold him or her for five minutes, and will get destroyed in the process. WHAT WAS "BAD", IS NOW UGLY. MY DOG ISN'T THAT ACTIVE OR EXCITABLE. HE JUST DECIDED HE WANTED TO SIT IN FRONT WITH ME, AND IT TOOK HIM A MINUTE OR SO TO DO SO. I STILL LOVE HIM, BUT NOT THE BARRIER.
- There is enough space between the bars for an active chewer to destroy the back of your seat. Chewers need a barrier they can't stick their head through.

The Ugly:
- The screws provided are cheap and poorly designed, with very small Philips slots than don't allow you to get enough torque to secure the barrier bars. I don't get it. For less than a dime, the factory could have included what I replaced them with: hex-head 6 x 3/4" sheet-metal screws that work great. THEY ENDED UP JUST OK. IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET THE CLAMPS REALLY TIGHT IN DAILY USE.
- THE TUBES ARE LIGHTWEIGHT ALUMINUM, EASILY DENTED BY STRONG DOG JAWS, EASILY BENT BY A MEDIUM SIZE DOG. THEY WOULD BE BETTER IF MADE OF MEDIUM GAGE STEEL.

In summary, if it works for your dog and you're handy enough to compensate for design and material flaws, this would rate 5 stars because of the low price, good looks, visibility, and adjustability. If your dog destroys it or chews your car seat through the wide spaces, if it slips around in your vehicle, or if you can't get the bars screwed down tight, this would rate 1 star. My rating is the average between those two. It's about 4 stars for me because a product shouldn't require so much tinkering, but it works great for me and my dog.

BUT NOW I'D CHANGE THE RATING TO 1 STAR FOR MY DOG.

Maybe it depends on the car, but I couldn't get it tight enough in my SUV to prevent the dogs from knocking it down. It also probably depends on the dog. If the dog really wants to get past it, they will. If you have a more mellow dog who will be satisfied with a "psychological barrier", this would be ok. Oh, and as a previous reviewer mentioned, the "trombone" style sides slide easily back and forth, I had to get some hose clamps to keep them in place.

First of all, I do not think that this would be a good product to buy if you own a larger SUV, it's not very big and as a few of the other reviews state it does not have anything to secure the side extensions, so they can slide in and out creating openings next to the window.. For us this product worked perfectly, though. We have an '04 Subaru Outback and we were able to get it to fit very securely with the vertical braces and the included screws actually do hold the rails securely as long as you tighten it down well.. That is kind of hard to do with this because the screw holes are kind of in an awkward spot, but once you get your screw driver positioned right tighten it down well and it won't go anywhere. With our Outback we don't have to worry about the sliding side extensions, because even if they slid all the way in the openings wouldn't be big enough for our dog to get through anyway. We have a grown pit bull/labrador mix and it keeps him well. This thing is very easy to put together if you can read directions and can turn a screw driver. It goes together in a couple minutes. We had ours out of the box, put together, and installed within 5 minutes. If this product was called a "Pet Barrier for Wagon or Small SUV" I would have given it a 5 star because I couldn't have asked for a better fit for our car, but I gave it a 4 star with the understanding that a lot of you are looking for something for a larger SUV. I wouldn't buy this thing for anything bigger, I don't think it would work that great, especially not without buying the extension they have available. But for a smaller suv, wagon, or hatchback it's perfect! I would buy it again for my use. I think this would work great for a vehicle up to about the size of a Ford Escape, Subaru Forester, Nissan Rogue, or something similar or something smaller all the way down to an Escort Wagon.

We tried to use this in our Ford Escape. As other reviewers have said, if you're not handy with "fixes" don't bother. The screws that came with this product to tighten down the bars don't fit. I tried using hose clamps as another user did but my determined dog quickly figured it out and moved the whole unit right out of the way. Also, if you have back seats that are at an angle, you loose a tremendous amount of hatch space because the legs must be moved way out in order to line up straight. Waste of $$$

Works as expected but I have both the Highland and the Outland pet divider and they seem to work the same. I would take the Outland at $19.99 and pocket the $10 difference.

It is ok for small dogs, large dogs will knock it down.